2o6 DOGS 



if you chance to catch their eye^ as a personal 

 insult, and if you condescend to apology by way 

 of smoothing matters over, it takes no end of 

 petting to reassure them. When these self-con- 

 scious animals are taken in a fault, or are guilty 

 of any breach of good manners, the means of 

 sharp punishment are ready to your hand. The 

 laugh falls like a dog-whip, and the smile stings 

 like a switch. Self-consciousness shows in another 

 way. Dogs of a certain age feel that they have 

 their dignity to support ; all the same they are 

 still game for frolics, even when their limbs begin 

 to stiffen. Scott tells how his magnificent deer- 

 hound Maida, when taken out for a ramble with 

 the rest of his canine following, would be betrayed 

 into undignified gambols by the playful advances 

 of his small friends. They would go galloping 

 in mad circles, snapping and rolling over each 

 other ; then of a sudden Maida would recollect 

 himself, and assume a chilling solemnity of de- 

 meanour. '^ Ha' done, youngsters," he would say, 

 with a twinkle out of the corner of his eye ; ^' don't 

 you see the sheriff is looking ? " So when I have 

 been sitting immersed in a book, I have heard 

 a scrambling and scraping on the carpet. An 

 asthmatic veteran, with a leg and a half in the 

 grave, is furiously worrying a grandson of his own, 

 who enters with such spirit into the sport that 

 he is shamming exhaustion and speedy dissolution. 

 In my amusement, I forget to sham unobservant, 

 and the game is broken off, to the surprise and 



