SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 295 



have the gun kill, and at length appeared to 

 think that I must have killed something every 

 time I fired a shot. This uncommon eagerness 

 and resolution of his gave rise to a ludicrous 

 incident. 



I was going with another man to shoot grouse 

 late in the fall, and we had Jack and two other 

 dogs in the wagon. A flock of brant were upon 

 the prairie, and though they rose far off, we fired, 

 but did not kill. Jack jumped out, and seemed 

 to think it impossible that there was nothing killed 

 or wounded. About that part of the prairie there 

 were some poor, lean sheep suffering from foot-rot. 

 Upon one of the smallest of these little sheep 

 Jack seized, and began hauling it towards the wagon. 

 I thought my partner would almost die of laugh- 

 ing. I made Jack leave the sheep and come into 

 the wagon again. 



I afterwards sold this dog to Benjamin 

 McQueston, a gentleman who then lived at Spring- 

 field, Illinois, but who now lives somewhere in 

 Kansas, where he still has Jack. I ought not to 

 have parted with the dog, but Mr. McQueston 

 was very anxious to get him, and paid a good 

 price, for our part of the country. The way of 

 it was this : Four of us, including the gentleman 



