GBEYHOUNDS AND THEIR MASTERS 229 



A story is told of a little Italian greyhound who lived at 

 Bologna in Italy, and was a great favourite with his 

 master. Bologna is a cold place, and greyhounds are 

 often delicate, so a jacket was made for him to wear at 

 night. It was tied on tightly with strings, which were all 

 very well as long as he was lying down in front of the 

 warm stove, but became very troublesome when he 

 wanted to move about and play. So the first thing when 

 he woke he used to run off to anybody in the house who 

 was dressed as early as himself, and jump up on them, 

 and lick their hands till they understood what he was 

 saying, and unfastened his jacket. One day, however, 

 everyone was either ill or busy, and had no time to attend 

 to him, so it occurred to him that, perhaps, if he 

 were to rub himself against the chairs or along the 

 carpet, those tiresome strings would get untied. To his 

 great joy this plan succeeded, and after that he could do 

 without anyone's help. The moment the jacket was off, 

 and the front door open, he rushed across the road to 

 visit another greyhound who lived there with a family, to 

 beg him to come out for a walk. Very often they would 

 spend hours together running races, or playing hide-and- 

 seek between the arches which abound in the streets of 

 Bologna ; but he never missed going home to his dinner 

 at twelve o'clock, and again in the evening. 



If his friend's front door was not open so early as his 

 own, he would bark loudly to awaken the lazy people ; but 

 as they were fond of their beds, they grew very angry, 

 and shied stones to drive him away. Then he stood so 

 close to the door that the stones could not hit him, and 

 barked triumphantly on, till suddenly the door was flung 

 open, and a man appeared with a whip. The dog could 

 not think of any way to get the better of the whip, so he 

 walked off to consider what was to be done. 



A few days later, he went back to the door and waited 

 quietly till it was opened ; but the people had taken a. 

 dislike to him, on account of all the trouble he had given 



