
Nothing much to think about 
switch and which invariably caused him 
to sneeze and shake his head, I would 
wait until he had gone ahead, with my 
permission, on the trail of a mouse or a 
cricket, which big game he followed 
with prodigious ferocity, when I would 
step aside and squat down out of 
sight behind a log or a bush which con- 
cealed me from the path. Then I 
would whistle softly once. 
EVER shall I forget his utter woe 
when he turned about on the first 
occasion and discovered my disappear- 
ance. He stood perfectly still and 
whined dismally, even howled. Find- 
ing that this was unsuccessful, he came 
dashing back down the trail, and, of 
course passed me. After a moment he 
returned and sat down and whimpered. 
At this I sucked the back of my hand 
and squeaked in imitation of mouse. 
Immediately he forgot all his worries 
and started to run toward the sound 
and of course he caught my scent and 
had found me in the next instant, to his 
indescribable relief. I repeated this 
process again with exactly the same re- 
sults, but on the third attempt he seemed 
to grasp the idea, and came back snuff- 
ing eagerly until he ran onto the new 
scent, which he followed up like a vet- 
eran. 
The next step was to teach him to 
cast about for a scent which was not 
immediately under his nose. And this 
I accomplished as follows: After he 
had become proficient at the former 
game, I varied it by leaping as far as 
possible off my track, preferably down 
hill into deep grass, down wind, of 
course. At the beginning he was in 
despair, but after a little hopeless 
searching along the backtrack, he ven- 
tured away from the path on the far 
side. 
SQUEAKED and he immediately 
crossed to the opposite and sniffed 
about from side to side, and after a 
moment found me. After that it did 
not take him long to learn to quarter 
both sides. 
He was still too small to run our big 
hares so I had to be content with still- 
hunting for grouse and to let him tag 
along behind on shorter walks. At first 
he was uninterested, but when I had 
shot a bird, he exhibited the greatest 
enthusiasm and one day after I had 
sent him into the undergrowth, he be- 
gan to bark, slowly with a note of con- 
scientious effort. 
BELIEVE that grouse had been run- 
ning around for two hours, for the 
turns and twists that he made were 
enough to make one dizzy; but the 
puppy held on like grim death, going 
on foot by foot, while I sneaked along 
abreast until with a roar the bird went 
up. He flew into the trail and turned 

The combination that 
upset Reynard’s plans 
Rabbit time 
down it for an instant and presented 
an ideal shot that I could not miss. 
DROPPED him with the first barrel 
and waited till the dog had reached 
the spot where he had taken off, when 
I whistled him in. He was almost in- 
sane with delight and nosed the par- 
tridge with due elaboration. After that 
I could hardly make him heel and if a 
bird suddenly went up he would make 
a dash for it till I ordered him in 
quietly when his shame and dismay at 
his forgetfulness were enough to set 
me laughing, though I carefully re- 
frained from doing so. 
Thereafter, during the bird season, 
I had an excellent bird dog. He paid no 
attention to rabbit tracks and I did 
not put him onto any for I thought 
he was not yet ready for it. During 
the following two weeks he underwent 
a regular course of discipline in regard 
to deportment. He learned the proper 
code of house behaviour and also what 
to do and not to do in the barn, where 
he lived, and the yard. One old hen 
gave him his most bitter lesson con- 
cerning the ethical position of the 
chicken. She had come out of the hay- 
mow with a late and rather scrawny 
lot of young hopefuls with whom Di 
felt an irresistible impulse to play, a 
matter on which the old lady possessed 
distinctly different views. One day Di, 
returning from a successful hunt in a 
highly elated frame of mind, galloped 
around the corner of the woodshed just 
as the old hen was in the act of strug- 
gling with the nether portions of an im- 
mense angleworm while her progeny 
gathered about her in eager anticipa- 
tion. 
N a moment the pup had upset them 
all and turned about to pay his re- 
spects. But the mother would have 
none of him. She had suffered im- 
mense indignity and lost a fine dinner 
to boot. She charged the astounded Di 
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