86 DOG STORIES 



and, as we are still in the silly season, which 

 has this year in particular been so very 

 prolific in human follies, it may be of special 

 interest to learn some clever doings on the 

 part of beasts. Quite recently a West- 

 phalian squire travelled by rail from Liixen 

 to Wesel, on the Rhine, for the purpose of 

 enjoying some hunting, and took with him 

 his favourite hound. The hunting party was 

 to have started on a Sunday morning at nine 

 o'clock, but, to the squire's great disappoint- 

 ment, his sporting dog could nowhere be dis- 

 covered. Disconsolate, he arrived on the 

 following Monday afternoon at his house, 

 and, to his great delight, he was greeted 

 there with exuberant joy by his dog. The 

 latter, who had never made the journey from 

 Luxen to Wesel, had simply run home, thus 

 clearing a distance of eighty English miles 

 through an unknown country. Why the 

 sporting dog should have declined to join 

 the hunt is, perhaps, a greater mystery than 

 the fact of his returning home without any 

 other guidance than his sagacious instinct. 

 Possibly he was a Sabbatarian, and objected 



