edity plays a great role in these
cases; her quick responsiveness bore witness to this, while, in
addition, Lola evidently regarded her as the "flower of her flock," for
she had always singled Ulse out for special attentions, generally
retiring with her alone to a distant part of the barn. The question is
whether Lola may not have given her some instruction, for, to some
remark of mine, she had once replied: "Teaching Ulse!" Yet, for my
part, I feel doubtful whether animals do transmit to others of their
kind the things taught them by human beings. However, this may be, Ulse
seemed predestined, so to speak, to learn to count and spell, mastering
the numbers up to _five_ in a fabulously short time. Moreover, she
_rapped_ better than Lola, or, rather, quite as well as Lola had
done when in her very best days, raising her small paw high, and then
bringing it down on my hand with a decided, though rather slow, beat.
Ulse was also soon able to signify "yes" by two raps, and "no" by
three, but I had to keep my questions within a very narrow limit, for
her intercourse was of too short a duration to enable her to acquire a
lengthy or varied vocabulary. Still, we practised 2 x 1, 2 x 2, 3 x 2,
and her answers were always excellent, as long as nothing else was
going on to excite or distract her.

The amusing thing was that she loved doing it so that the little paw
would be up in mid-air as soon as ever she saw me, as much as to show
that she was quite ready for work. This was doubtless due to the very
quiet existence she had led before coming indoors, and also perhaps to
the little favours and tit-bits she had learnt to associate with her
new accomplishments. Indeed, until these had blossomed out, her innate
cleverness and brightness had gone almost unnoticed.

When I had assured myself that she fully comprehended the rapping, I
endeavoured to teach her to rap on a board, instead of on my hand, a
thing I had never been able to get Lola to agree to. Indeed, I had had
to relinquish any hope of it, in the case of the older dog; whether it
was that the scratching of her toe-nails on the board irritated her or
what, I do not know, but it practically stopped her working. My only
reason for trying to introduce this method at all had been to put an
end to the suggestions sometimes put forward by sceptical persons that
I might be "helping her with my hand!" Anyway, the ease with which Ulse
took to rapping on the board, and the excellent