104 A MONTH JN THE FORESTS OF FEAKCE. 



" Oh ! he had a fever." 



" Well, what has that to do with his stern?" 



" The veterinary surgeon bled him." 



" Bled him ? Well and what had that to do with it? " 



" Oh ! he said it was dangerous to attempt to 

 bleed a dog in the neck, so he cut off the end of his 

 stern." 



"Oh! St. Hubert/' I groaned; ''when wilt 

 thou come with thy fanners to cleanse the kennel 

 floor?" 



Just then the old boiler mildly suggested that he 

 thought the old babbler that had been taken out to 

 otter hunt was not quite ivell ; and on inquiring why 

 that suspicion occurred to him, he said he had never 

 been out of his straiv nor eaten anything for two days, 

 I went into the lodging house, and found him dying of 

 red-hot fever. 



'^ Here there is an excellent case for a lesson," I 

 said : *' fetch me your best lancet and a piece of string, 

 and I will teach you all the way to bleed a hound — 

 •though, perhaps, as it demands a superb lancet and a 

 very light but sure touch, you may not succeed in the 

 first trial." 



We then took the patient outside the kennel, got 

 up the vein as usual with the tightened string, and, with 

 one of the best lancets I ever saw, I let him blood in 



