CHAPTER XVIII 

 ANECDOTES ABOUT DOGS, PERSONAL AND SELECTED 



I HAVE generally found persons, whether doggy or 

 not, interested in anecdotes about dogs, particularly 

 those displaying their intelligence, fidelity and courage. 

 Some of the following are within my own knowledge, 

 all are related as being believed to be true. I have se- 

 lected those I fancied might be interesting out of a 

 great many I have collected, but some of them may 

 have appeared elsewhere. 



We were telling of the extraordinary ways dogs 

 will find their way home, alone, when a farmer 

 in my district named Churchill said, '' Yes, you 

 see that Sheep dog," pointing to a large merle, 

 rather old-fashioned type of Collie, called by his 

 master " Ben," " Well," he said, " I was down at my 

 daughter's in the lower part of Somersetshire, and had 

 taken Ben there with me, by rail, and while we were all 

 in the garden in the evening, I went into the house for 

 something or other, and Ben missed me. He at once 

 jumped the fence and set off on the return journey just 

 as darkness was coming on, but he could not have 

 wasted much time about it, as my servants told me he 

 was back at my farm, more than forty miles distant, 

 very early the next morning, and they kept looking out 



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