WILD DOGS. 
351 
native dog and threw his body upon a small 
hush. On returning past the same spot to¬ 
day, we found' the body removed three or 
four yards from the hush, and the female, in 
a dying state, lying beside it: she had ap¬ 
parently been there from the day the dog 
was killed, being so weakened and emaci¬ 
ated as to be unable to move at our approach. 
It was deemed mercy to despatch her.’ ” 
“Poor thing!” said Antoinette. “I 
should think they would have tried to feed 
her and bring her to life.” 
“ She might have been too far gone,” ob¬ 
served Richard; “ or she may have refused 
to eat: most likely she would, as she had 
starved herself of her own accord to watch 
her companion. I think, as the man says, 
it was a mercy to kill her,—though I should 
not have liked to be the one to do it.” 
“How wonderfully sentimental!” said 
Matilda, with her usual sneer. Daisy looked 
indignantly at her, but Richard only smiled: 
he had learned to care very little for Miss 
Meredith’s speeches. “ Are there any wild 
dogs in America?” he asked. “I do not 
remember to have heard of any.” 
“ Rone in North America,—unless we con- 
