Reason or Instinct. 115 



yards for an opening in the hedge, and never fails to find 

 that stone, though it is impossible for him to see where it 

 fell ; but he always brings the same stone. Sometimes he 

 goes to the River Wandle and dives down and fetches up 

 all the old pots and kettles he can find and lays them in the 

 grass. He is sitting by me now, for this happens- to be 

 Sunday, and I have read him the paragraph, of which he 

 thoroughly approves. In fact I always read my articles to 

 myself out loud, and he listens attentively. 



The love of big and fierce dogs for children is extra- 

 ordinary. My eldest son, when a little child of a year old, 

 was with me at a large country house in Ireland, in the 

 Waterford Mountains, and the nurse used to take him into 

 the garden in a perambulator to sleep. There was a big 

 bloodhound which never was allowed to be about except 

 under control, and " Larry," a Httle gossoon, a hanger-on on 

 the estate, was generally with him, for he could manage 

 him. Larry came running in, " Oh ! Miss Mary, Miss 

 Mary, what will 1 do ? The bloodhound has run away into 

 the garden and the child is there." There was no cause for 

 fear ; the noble hound was sitting behind the perambulator 

 with his head on the child's shoulder like a sentinel. And 

 very much the same thing occurred at my father's not very 

 long after, when my son was about three years old. He 

 was utterly fearless of dogs, and had wandered out on his 

 own accord, and found a large dog in the yard. Tlie dog 

 was a big Russian kind of mastiff, so savage that he never 

 went out, and was only unchained at night to protect the 

 yard, and no one went within reach of him by day. To the 

 nurse's horror the boy was sound asleep, with his head on 

 the dog, and the dog's paw round him. This was a serious 

 matter, as the moment anyone went near the child a set of 

 teeth, like the guns of a frigate, appeared, and a most 

 disagreeable growl was heard, and nothing could be done 

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