CHAPTER II 



THE Airedale is a product of the middle of 

 the nineteenth century and was manufac- 

 tured in Yorkshire. The streams that 

 tumble down the deep vales of that Midland 

 county are the homes of hundreds of crafty, 

 hardbitten otters; there are thieving foxes and 

 very game, but very rascally badgers in snug 

 dens in the hills; many a swift English hare lives 

 in the broad game preserves. The hardy York- 

 shireman of 1850 his sons and grandsons to-day 

 are real " chips of the old block " loved nothing 

 so much as a hunt after the vermin, with possibly 

 a rat killing contest with " a couple o' bob " at 

 stake of a Saturday night, and sometimes, on 

 moonless nights, when game keepers were asleep, 

 a little trip after the filling for a rabbit pie. 

 Now, you cannot do these things without a dog 

 that is brainy, game, obedient, and as much at 

 home in water as on dry land; so they just nat- 

 urally set to work to make themselves such a dog. 

 All this we know positively, but when it comes 

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