'2'^S FACT AGAINST FICTIOK. 



find it in my heart to insist on sucli duty during 

 a time resemblino: that in the Polar re2:ions. To 

 me, thougli I had not Ijeen nuich in the 

 water, that day was piercingly cold, and I 

 naturally felt anxious to move on, so I made an 

 angry gesture for no more delay. I saw my 

 dog then tJiinhj and, perhaps, on the suggestion 

 of ^'reason," not of ^'instinct," look each way, 

 for the moment reflecting if it was possible for 

 him in any decent time to reach either of the 

 bridges lie knew of above and below. He came 

 to the conclusion that it was not, so, regarding me 

 steadfastly, after a pause, he- swallowed the jack 

 snipe as if it was a cordial pill, and then coolly, 

 but certainly very coldly, let himself off the bank 

 of ice into the water and came to me. Of course, 

 I gave him a cuff with my open hand, — it is not 

 the actual j^^in, it is the practical rebuke that 

 punislies or reforms the dog, — and turned away my 

 head that he might not see my laughter. 



Again, with that dearest of all dear dogs, the 

 retriever Brutus, who would catch a thievish man 

 as he would a rabbit if I told him to do so, and 

 who was with me in tlie Far West, on one very 

 stormy day, when I lived at Winkton, with the 



