edly replied to this with a cipher. 'But, suppose you divided
your sugar with me, how many lumps would you give me?' Lyda took up the
figure five and politely presented it to her master."

"Wasn't she smart? Sanch can't do that," exclaimed Ben, forced to own
that the French doggie beat his cherished pet.

"He is not too old to learn. Shall I go on?" asked Miss Celia, seeing
that the boys liked it, though Betty was absorbed with the doll, and Bab
deep in a puzzle.

"Oh, yes! What else did they do?"

"They played a game of dominoes together, sitting in chairs opposite
each other, and touched the dominoes that were wanted; but the man
placed them and kept telling how the game went. Lyda was beaten, and hid
under the sofa, evidently feeling very badly about it. Blanche was then
surrounded with playing-cards, while her master held another pack and
told us to choose a card; then he asked her what one had been chosen,
and she always took up the right one in her teeth. I was asked to go
into another room, put a light on the floor with cards round it, and
leave the doors nearly shut. Then the man begged some one to whisper in
the dog's ear what card she was to bring, and she went at once and
fetched it, thus showing that she understood their names. Lyda did many
tricks with the numbers, so curious that no dog could possibly
understand them; yet what the secret sign was I could not discover, but
suppose it must have been in the tones of the master's voice, for he
certainly made none with either head or hands.

"It took an hour a day for eighteen months to educate a dog enough to
appear in public, and (as you say, Ben) the night was the best time to
give the lessons. Soon after this visit, the master died; and these
wonderful dogs were sold because their mistress did not know how to
exhibit them."

"Wouldn't I have liked to see 'em and find out how they were taught!
Sanch, you'll have to study up lively, for I'm not going to have you
beaten by French dogs," said Ben, shaking his finger so sternly that
Sancho grovelled at his feet and put both paws over his eyes in the most
abject manner.

"Is there a picture of those smart little poodles?" asked Ben, eying the
book, which Miss Celia left open before her.

"Not of them, but of other interesting creatures; also anecdotes about
horses, which will please you, I know," and she turned the pages for
him, neither guessing how much good Mr. Hamerton's charming "Chapters
on Anim