THE AMERICAN HUNTING DOG 91 



risk is the express fare, wliieli amounts to about 

 $3. A good setter or pointer pup will stand you 

 $25 at two montlis' age, maybe $40 when a year 

 old, and $30 at six months. Hounds run from $5 

 to $15 for pups of about six months' age. The 

 business of shipping them is well organised ; even 

 a baby doglet of two months, five days on the road 

 in the dead of winter, will arrive at your home in 

 good shape. They send with him a milk bottle, 

 a box of crackers and a tin tray tacked inside the 

 crate, and it is the express company's business to 

 see that he is fed en route, and, if they are so slow 

 that all the food gives out, it is up to them to feed 

 him themselves. Older pups require nothing but 

 a box of dog biscuits and a water-pan, and are 

 chained inside the crate, a cruel and usually un- 

 necessary custom, brought about by the fact that 

 so many people ship dogs in weak, worthless crates 

 and then hold the express company responsible 

 for the canine wonder that went adrift. 



Assuming that you have ordered a two-months* 

 pup, presently there will arrive in your midst a 

 fat, fluffy ball of dog flesh with rubber legs and 

 jelly backbone, a little waddling pup that will keep 

 the whole family in a turmoil from the moment he 

 arrives. Every one wants to hug a baby, no mat- 

 ter whether human or canine, and your puppy will 



