288 FIELD SHOOTING. 



be in pain; but as she had been in apparent good 

 health in the morning, and had hunted with alacrity- 

 all the forenoon, I did not know what to make of 

 it. She seemed to lose her strength, and yet 1 

 could not see any signs of her having been bitten 

 by a poisonous snake or the like. In fact, I did 

 not believe that she was seriously ill, and, having 

 made up her bed nicely, I concluded she would be 

 better in the morning. But that night she died, at 

 nine o'clock. Fifteen minutes before her death she 

 got up on her legs and looked at me very ear- 

 nestly, as though she wanted to make me under- 

 stand something. She then lay down again, and 

 in fifteen minutes died easily. I had never left 

 her after I brought her home, and her death was 

 the cause of much grief in the family. It was al- 

 most as if we had lost one of the children. I do 

 not know what her ailment was, but believe that 

 she had an internal abscess, the bursting of which 

 caused her death. 



The best age to begin the breaking of a dog is 

 about a year, in my judgment. At eight or nine 

 months old it is well enough to take a puppy 

 out to the field in a wagon, and let it work a 

 little with an old dog. Care must be taken that 

 ypung ones do not work much in the hot sun, 



