INASMUCH AS TO RETRIEVRES. 175 



out permission. She can teach them a great 

 deal in feeding them, especially if she has two 

 pups, or one pup and another kind of dog, 

 such as a French poodle ; she will cut their 

 meat into small pieces like lumps of sugar, and 

 taking one piece at a time, will tell them who 

 it is for. "This is for Topsy. That's for 

 Help, I told you to wait till your turn came, 

 sir." So each dog learns not to touch the 

 other's pieces of meat, and if he does he gets 

 a rap over the head with the handle of a knife. 

 In this way a puppy gets to know all you say 

 to him, and my wife has been obliged, before 

 now, to spell things out to me, so that the dog 

 should not hear, if we did not want him to go 

 down to the village. If my wife said : "I am 

 going to Stanstead after dinner, do you want 

 anything ?" I might reply : " Yes, you can 

 get me some tobacco, and you may as well 

 take the dogs with you." The dogs would 

 prick up their ears in a moment. " No, I 

 can't," my wife might say. (t I'm going to 

 places where I can't take them in," The dogs, 

 on hearing this, immediately drop their jaws, 



