30 Chapters on Animals. 



and brought something else. She was then requested to 

 bring the ace of spades, and she soon came back from the 

 dining-room with the ace of spades in her teeth. 



Both the dogs played a game of dominoes. This was 

 managed as follows : the dogs sat on chairs opposite each 

 other, and took up the domino that was wanted ; but the 

 master or mistress placed it, and kept announcing the state 

 of the game. Their distress when they could not go on 

 without drawing upon the bank was expressed in piteous 

 whines, and amused us all immensely. Lyda was the loser, 

 and she precipitately retreated to hide herself, with an evi- 

 dent consciousness of defeat. 



I had not quite done with my literary examination of Bi- 

 anca, so I had the alphabet replaced and began again. I 

 asked her what was the English for cJiicn, and she put the 

 letters D, O, G, into my own hand. Then I asked her to 

 spell /^« (fire), for me, and she gave me the three letters 

 F, E, U. Here an incident occurred which, notwithstand- 

 ing the marvels we have witnessed, thrilled us all with new 

 amazement. M. du Rouil interposed, and said, " Blanche, 

 you have spelled the word correctly in the singular, but 

 cannot you give the plural .-" " My readers may believe me 

 or not, as they like, but the truth is, that she took up the 

 letter X between her teeth and came to me and placed it 

 in my hand. I asked her to give me the English for feu, 

 and wrote it down and handed it to M. du Rouil, but he 

 said she had not yet learned that word, and this deficit in 

 her education could not be remedied at once. 



During the whole of this entertainment my mind was 

 intently occupied with a single problem, Wliat did the dogs 

 really know ? I had been told a few days previously, by a 

 gentleman who had very keen powers of observation, that 

 a system of signals existed between M. du Rouil and his 



