A DOG IN EXILE 59 



I was told that they had been out hunting on their 

 own account in the thorny upland, and that this 

 was the result. For three or four days they re- 

 mained inactive, sleeping the whole time, except 

 when they limped to the kitchen to be fed. But 

 day by day they improved in condition; their 

 scratches healed, their ribbed sides grew smooth 

 and sleek, and they recovered from their lame- 

 ness ; but scarcely had they got well before it was 

 discovered one morning that they had vanished. 

 They had gone off during the night to hunt again 

 on the uplands. They were absent two nights and 

 a day, then returned, looking even more reduced 

 and miserable than when I first saw them, to re- 

 cover slowly from their hurts and fatigue; and 

 when well again they were off once more ; and so 

 it continued during the whole time of my visit. 

 These hounds, if left to themselves, would have 

 soon perished. 



Another member of this somewhat heterogene- 

 ous canine community was a retriever, one of the 

 handsomest I have ever seen, rather small, and 

 with a most perfect head. The extreme curliness 

 of his coat made him look at a little distance like 

 a dog cut out of a block of ebony, with the surface 

 carved to almost symmetrical knobbiness. Major 

 that was his namfi=rwould have lent himself well 

 to sculpture. He was old, but not too fat, nor 

 inactive; sometimes he would go out with the 

 other dogs, but apparently he could not keep up 



