s gave him such an innocent
pleasure that very soon his notions of honour, duty and so on, were
entirely forgotten, and his jealousy lulled asleep.

One day he tried taking with him the stereoscope and a pack of cards.

But though his Silvia was affectionate and amiable enough to let him put
the stereoscope over her muzzle, yet she would not look through it, but
kept turning her head to lick his hand, and it was plain to him that now
she had quite forgotten the use of the instrument. It was the same too
with the cards. For with them she was pleased enough, but only
delighting to bite at them, and flip them about with her paws, and never
considering for a moment whether they were diamonds or clubs, or hearts,
or spades or whether the card was an ace or not. So it was evident that
she had forgotten the nature of cards too.

Thereafter he only brought them things which she could better enjoy,
that is sugar, grapes, raisins, and butcher's meat.

By-and-bye, as the summer wore on, the cubs came to know him, and he
them, so that he was able to tell them easily apart, and then he
christened them. For this purpose he brought a little bowl of water,
sprinkled them as if in baptism and told them he was their godfather and
gave each of them a name, calling them Sorel, Kasper, Selwyn, Esther,
and Angelica.

Sorel was a clumsy little beast of a cheery and indeed puppyish
disposition; Kasper was fierce, the largest of the five, even in his
play he would always bite, and gave his godfather many a sharp nip as
time went on. Esther was of a dark complexion, a true brunette and very
sturdy; Angelica the brightest red and the most exactly like her mother;
while Selwyn was the smallest cub, of a very prying, inquisitive and
cunning temper, but delicate and undersized.

Thus Mr. Tebrick had a whole family now to occupy him, and, indeed, came
to love them with very much of a father's love and partiality.

His favourite was Angelica (who reminded him so much of her mother in
her pretty ways) because of a gentleness which was lacking in the
others, even in their play. After her in his affections came Selwyn,
whom he soon saw was the most intelligent of the whole litter. Indeed he
was so much more quick-witted than the rest that Mr. Tebrick was led
into speculating as to whether he had not inherited something of the
human from his dam. Thus very early he learnt to know his name, and
would come when he was called, and what was stranger st