THE DOG INSISTED UPON ATTENTION. 167 



hindered in her work by our silent presence, 

 twenty feet away and half hidden by her leafy 

 screen. But the next day she was not there. 

 After we had waited half an hour, my friend 

 could no longer resist a siren voice that had 

 lured us for days (and was never traced home, 

 by the way). I offered to wait for the little 

 blue while she sought her charmer. 



We were near the edge of the woods, and she 

 was obliged to pass through part of a pasture 

 where sheep were kept. Her one terror about 

 her big dog was that he should take to making 

 himself disagreeable among sheep, when she 

 knew his days would be numbered, so she told 

 him to stay with me. He had risen when she 

 started, and he looked a little dubious, but sat 

 down again, and she went away. 



He watched her so long as she could be seen 

 and then turned to me for comfort. He came 

 close and laid his big head on my lap to be 

 petted. I patted his head and praised him a 

 while, and then wished to be relieved. But 

 flattery was sweet to his ears, and the touch of 

 a hand to his brow, he declined to be put 

 away; on the contrary he demanded constant 

 repetition of the agreeable sensations. If I 

 stopped, he laid his heavy head across my arm, 

 in a way most uncomfortable to one not accus- 

 tomed to dogs. These methods not availing, he 



