54 DOGS 



muzzle, himself muzzled pursuant to law. The other one, 

 though made much of at home, saw fit to decamp into the 

 woods, and has been no more seen. 



But before describing Pat's methods of compensating 

 himself for these losses, some salient points of character 

 must be indicated. His love for his master, which is very 

 firm, dates from a deed of rapine which he committed at 

 the age of ten months on the poultry shed. His master 

 detected him with a very young chicken in his mouth, 

 hanging indecisively from his jaws, and on Pat's speaking 

 countenance there was a delicious expression of childlike 

 geniality and whimsical guilelessness. But this availed 

 not to save him from a heavy visitation delivered on the 

 spot, a switch of exactly the right size and weight being 

 found close by. Since then his way of taking a licking has 

 been a model for all terriers. Scarcely a sound escapes the 

 door of his lips except a few most articulate maledictions, 

 and immediately it is done he is brimming over with noisy 

 ferocia, barking and jumping about and ready for any 

 iniquity there and then. He is a person dramatic to the tip 

 of his tail. He must know that his importance is not 

 world-wide, but he always behaves as if it were. Again, 

 he likes to pose as an absolute master of the ceremonies 

 always, and yet he could be influenced, mostly for the bad, 

 and by a female too, a half-sister of his own, poor little 

 Cricket, who was poisoned at three years of age. She, 

 like many terriers, could stand anything except a small 

 schoolboy running. The frequent spectacle of a lower 

 boy late for lessons roused all the devilry in her, and Pat 

 was borne along by the impetus of her feelings till the two 

 together, rushing unperceived behind, would, with sudden 

 very loud yappings and snaps at the fleshy portion of the 

 leg, reduce the poor urchin abruptly to a sense of the 

 reality of life, and give him a signal lesson of punctuality. 

 Pat felt no animus whatever, but the part had to be played, 

 and he played it to perfection. Again, when the squad 

 of school recruits was being drilled on the terrace, Cricket 



