254 MATERNAL SAGACITY. 



drowned. My grandmother thought that Chloe ought not to raise more than two ; Chloe 

 believed that she could educate four, and it was always difficult to abstract the doomed ones 

 from the watchful little mother. 



"It so chanced that once, after the two pups had been drowned by one of the stablemen, 

 poor Chloe discovered their little wet bodies in the stable-yard, and brought them to the live 

 ones that remained in her basket. She licked them, cherished them, howled over them, but 

 still they continued damp and cold. Gentle at all other times, she would not now permit 

 even her dear mistress to remove them, and no stratagem could draw her from her basket. 

 At last, we supposed, Chloe felt it was not good for the dead and the living to be together, 

 so she took'one of the poor things in her mouth, walked with it across the lawn to the spot 

 where a lovely red thorn-tree made a shady place, dug a hole, laid the puppy in it, came back 

 for the other, placed it with its little relative, scraped the earth over them, and returned sadly 

 and slowly to her duties. 



"The story of the Dog burying her puppies was discredited by some of our neighbors ; 

 and the next time that Chloe became a mother the dead puppies were left in her way, for my 

 grandmother was resolved that her friends should witness her Dog's sagacity. This time 

 Chloe did not bring the dead to the living, but carried them at once to the same spot, dug 

 their graves, and placed them quietly in it. It almost seemed as if she had ascertained what 

 death was." 



I am also indebted to the same lady for a short history of canine life, which corroborates 

 the account of assistance requested by ont Dog and given by another. 



"Neptune, the ram's antagonist, had a warm friendship for a very pretty retriever, 

 Charger by name, who, in addition to very warm affections, possessed a very hot temper. In 

 short, he was a decidedly quarrelsome Dog ; but Neptune overlooked his friend's faults, and 

 bore his ill-temper with the most dignified gravity, turning away his head, and not seeming to 

 hear his snarls, or even to feel his snaps. 



" But all Dogs were not equally charitable, and Charger had a long-standing quarrel with 

 a huge bull-dog, I believe it was, for it was ugly and ferocious enough to have been a bull- 

 dog, belonging to a butcher, — the only butcher within a circle of five miles. He was very 

 nearly as authoritative as his bull-dog. It so chanced that Charger and the bxill-dog met 

 somewhere, and the result was that our beautiful retriever was brought home so fearfully 

 mangled that it was a question whether it should not be shot at once, everything like recovery 

 seeming impossible. 



" But I really think Neptune saved. his life. The trusty friend applied himself so carefully 

 to licking his wounds, hanging over him with such tenderness, and gazing at his master with 

 such mute entreaty, that it was decided to leave the Dogs together for that night. The devo- 

 tion of the great Dog knew no change ; he suffered any of the people to dress his friend's 

 wounds, or feed him, but he growled if they attempted to remove him. Although after the 

 lapse of ten or twelve days he could limp to the sunny spots of the lawn — always attended by 

 Neptune— it was quite three months before Charger was himself again, and his recovery was 

 entirely attributed to Neptune, who ever after was called Doctor Neptune— a distinction which 

 he received with his usual gravity. 



" Now here I must say that Neptune was never quarrelsome. He was a very large liver- 

 colored Dog, with huge, firm jaws, and those small canning eyes which I always think detract 

 from the nobility of the head of the Newfoundland ; his paws were pillows, and his chest 

 broad and firm. He was a dignified, gentlemanly Dog, who looked down upon the general run 

 of quarrels as quite beneath him. If grievously insulted, he would lift up the aggressor in his 

 jaws, shake him, and let him go— if he could go— that was all. But in his heart of hearts he 

 resented the treatment his friend had received. 



" So when Charger was fully recovered, the two Dogs set off together to the Hill, a distance 

 of more than a mile from their home, and then and there set upon the bull-dog. While we 

 were at breakfast, the butler came in with the information that something had gone wrong, 

 for both Neptune and Charger had come home covered with blood and wounds, and were 

 licking each other in the little stable. This was quickly followed by a visit from the butcher, 



