GARDEN ANIMALS. 5 1 3 



the grumblings of the other friends of Jack, who did not approve of 

 this appropriation. 



The morning after he was taken into the house he jumped from the 

 dining-room over the area railings a most prodigious leap. He was 

 then taken to Oxford by an undergraduate, and allowed to roam about, 

 when some bargemen, seeing a fine dog loose, endeavoured to capture 

 him in a net. Jack, however, pulled men and net into the river, whence 

 they escaped with difficulty. 



When Jack was taken to Wallington by railroad, he returned by the 

 carriage-road, and it was with some difficulty that he could be induced 

 to take up his abode in the garden. 



One of his tricks was to decoy away my favourite sporting dog. 

 Where they went we never exactly knew, but they used to return in a 

 day or two with their jaws smeared with blood and hair, showing that 

 they had visited the rabbits and hares, and had well feasted upon them. 



Jack was a terrible fellow, and used to visit all the lady dogs in the 

 neighbourhood. One day he went to a house where many dogs were 

 kept, and there was a great fight ; Jack killed and maimed two or three 

 dogs, but was at last overpowered and literally torn to pieces, and 

 nothing of him remained entire but his tail, which we now possess, 

 mounted on a stick, and which reminds us of the miserable end of 

 poor Jack. 



We had another dog called Gyp, who was also a remarkable 

 character. He never barked, but always bit, upon a reasonable pro- 

 vocation being given. He never allowed any sack to be carried by 

 a stranger, but would go straight to him and lay hold of him by the 

 trousers till the sack was put down. 



Once, when Gyp was on a visit to Finsbury Circus, the police one 

 night thought they had discovered the track of a thief, and mounted 

 my garden wall. Gyp, however, would not allow them to enter, and 

 would have attacked them if he could have got upon the wall. 



Gyp took great care that neither the pigs, ducks, geese, or chickens 

 ever took any of his food. 



My sporting dog Sherry was just as amiable as Gyp was pugnacious. 



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