THE LITTLE RED DOG 215 



In Regent Street, of all places, one to see what all the noise was about, 

 bright winter morning, I caught sight It was something tremendously impor- 

 of a dog lying on the pavement close tant to dogs in general, no doubt, 

 to the wall, hungrily gnawing at a big But the little red dog, the little liar, 

 beef bone which he had stolen or picked had no sooner been overtaken and 



out of a neighbouring dust-hole. He passed by the other, than back he ran 



was a miserable-looking object, a sort and, picking up the bone, made off 



of lurcher, of a dirty red colour, with with it in the opposite direction. Very 



ribs showing like the bars of a gridiron soon the lurcher returned and appeared 



through his mangy side. Even in astonished and puzzled at the dis- 



those pre-muzzling days, when we still appearance of his bone. There I left 



had the pariah, it was a little strange him, still looking for it and sniffing at 



to see him gnawing his bone at that the open shop doors. He perhaps 



spot, just by Peter Robinson's, where thought in his simplicity that some 



the broad pavement was full of shop- kind lady had picked it up and left 



ping ladies ; and I stood still to watch it with one of the shopmen to be 



him. Presently a small red dog came claimed by its rightful owner, 

 trotting along the pavement from the I had heard of such actions on the 



direction of the Circus, and catching part of dogs before, but always with a 



sight of the mangy lurcher with the smile ; for we know the people who 



bone he was instantly struck motion- tell this kind of story the dog-wor- 



less, and crouching low as if to make shippers, or canophilists as they are 



a dash at the other, his tail stiff, his called, a people weak in their intel- 



hair bristling, he continued gazing for lectuals, and as a rule unveracious, 



some moments ; and then, just when although probably not consciously so. 



I thought the rush and struggle was But now I had myself witnessed this 



about to take place, up jumped this thing, which, when read, will perhaps 



little red cur and rushed back towards cause others to smile in their turn, 

 the Circus, uttering a succession of But what is one to say of such an 



excited shrieky barks. The contagion action ? Just now we are all of us, 



was irresistible. Off went the lurcher, philosophers included, in a muddle 



furiously barking too, and quickly over the questions of mind and instinct 



overtaking the small dog dashed on in the lower animals, and just how 



and away to the middle of the Circus much of each element goes to the com- 



