o home.

The bloodhounds were the fiercest and most sullen-looking of all. They did
not join in the general barking and uproar, but kept their heads buried in
the straw. Once, as we were watching them, away off in a remote end of the
building, an acrobat began his performance of walking on a rope and
jumping through rings, high up in the air. Then these hounds suddenly
lifted themselves erect, and, fixing their sharp eyes on that little red
and blue speck of a man suspended in the air, set up a loud, long,
unearthly howl, which all the other dogs took up, and for a few minutes
the sounds shook the whole palace, like the roar of all the wild beasts of
the forest.

By and by four o'clock came, and the owners of the dogs came in to take
them home. How glad they were to see them! They jumped up, rolled about,
licked their keepers' hands and faces, whining and yelping for joy. One
dog, who had not been sent for, was jealous to see his neighbor petted. He
growled at every loving caress, and sat snarling in his corner,
discontented and sour, till he saw his own master, when he broke into a
howl of intense delight and tugged furiously at his chain.

[Illustration: A PAIR OF SPANIELS.]

When the big hampers were brought to confine the dangerous ones, and the
collars and chains were being unfastened, what a rollicking, rushing time
it was! The glad creatures jumped and galloped all the way to the station.

The train was full of dogs--they were everywhere. Eager to be off, they
were hurrying up and down the platform, dancing about the ticket offices,
racing over trunks, for all the world like boys let out of boarding-school
going home for the holidays.

We saw their impatient faces pushing out of every car-window, their tails
wagging out of every door.

A gentleman in our carriage had two little mites of terriers in his
overcoat pockets. One, he said, was a Skye, and the other a Yorkshire,
terrier. Little Skye was tired and sleepy, and showed just the tip of his
nose and one ear above the pocket; but little Yorkshire was perfectly wild
with fun. He had on a small brown blanket, bound with scarlet braid, which
his master said was his new Ulster coat.

He began his pranks by putting his nose in Charley's pockets, looking for
a shilling. Not finding one, the gentleman sent him into his own coat
pocket, whence, after burrowing and tugging for a while, out he came, with
a coin between his teeth, which he held tight and would no