256 Summer Studies of Birds and Books chap. 



suddenly recover his spirits, and rush in frantic 

 delight all round the garden and through the house. 

 Billy came to me one October in the country when 

 he was a month old, a very quaint-looking puppy ; 

 he passed his infancy and childhood there, but when 

 he had grown up, and showed some signs of getting 

 into bad habits and company, I decided that he must 

 take a course of " the higher education," and brought 

 him with me in the following October term to 

 matriculate at Oxford. From this time he kept his 

 terms regularly for no less than nine years, and only 

 retired from the University when he became stiff and 

 rheumatic with advancing age. At first he lived 

 entirely in the aforesaid yard, but he gradually 

 acquired the status of a privileged dog, spent his 

 afternoons in my room, and often finished his day in 

 the society of the Fellows before the Common-room 

 fire. He may even be said to have taken his 

 Master's degree, for he showed such a decided par- 

 tiality for an old M.A. gown of mine, that it became 

 wholly appropriated to his use ; and nothing could 

 ever induce him to repose quietly on my arm-chair, 

 or even in his own basket, unless this gown were 

 spread for him beforehand. All these privileges he 

 valued very highly, and if any strange dog, no matter 

 how big, ventured to intrude himself within the 

 sacred precincts of the college, a word from me was 

 sufficient to send Billy flying at him with such a 



