248 EXCELLENCE EXPECTED. [CH. xiv. 



He had evidently a long string of ready-prepared witticisms. He 

 laughed at the dog for being so long in making up his mind as to 

 what it would be most judicious to play ; told him that he had 

 been so hospitably treated by the good Parisians, that it was evident 

 his brains were not so clear as they ought to be, &c., &c. : all which 

 verbiage I suspect the dog took as a confirmation that he was 

 making the selection his master wished. The man promised to call 

 upon me ; but I was obliged to leave Paris sooner than I had ex- 

 pected, and I never saw him again. 



443. Our attention, however, perhaps you will think, ought to 

 be confined to instances of intelligence and high education in 

 sporting-dogs. Well, then, in the next Chapter I will speak of 

 what some dogs of that class do in this, and some are trained to do 

 in other countries ; facts for the truth of which I can vouch, and 

 I hope the account will induce you to believe I am not unreason- 

 able in asserting that we have a right to require greater excellence 

 in our sporting-dogs than what is now regarded by most of us as 

 satisfactory. 



