THE "CALL OF THE WILD ' 



my father's dressing-room, I had to pay a visit 

 to the bootmaker and lay in a stock of new boot- 

 laces best porpoise-hide, even in those days 

 sixpence the pair ! so that I might replace the 

 damaged ones quietly, and without drawing too 

 much public attention to her misdeeds. She was 

 not always content to attack empty ones, but 

 would even begin pulling at the boots on your feet. 

 Her favourite playthings were a pair of old felt 

 bedroom-slippers. She would rush at these, pick 

 up one, and go round the room in a series of high 

 bounds, shaking it all the time like a terrier killing 

 a rat. She would worry it until tired of the game, 

 but, if I moved towards it, she would rush and 

 pick it up and begin her play over again. A ball 

 kept her amused for an hour at a time ; she galloped 

 upstairs and down with it, letting it fall, and then 

 running after it, pouncing upon it, and pretending 

 to kill it, until tired out at last she lay down, 

 curled up, and went to sleep. 



At first she was nervous of venturing out of 

 doors; she would go to the front door, and stand 

 on the step sniffing the air and looking out on 

 the world, but at the slightest strange sound would 

 bolt in again, even rushing headlong up the stairs 

 and away to her own room. But she soon grew 

 bolder. She began by venturing a few steps, 

 sniffing at and investigating everything she met, 

 after which she explored the gravel drive in front 

 of the house. Next she found the lawns, then the 

 shrubberies, after which she was as anxious to 

 play about outside as she had previously been to 



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