236 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



by the camp fire, limbs and muscles relaxed, and resting 

 while they dream of coming supper. 



One morning I was roused at three or four o'clock to get 

 out needle and silk and carbolised dressings for a heroine 

 who had been badly worsted in the fray. The account 

 given me — that the boar lay dead, but in dying had ripped 

 up this unwary dog — was so upsetting that I went with 

 the messenger to learn if there were any hope. Only the 

 hairy skin was actually touched, but that was cut as though 

 with a knife by the boar's keen tushes ; the stomach itself 

 was uninjured, or we could not have saved her. This was 

 supported while every particle of earth and foreign substance 

 was washed away, then replaced carefully, and the edges of 

 the skin sewn together. I sat on the ground with her 

 head and shoulders resting on my lap, so that her sides could 

 be firmly pressed while the stitches were put in. Under 

 this operation she never struggled, hardly winced, but kept 

 as still as still could be, looking up and backwards at me 

 now and again, though fixing her gaze mostly on F., who 

 was always surgeon. Well she knew that the best possible 

 was being done for her ; but a world of question lay in her 

 eyes, as if she were wondering why she must suffer to minister 

 to our pleasures — most pathetic had we not known that this 

 dog, Fanny, apart from her accident, had been enjoying 

 herself mightily ; for sport of any sort was always to her 

 mind, and she was game to the core. 



The eyes of all dogs seem to suggest a sad outlook on the 

 world from the deep sombreness of their expression, and 

 this whether there be any reason for it or not. In the case 

 of our dogs there certainly was none, and no one of them 

 enjoyed life more thoroughly than did the hapless Fanny, 

 temporarily placed hors de combat — for it was only tempor- 

 arily. Great care had to be taken as to her food, which 

 was the chief trouble, for she never lost appetite. Water 

 was what she mostly craved for, and it was just the thing 



