DOGS I HAVE KNOWN 83 



I went back to him and tried all round it in 

 every direction, but in vain. 1 then looked on the 

 ground to see if there was one of the small land 

 tortoises, which abound there, and which dogs will 

 always point, but found there was not ; so dis- 

 mounting, I went up to the bush and then found he 

 was standing at a small striped mouse, so I scolded 

 him and made him come off. His next exploit was 

 to make a splendid point at a pair of cast-off 

 Hottentot " crackers " which were lying in the 

 bush, bringing up in his gallop in really magnificent 

 style. On rating him for this, he fixed all his 

 attention on me, and though he ranged well, kept 

 his eye whenever possible on me, and if I stopped 

 pointed at once, or even if I held out my arm. 

 His last grand feat was a dead point at something 

 that I thought was a piece of dead stick lying on 

 the ground, and I was just on the point of taking 

 it up to give him a cut with it for being such a fool 

 when I discovered that it was a puff adder ; so 

 calling the dog off, I blew it to pieces with a shot, 

 but my escape was a narrow one. After this, I gave 

 the dog away to a lady who took a fancy to him, 

 as he was so handsome, and it was most ludicrous 

 to see him in her drawing-room pointing steadily at 

 footstools or work-boxes, or anything that was 

 shewn him. The dog had evidently been well 



