MY DOGS AND OTHERS 259 



was very jealous, and would not go with me if I 

 had other dogs (and no gun), merely for the sake of 

 exercise. Once, when I was laid up with influenza, 

 someone let her loose ; she came full speed through 

 the open door of my room, and landed on the bed 

 right on top of me. She and a spaniel at the 

 house did many a good day's work together : grew 

 old and deaf together, and died almost together on 

 Good Friday, 1908. Far into the night I had 

 watched by my old friend as she lay dying. Often 

 I thought the end of her faithful life had come ; 

 then, as I turned to leave, she would open an 

 eyelid, and speak again to me with that wonderful 

 brown eye that even to the end told of her devoted 

 love. And then would come a moan of pain, and, 

 I hoped, unconsciousness. It was a gloriously fine, 

 cool night one of those nights when one can hear 

 the wail of peewits as a fox passes over a far-off 

 fallow. My wife and my child were away. I was 

 alone with my old dog ; and death was trying hard 

 to thrust its sting between us. The moaning 

 became more frequent. How could I end it all 

 with the murderous violence of a gun ? Happy 

 thought there was laudanum in a cupboard ; I 

 fetched it and gave it to her in increasing doses, 

 till I had used an ounce. She slept. The next 

 morning she was better ; yes, decidedly better. 

 Dared I hope? At breakfast-time I received a 

 written message that the old spaniel, her comrade, 



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