Salmon Fishing. 169 



may say within limits a dozen of us besides ! 



If horses are sagacious, I believe dogs are 

 more so. I shall never forget a Skye-terrier, 

 called Ben, I had for some years ; a more 

 vigilant house-dog there could not have been, 

 or splendid garden-guard. 



Living within a mile of a large city, for some 

 time before Ben's arrival, I was subjected to 

 depredations of fruit and flowers to a most 

 alarming extent. The thieves, I felt sure, 

 were chiefly boys, from the tracks of their 

 feet, and the needless injury they did to the 

 trees. 



Now Ben had a strange antipathy to boys ; 

 of the ragged "genus" especially; having been 

 no doubt hitherto tormented by them. 



One day I was seated in my study, and all 

 at once I heard the most piteous cries it is 

 possible to conceive from some one in deep 

 distress. I rushed out immediately to ascertain 

 the reason of this, and what should I see not far 



from the garden gates, but a ragged urchin 

 M 



