INTRODUCTION. 53 



guardians in the absence of the drivers ; and, among 

 the numerous stratagems employed by thieves to draw 

 off the attention of the owners or drivers of these 

 carriages, we never hear of any such attempt being 

 successful while there is a dog at hand. During the 

 still hours of night, this vigilant protector refuses sleep, 

 and is continually on the watch. Common noises alarm 

 him not ; but a whisper, a soft footstep, or any unusual 

 sound, he interprets into danger to his master, and he 

 employs all his might to prevent the perpetration of the 

 threatened evil In the country, the shepherd trusts his 

 sheep to his dog, while he pursues his avocations at a 

 distance, well assured that they will be carefully attend- 

 ed to. The peasant's cur guards the coat and scanty 

 meal of his master in the fields. The butcher, profiting 

 by the fidelity of his dog, leaves his meat with no other 

 protector ; and though the animal's support is derived 

 from the bits and parings that come from this very meat ; 

 and though he might, without present danger, satisfy 

 his appetite ; yet he honestly refrains, and waits with 

 patience for what may be gratuitously bestowed. 



I was once called from dinner in a hurry, to attend to 

 something that occurred : unintentionally I left a fa- 

 vourite cat in the room, together with a no less favour- 

 ite spaniel. When I returned, 1 found the spaniel, who 

 was not a small one, extending her whole length along 

 the table, by the side of a leg of mutton which I had 

 left. On my entrance, she shewed no signs of fear, 

 nor did she immediately alter her position ; I was sure, 

 therefore, that none but a good motive had placed her 

 in this extraordinary situation : nor had I long to con- 

 jecture. Puss was skulking in a corner ; and, though 

 the mutton was untouched, yet her conscious fears 

 clearly evinced that she had been driven from the table 

 in the act of attempting a robbery on the meat, to 



