278 MY DOG VAN. 



I need hardly say that the cards were not always put 

 in the same places. They were varied quite indiscrimi- 

 nately and in a great variety of positions. Nor could 

 the dog recognize them by scent. They were all alike, 

 and all continually handled by us. Still, I did not trust 

 to that alone, but had a number printed for each word. 

 When, for instance, he brought a card with " food " on 

 it, we did. not put down the same identical card, but 

 another bearing the same word ; when he had brought 

 that, a third, then a fourth, and so on. For a single 

 meal, therefore, eighteen or twenty cards would be 

 used, so that he evidently is not guided by scent. No 

 one who has seen him look down a row of cards and 

 pick up the one he wanted could, I think, doubt that 

 Iq bringing a card he felt that he is making a 

 request, and that he could not only distinguish one 

 card from another but also associate the word and 

 object. 



I used to leave a card marked " water " in my dress- 

 ing-room, the door of which we used to pass in going 

 to or from my sitting-room. Van was my constant 

 companion, and passed the door when I was at home 

 several times in the day. Generally he took no heed 

 of the card. Hundreds, or I may say thousands, of 

 times he passed it unnoticed. Sometimes, however, he 

 would run in, pick it up, and bring it to me, when of 

 course I gave him some water, and on such occasions I 

 invariably found that he wanted to drink. 



I might also mention, in corroboration, that one 

 morning he seemed unwell. A friend, being at break- 

 fast with us, was anxious to see him bring his cards, and 

 I therefore pressed him to do so. To my surprise he 

 brought three dummy cards successively, one marked 



