190 



KIDD'S OWN JOUENAL. 



plantations, " Pussy" was almost sure to be met 

 with, in search of nobler game than rats and 

 mice. She was remarkably successful in her ex- 

 cursions; very seldom returning without a rabbit, 

 leveret, or partridge in her mouth. Notwith- 

 standing her wild habits, she was of a very 

 sociable and affectionate disposition ; and if she 

 had seen any of us going out, or had met with 

 us at a distance from home, she would have given 

 up her pursuit, and followed with her noiseless 

 step, close at our heels. This she would do for 

 miles, over hedge and ditch, through fields, 

 woods, and lanes. Greatly to the regret of all 

 who knew her, our favorite met with an un- 

 timely end in one of her sporting excursions, by 

 the hand of some ruthless gamekeeper, to all of 

 whom in the neighborhood she was well known. 

 Your correspondent also relates an anecdote of 

 a cat who emptied the cream jug by dipping her 

 paw into it, and then licking it. But I think 

 rats display quite as much ingenuity and skill, 

 in helping themselves to a little cream. This 

 they do by skimming it off the dishes with their 

 tails, and then licking the latter. By thess 

 means they will clear a dish of milk from every 

 trace of cream, as completely as a milk-maid 

 could do it. I have repeatedly seen rats empty 

 the old-fashioned flasks of salad oil in the same 

 way. They would commence operations by 

 eating off the bladder, and pulling out the cotton 

 from the mouth of the flask. One of the body 

 would then station himself on the flask, or some- 

 thing immediately adjoining, and by rapidly 

 dipping his tail into the oil (pulling it out and 

 allowing the others to lick it), the contents of the 

 flask disappeared in an incredibly short space of 

 time. The dipper would occasionally change 

 places with one of the others, and so skilfully 

 would the whole operation be performed, as to 

 " leave not a trace behind." — Alpha, Windsor, 

 near Liverpool. 



The Water Spaniel — A pretty Trait. — The 

 following striking anecdote of the water-spaniel, 

 from Youatt's excellent work on " The Dog," 

 is I think worthy of a place in our admirable 

 Journal. Mr Youatt pledges himself for its 

 perfect truth. The owner of the clog is telling 

 the tale : — " I was once," says he, " on the sea 

 coast, when a small, badly formed, and leaky 

 fishing boat was cast on shore, on a fearful reef 

 of rocks. Three men, and a boy of ten years old 

 constituted the crew. The men swam on shore; 

 but they were so bruised against the rocks, that 

 they could not render any assistance to the poor 

 boy, and no person could be found to venture 

 out in any way. I heard the noise and went 

 to the spot with my dog. I spoke to him, and 

 in he went, more like a seal than a dog, and 

 after several fruitless attempts to mount the 

 wreck he succeeded, and laid hold of the boy 

 who clung to the ropes, screaming in the most 

 fearful way at being thus dragged into the water. 

 The waves dashed frightfully on the rocks. In 

 the anxiety and responsibility of the moment, I 

 thought the dog had missed him ; and I stripped 

 off my clothes, to render what assistance I could. 

 I was just in the act of springing from the shore, 

 having selected the moment when the receding 

 waves gave me the best chance of rendering any 



assistance, when I saw old ' Bagsman,' for that 

 was the name of my dog, with the struggling boy 

 in his mouth and the head uppermost. I rushed 

 to the place where he must land, and ' the waves 

 bore the boy and the dog into my arms.' Some 

 time after that, I was snooting wild fowl. I and 

 my dog had been working hard, and I left him 

 behind me while I went to a neighboring town to 

 purchase gunpowder. A man in a drunken 

 frolic had pushed off in a boat with a girl in it ; 

 the tide going out carried the boat quickly away, 

 and the man becoming frightened, and unable to 

 swim, jumped overboard. Bagsman, who was 

 on the spot, hearing the splash, jumped in, swam 

 out to the man, caught hold of him, and brought 

 him twenty or thirty yards towards the shore, 

 when the drunken fellow clasped the dog right 

 round the body, ' and they both went down 

 together.' The girl was saved by a boat going 

 to her assistance. The body of the man was re- 

 covered about an hour afterwards, with that of 

 the dog clasped tight in his arms, thus dragging 

 him to the bottom. Poor ' Bagsman!' thy worth 

 deserves to be thus chronicled." — What an un- 

 timely end, Mr. Editor, for so noble, so generous 

 an animal ! Lift up your voice in his praise — 

 and in praise of all like him. — Zig-zag. 



GIVE ME THE OTHER FIG. 



A WARNING. 



Some years since, when I knew too little 

 of the world, and thought too sensitively of 

 its slightest opinion, I supped with an au- 

 thor of eminence as a wit and a poet, in 

 the company of men of wit and genius ; and 

 much mad mirth and high-exciting talk we 

 had — too mad and too high for me, who 

 could only laugh, or wonder in silence, at so 

 many brilliant imaginations, and watch the 

 striking out of their fiery sparks of wit — 



" So nimble and so full of subtle flame, 

 As if that every one from whom they came 

 Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, 

 And had resolved to live a fool the rest 

 Of his dull life." 



"I was all ear to hear," and took in jests 

 " which might create a laugh under the ribs 

 of death," and thoughts and high imagina- 

 tions which might " lift a man to the third 

 heaven of invention ; " and thither, indeed, 

 I was for once lifted. But there are souls 

 of that weak wing, that so much the higher 

 they soar above the proper level of their 

 flight, so much the lower they fall below the 

 level of their proper resting-ground ; and as, 

 under the excitement of wine, some men be- 

 tray all their hidden foibles, and the flaws 

 and weak parts in their characters, so, under 

 the excitement of too much wit, I betrayed 

 one frailty in mine. 



It was after supper that a small basket of 

 most mouth-melting figs was put on the 

 friendly board, out of which, among other 

 fingers, I was then moderate enough to de- 



