io8 DOG STORIES 



A DOG'S HUMANITY. 



[April i%, 1891.] 



POSSIBLY it is from an excess of the " maudlin 

 sentimentality" of which physiologists com- 

 plain in those who protest against cruelty to 

 animals, that I find it almost painful to read 

 such pathetic stories of dogs as the one 

 given by Miss Cobbe in the Spectator of 

 April nth ; for they tell of such intelligence 

 and devotion, that, remembering the in- 

 human way in which our poor dogs are too 

 often treated, we feel it would be almost 

 better if they lacked these human qualities. 

 The following is an anecdote of the same 

 kind, that ever since I heard it, I have been 

 intending to send it to the Spectator. The 

 servant-man of one of my friends took a 

 kitten to a pond with the intention of drown- 

 ing it. His master's dog was with him, and 

 when the kitten was thrown into the water, 

 the dog sprang in and brought it back safely 

 to land. A second time the man threw it in', 

 and again the dog rescued it ; and when for 

 the third time the man tried to drown it, the 



