94 THE AMERICAN HUNTING DOG 



plentifully sprinkled with white hound hairs, 

 would give him away, for all his angelic expres- 

 sion ! Blaze and Scout both attempted to use the 

 chairs, but both were headed off in early infancy. 

 The thing to do is to provide a thick mat of, say, 

 three inches of cotton batting loosely quilted, the 

 facing being gray flannel. Such a mat should be 

 at least two feet by three feet in area (22 by 30 

 inches will do for a pup or a small dog like a 

 spaniel or beagle), and can be dusted, aired and 

 sunned, or sprayed with flea disinfectant, and is 

 put away in some closet during the daytime. Dur- 

 ing the evening your dogs will lie on the rugs be- 

 fore the big log fire, but the floor is never a really 

 comfortable sleeping place, besides being draughty 

 and conducive to rheumatism. It will answer un- 

 til you go to bed, but, if you have provided no 

 mats, just see how long it will take those dogs to 

 appropriate the chairs, once you are well asleep ! 

 For a kennel, a packing-box 20 by 24 by 32 

 inches will stand you 50 cents at the shoe store, 

 and you are to erect a pair of roof rafters at each 

 end and nail to them on each side a roof made of 

 two boards of rough 1 by 12-inch hemlock four 

 feet long, four boards in all. The gable ends are 

 filled with the erstwhile top boards of your pack- 

 ing-box, the rear gable being hinged so as to make 



