2 JS SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Chap. IL 



working people, who earn tlieir bread, don't keep worthless dogs about them ; 

 it' they keep a dog, thev I'eed hliu, and train him up properly ; but your 

 roaming wortliless vagabond will keep a score, and expect them to take caro 

 of tiieraselves. But these fellows iiave votes, my dear sir; it will never do 

 to tax their dogs. They would kick up such a dust about our ears that we 

 could never find our M-ay into the State-house again. 



288. A Trap for fatcliiii!; Sliecp-killiug Dogs. — Make a pen of fence rails, 

 beginning with four, so as to have it square, and as you build it, draw in 

 each rail as you would the sticks of a partridge-trap, until your pen is of 

 sufficient height, say five feet. In this way you will construct a pen that, 

 wlieu finished, will permit a dog to enter at the top at pleasure, but out of 

 which he will find it diflicult to escape, should he have the agility of an 

 antelope. All that you have to do to catch the dog that has killed your 

 sheep, is to construct the trap where the dead sheep is left, as directed, as 

 soon as possible after an attack has been made on your flock ; put a part or 

 the whole of a sheep that has been killed in it, and remove the balance to 

 some other field. In a majority of cases the rogue and murderer will return 

 the succeding night, or perhaps the next, and you will have the gratification 

 next morning of finding him securely imprisoned. Some may object to the 

 plan, perhaps, on the ground that you might catch an innocent dog. If he 

 is so, he can content himself with not trying it. 



2S9. A Sermon on Dogs. — Tiie Texas Christian Advocate gets off the fol- 

 lowing short sermon upon dogs, from a text to be found in Philippians iv. 2— 

 " Beware of dogs !" Upon this the preacher says : 



"Tiie Apostle well knew the mischievous and meddlesome spirit of dogs. 

 Hence his caution against them. 



I. Dogs in general are a nuisance. 



Because : 



1. Tlicy excite fears of hydrophobia. 



2. They worry and destroy sheep. 



3. They disturb our slumber.— Howling in horrid concert under our win- 

 dow, simultaneously baying at the moon. 



•4. They frighten us when out at night. — A snap or growl at a neighbor's 

 gate, or when turning down a dark alley, has a wonderfully nervous tendency. 



5. Tliey are too familiar. — "Will sleep on the front gallery, scatter fleas, 

 come into the dining-room and parlor, and go to church on Sunday mornings. 



From these and other considerations I observe : 



II. All dogs should be watched. 



1. To prevent their depredations. — Killing neighbors' cats, tearing pants, 

 scaring children, and going mad. 



2. Tp correct their bad manners. — Teach them they are only dogs, and not 

 quite equal to " white folks." 



3. Keep them in their places.— "Wherever else they belong, I question as 

 to the propriety of their getting between the sheets with gentlemen, or using 

 the church as a dog-kennel. 



