6 LOLA 



if he knew what you do not I ' No sooner had I said 

 this than Rolf, who had been lying under my writing- 

 table, got up and came to my side. In surprise I 

 asked him : ' Well, Rolf, do you know what two plus 

 two amounts to ? ' Whereupon the animal tapped 

 my arm with his paw four times we were all speech- 

 less ! After a little while we asked him again - ' 5 

 plus 5 ? ' Here, too, the correct answer was forth- 

 coming, and thus on the first day did we question him 

 up to a hundred, and with equal success. After that 

 verbal instruction became my daily occupation with 

 the dog, in the same way that one might teach an 

 intelligent child, Rolf entering readily into everything, 

 indeed, we seemed to notice that his studies gave him 

 pleasure. By degrees he became able to solve his sums 

 correctly in every form of arithmetic, finally even get- 

 ting as far as to extract two and three roots. 



"We soon noticed that Rolf could also recognize 

 letters and numerals. He read his own name easily, 

 for when anyone began to write it on the typewriter 

 he instantly started wagging his tail with delight. 

 Our greatest desire now was to devise some means of 

 communication with him and I therefore began with 

 the following simple explanation : 



" ' Rolf,' I said, ' if you could say yes and no, you 

 would be able to talk to us ; now, look here 1 when 

 you want to say yes, give us your paw twice, and if 

 no, then give it three times,' and I at once put this 

 suggestion to an easy test, for I asked him if he would 

 like to be spanked and he returned a decided no \ 

 Then I asked him if he would like some cake, to which 

 a prompt and joyful affirmative was given. I saw 

 therefore that Rolf understood me, and upon this 

 mutual basis I proceeded carefully to build. At 

 length his alphabet came into being he having, with 



