om the
diversion. But though Rover has a soul for fun, yet he is a game dog
too. There is not a better cocker in England. In fact he delights in
sport of every kind, and if he cannot have it with me, he will have it
on his own account. He frequently decoys the greyhounds out and finds
hares for them. Indeed he has done me some injury in this way, for if he
can find a pointer loose, he will, if possible, seduce him from his
duty, and take him off upon some lawless excursion; and it is not till
after an hour's whistling and hallooing that I see the truants sneaking
round to the back door, panting and smoking, with their tails knitted up
between their legs, and their long dripping tongues depending from their
watery mouths--_he_ the most bare-faced caitiff of the whole. In
general, however, he will have nothing to say to the canine species, for
notwithstanding the classification of Buffon, he considers he has a
prescriptive right to associate with man. He is, in fact, rather cross
with other dogs; but with children he is quite at home, doubtless
reckoning himself about on a level with them in the scale of rational
beings. Every boy in the village knows his name, and I often catch him
in the street with a posse of little, dirty urchins playing around him.
But he is not quite satisfied with this kind of company; for, if taking
a walk with any of the family, he will only just acknowledge his
plebeian play-fellow with a simple shake of the tail, equivalent to the
distant nod which a patrician school-boy bestows on the town-boy
school-fellow whom he chances to meet when in company with his
aristocratical relations. The only approach to bad feeling that I ever
discovered in Rover is a slight disposition to jealousy; but this in him
is more a virtue than a vice; for it springs entirely from affection,
and has nothing mean or malicious in it, one instance will suffice to
show how he expresses this feeling. One day a little stray dog attached
himself to me and followed me home; I took him into the house and had
him fed, intending to keep him until I could discover the owner. For
this act of kindness the dog expressed thanks in the usual way. Rover,
although used to play the truant, from the moment the little stranger
entered the premises, never quitted us till he saw him fairly off. His
manner towards us became more ingratiating than usual, and he seemed
desirous, by his assiduities and attentions, to show us, that we stood
in need