bill for rice might be large, but think what a 

 joy it would be to take him out with you in 

 the country lanes and to see him speeding, as 

 he unquestionably would, in headlong flight 

 from the anger of a Pomeranian dog to whom 

 he had ventured to make unsolicited advances. 

 In his off moments he might make himself 

 useful as a substitute for the steam-roller on 

 newly mended roads. 



*% These are agreeable fancies, but in the 

 meantime fate and the size and frailty of our 

 homes limit us for the most part to dogs and 

 cats. Some, no doubt, will put forward the 

 mongoose and the jerboa as amiable compan- 

 ions, but these, delightful though they may be, 

 are exotics beyond the attainment of the gen- 

 eral. It is not everybody who can secure or 

 keep a supply of snakes sufficient to gratify a 

 mongoose's unquenchable desire for sport and 

 exercise. So, as I say, we must confine our- 

 selves chiefly to dogs and cats, with, perhaps, 

 an occasional exception in favour of a parrot 

 or a cockatoo. It is of dogs that I now pro- 



7 



