226 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



make them some of the most odd little caricatures 

 existing. When they begin to walk their bodies are 

 generally round and fat, their feet big, and their tails 

 thick at the body and tapering to a point. 



Take a litter of six setter puppies at this stage, 

 start them all fair on their legs, standing up, and see 

 what they will do. It will be noticed that they walk 

 with their noses close to the ground, like hippopotami, 

 but with their tails up or stuck out straight, and that 

 when they think they are going to fall they put their 

 noses on the ground to help to balance them. At this 

 time, too, they leave off squealing and try to bark, 

 which they are inordinately proud of, and soon learn to 

 do in a very fierce and forbidding manner. Being too 

 weak to stand the shock of barking, a single bark is 

 as much as they can usually manage at a time ; and if 

 they do this when walking it upsets their balance and 

 they fall over. Sagacious puppies soon learn this, and 

 sit down to bark, getting up again to walk, and then 

 sitting down for another bark. 



When once the puppies are able to make excursions 

 on their own account, they will, if allowed the full 

 liberty which they deserve, become a daily and hourly 

 excitement in any quiet family. In the country house 

 in which the litter have the run of the garden, or can 

 even gain access to the back premises, life is a series 

 of constant excursions and alarms, though it must be 

 owned that the promising children make up for their 

 mischief by an ample margin in beauty, character, and 

 the unconscious humour with which they invest most 

 of their proceedings. When very small and only 



