o had fun. Regis Brugiere liked to pick
Jim up and throw him bodily into the deepest snow. Jim liked to have
him do so, and would disappear with an ecstatic yelp. In a moment he
would burst out of the drift and would dance about on the tips of his
toes growling fiercely in mock deprecation of a repetition for which he
hoped. These were the only occasions in which Jim relaxed his solemnity.
At all other times his liquid brown eyes were mournful with the
tempered, delicious sorrow of affection.

In the woods Jim acquired bad habits. He reverted to the original dog.
Finding that Regis Brugiere paid little attention to the grouse so
carefully pointed, Jim resolved to hunt on his own account. At first his
conscience hurt him so that the act amounted to sin. But afterward the
delighted applause of his new master reassured him. He crouched, he
trailed, he flushed, he chased, he broke all the commandments of a
sporting-dog's morality. In this was demoralisation, but also great
profit. For Jim came to be an adept at surprising game in the snow. His
point now became exactly what it used to be in the primordial dog--a
pause of preparation before the spring. Jim was beautifully independent.
Except in the matter of delicacies, he supported himself.

But one thing he knew not, and that was the deer. To him they were as
horses or sheep. He could not understand, nor did he care greatly, why
they should flee so suddenly when he appeared. So Regis Brugiere tried
to teach him, but vainly. Thus it happened that often Jim had to be left
at home, for to a solitary trapper the deer is a necessity. There is in
him food and clothing.

At such times Regis Brugiere was accustomed to pile high the fireplace
with wood in order that his friend might be comfortable during his
absence. Then he would leave the dog disconsolate. On the first of these
occasions Jim effected an escape, and rejoined his master at a distance
with every symptom of delight. Regis Brugiere, returning disgusted,
found the cabin-door sprawled wide: Jim had learned to pull it toward
him with his teeth. Shortly the trapper was forced to make a latch so
that the dog could not pull it ajar by the strength of his jaws and
legs. Perhaps it is well here to explain that ordinarily such a
cabin-door merely jams shut against the spring of a wand of hickory.

Now mark you this: If Regis Brugiere had not coveted and stolen the dog
Jim, he would not have been forced to construct the latch