CHARACTER OF THE DOG. 19 



- Short shrift is accorded to the robber, when 

 caught red-footed and in the act, or tracked from 

 the scene of blood, through the tell-tale snow, to 

 the unconscious homestead. 



Vain are the entreaties of the house-wife or 

 children, if, indeed, they find voices to plead for 

 the midnight assassin, who, apart from his secret 

 acts of villainy, may have been a very serviceable 

 animal. The master himself has little to say, 

 since slay the dog or pay for the sheep is the 

 grim alternative. The axe, the rope, or the fowl- 

 ing piece, settles the matter on the spot; while 

 the very porch, which has so long sheltered the 

 culprit, seems half aghast with silent horror. 



The propensity, which is chiefly confined to 

 curs and mongrels, undoubtedly descends from 

 the wild state of the race, along with other pecu- 

 liarities of less import, common to the entire spe- 

 cies; such as making lairs in out of the way 

 places, hiding bones and surplus food in the 

 earth, taking solitary journeys at night, sometimes 

 to visit an acquaintance, but more frequently to 

 hunt up mischief. 



A dog has been known to leave his home after the 

 family had retired, and go to a farm-house several 

 miles distant, to join a comrade; after some pre- 

 liminary snuffing and capering on the porch, the 



