THE DOG. 177 



Friendship of canine contraction. 



as will appear, to cultivate a farther acquain- 

 tance. 



Upon one of these occasions, instead of mak- 

 ing the best of his way home, he made bold to 

 arrest our sable friend, by griping the skirt of 

 his coat, rather sportively than with any vicious 

 or sanguinary intention. But yet he seemed un- 

 willing to relinquish his hold. The singularity 

 of the circumstance, as may be imagined, excited 

 the curiosity of his prisoner, who wisely thinking 

 it would be to no purpose to remonstrate, put 

 himself under the conduct of his canine compar- 

 nion, and walked on, musing on the adventure, 

 and wondering, at the same time, what would be 

 the event. 



Through many bye-ways and windings did 

 they travel, till at length Rover released his cap- 

 tive, and made a set, which was saying, as plain 

 as a dog could say, that their journey was at an 

 end. So in fact it was; and now the last act of 

 civility remained to be performed on the part of 

 the dog, of which he acquitted himself very hand- 

 somely, never losing sight of his charge until he 

 had introduced him to his master; the denoue- 

 ment was not inconsistent with the whole tenor 

 of the dog's deportment; the clergymen having 

 thus contracted an intimacy and ever afterwards 

 lived in habits of friendship. 



The author of the Tableaux Tt/no^rapkiques de 

 la Suisse, in his Description of the Alps and 

 {jjaciers, relates the following circumstance in 

 z 2 



