BEGINNING THE TUITION. 



E'LA had been four days with me accompany- 

 ing me through the house, and about the 

 farm, at first on a lead, but soon without. Her 

 extreme animation verged on wildness ; I was struck 

 with her elastic temperament and her constant 

 attentiveness, and it seemed to me that this dog would 

 hardly be able to sit still for five minutes. She 

 already knew " yes," and "no," and in my joy at 

 possessing a dog able to answer me, I put so many 

 questions to her that I began to be afraid I might do 

 her some injury. I was, in fact, so afraid, so in doubt 

 as to my understanding, and so alive to my responsi- 

 bilities in the matter, that I often wished I had not 

 accepted the dog at all. I did not even know whether 

 I could " teach "much less whether I could " teach 

 a dog," whom, moreover, no hereditary " urge " 

 would induce to attend school once she knew that this 

 would mean having to work and be attentive I 



Doubts as to whether the dog understood me ; in 

 what way she understood me ; what sort of creature 

 a dog really was whether she could " think," " feel," 

 or even whether she was capable of hearing in the same 

 way as we hear ; able to see in the same way that we 

 see with our eyes ; whether she already possessed 

 some cognition of the human language, and whether 

 this possessed any meaning for her ? For all at once 

 I knew that I knew nothing. That I had not even the 



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