BOYS’ department. 
225 
Bogs’ department. 
ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS.—No. 1. 
"Love me, love my dog.” 
There are no animals of which hoys are more 
justly fond and proud than their dogs ; aud as I have 
never found them weary of listening to, or reading 
anecdotes about them, I will begin by telling some 
stories of our canine favorites, which I have the 
very best reason to believe, to be strictly true. 
Some years ago a fine house-dog, which had 
grown old in the service of a kind master, was 
asleep in an upper room that overlooked the field 
where the Cattle were grazing. The gentleman ob¬ 
serving some little disturbance among the cows, or¬ 
dered the dog to go and bring them to the barn-yard, 
a duty he had performed daily for years. At first, 
he only looked quietly up, and closed his eyes 
again for another nap ; but upon receiving another 
order, he role, wagged his tail slowly, and whined, 
but did not obey. His master, who at the time was 
lame with the gout, and perhaps a little impatient, 
then said in a voice half reproachful and half sorrow¬ 
ful—“ Get you gone, Towzer! you have become 
old, and are as good for nothing as your master.” 
The faithful animal looked wistfully in his face, 
gave a long low whine as if he understood what 
was addressed to him, turned slowly round, and 
jumped through the window to the roof of the piaz¬ 
za beneath it, ran in an opposite direction from the 
field where the cattle were; and disregarding the 
eager calls of the men, he never once looked back; 
but disappeared in the underbrush of the neighbor¬ 
ing thicket. From that day he was never seen nor 
heard of, though a considerable reward was offered 
for his recovery. No doubt he hid himself among 
the rocks to die alone, as animals of various kinds 
are well known to do. 
I have often, when a child, heard my old friend 
tell this anecdote with great feeling, and he always 
ended by saying in a sadly impressive tone, that he 
would give the worth of fifty such dogs,—no trifling 
sum—to be able to lose the remembrance of the un¬ 
kind tone in which he had spoken to his faithful 
old favorite. 
Let it be a lesson to boys, and girls, too, never to 
speak harshly, nor treat unkindly, «« even a dog.” 
Another dog-story which I have heard related 
with many variations, I shall tell as it occurred at a 
house not far distant from my residence. 
t A fine_English mastiff and a little dog “ of no par¬ 
ticular kind” occupied the same kennel very peace¬ 
ably in pleasant weather, but they might well be 
called “ fair-weather friendsfor, no sooner did a 
rough, cold spell come on, than ill temper and 
great dissatisfaction were the immediate result. 
The mastiff taking advantage of his strength, and 
thinking probably that “might makes right,” 
always took possession of the house and left his 
poor little companion to shiver in the door-way, or 
shift for himself where he could. 
This state of things continued during nearly a 
year, when one day the rain fell incessantly, and 
froze as it descended, the forlorn little fellow seemed 
completely at his wit’s end. He crept in as far as 
he could, then cold and wet, tried various ways of 
warming his half-frozen limbs. At last he sud¬ 
denly started up, ran rapidly * to the corner of the 
house, barked violently, and then rushed back as if 
seeking protection from an approaching enemy. 
This he repeated until the attention and good feel¬ 
ings of the mastiff were completely roused, and he 
too rushed to the corner, challenging the imaginary 
foe with furious barking; but seeing nothing on 
which to vent his wrath, he went back to his lair 
and found the tables turned to good effect. The 
cunning little dog had no sooner seen him at a dis 
tance, than he stowed himself snugly away in the 
warm corner of the kennel. The mastiff looked in, 
as if half disposed to resent such an infringement 
of his long enjoyed rights,—but (was he ashamed 
of being outwitted, or did he feel that he was suf¬ 
fering justly?)—he put his tail between his legs, 
and crept in too l 
Eutawali . E. S. 
Dr. Franklin’s Mode of Learning to Swim.— 
Choose a place where the water deepens gradually, 
walk coolly into it till it is up to your breast, then 
turn round, your face to the shore, and throw an 
egg into the water, between you and the shore. It 
will sink to the bottom, and be easily seen there, as 
your water is clear. It must lie in water so deep as 
that you cannot reach it to take it Up but by diving 
for it. To encourage yourself in order to do this, re¬ 
flect that your progress will be from deeper to shal¬ 
lower water, and that at any time you may, by 
bringing your legs under you, and standing on the 
bottom, raise your head far above the water. Then 
plunge under it, with your eyes open, throwing 
yourself towards the egg, and endeavoring by the 
action of your hands and feet against the water, to 
get forward till within reach of it. In this attempt 
you will find, that the water buoys you up against your 
inclination ; that it is not so easy a thing to sink as 
you imagined ; that you cannot but by active force 
get down to the egg. Thus you feel the power of 
the water to support you, and learn to confide in 
that power; while your endeavors to overcome it, 
and to reach the egg, teach you the manner of act¬ 
ing on the water with your feet and hands, which 
action is afterwards used in swimming to support 
your head higher above water, or to go forward 
through it. 
A Word to Boys. —The learned Blacksmith 
says: Boys, did you ever think that this great 
world, with all its wealth and woe, with all its 
mines and mountains, oceans, seas, and rivers, with 
all its shipping, its steamboats, railroads, and mag¬ 
netic telegraphs; with all its millions of darkly-grop¬ 
ing men, and all the science and progress of ages, 
will soon be given over to the hands of the boys of 
the present age—boys like you, assembled in school 
rooms, or playing without them, on both sides of 
the Atlantic ? Believe it, and look abroad upon your 
inheritance and get ready to enter upon its posses¬ 
sion. The Kings, Presidents, Governors, States¬ 
men, Philosophers, Ministers, Teachers, Men of the 
future, all are boys, whose feet, like yours, cannot 
reach the floor, when seated on the benches upon 
which they are learning to master the monosylla¬ 
bles of their respective languages. 
