THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 135 



and sometimes more heart, conscience, loyalty and 

 gratitude than you know anything about! That's 

 a dog. But these qualities are wasted on you — 

 the most of you, that is — who trample on his feel- 

 ings, despise his faithfulness, neither train nor de- 

 velop him who down thro' the ages has been hon- 

 ored as man's best friend, and celebrated in song 

 and story. However, the dogs of war on the battle- 

 fields of Europe must surely have opened the blind 

 eyes of the roughest and most indifferent of mortals 

 — even here in the West where animals are so ill 

 considered, nay too often ill treated. Horses too 

 on the battlefields — British gunners have many a 

 splendid record of their courage, intelligence and 

 faithfulness, and the Blue Cross hospitals, a British 

 institution established early in the great war for the 

 care of wounded horses, could tell much more. 



To return to Chihuahuas — their one drawback 

 is that of other breeds of small dogs. In their af- 

 fections they concentrate overmuch. They may in 

 fact be considered as a One-Man dog. They may 

 appear to be attached to some outsider, but let their 

 owner leave them in that outsider's kind, nay de- 

 voted, care, surrounded by a circle of admirers in 

 addition, they may continue lively and playful but 

 not a day passes that does not find them at some 

 hour watching from door or window, crying a little 

 after the gentle manner of their breed. Months 

 elapse yet this custom continues to be observed. And 

 then behold one day enters their owner and a scene 

 of such rapture ensues as bars description. Worse 

 still, the kind friends are bidden once and forever to 



