HO A BOOK OF MORTALS 



out ; but few of us realize its effect on ourselves. What a 

 gift, for instance, a dog's confidence is ; until we lose that, 

 we feel that we need not lose it in ourselves. 



And the dog is long suffering. It was not until the 

 feet of Bill Sikes' dog were red with poor Nancy's blood 

 that he turned from his master and fled ; even then only to 

 dog his footsteps from afar, and die in an unavailing attempt 

 to stand by him to the last. 



For the dog truly might paraphrase Shakspeare's lover 

 and say : — 



" For nothing this wide universe I call 



" Save, master, thou ! In it thou art my all. 



Even in the trivial round, the common task, it is 

 marvellous how much help the presence of a dog gives to a 

 house. He is, to begin with, the soul of order, discipline, 

 routine. You cannot avoid his reminders of what is the 

 right thing to do : in the matter of exercise alone how 

 many a fit of dyspepsia has he not prevented by his resolute 

 refusal to regard rain, or mud, or cold as a sufficient reason 

 for staying at home and keeping the fire warm ? In fact, 

 the amount of wholesome constitutionals into which dog- 

 dom has beguiled mankind is purely beyond counting. 

 Then, if a dog be allowed to make a personal individual 

 life for himself, it is not long before he makes for himself 

 also a regular round of occupations, amusements, and duties 

 from which he never willingly swerves. 



At the time of the full moon an old dog I know in- 

 variably knocks out about lo p.m. to kill the rats in the 

 pig-styes, and as regularly knocks in at midnight, barking 

 at one door, then another, and even at his master's window, 



