n than many who have borne those titles in the world
without challenge or demur from any of their own kind.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VI

THE ORDEAL OF THE RING

Finn's first winter was a mild one, and it passed without his
noticing anything remarkable in climatic conditions. But he was
aware of change when spring came. The Downs round Finn's home never
seemed to get really wet. The drainage of their chalky soil was
such that their surface could not hold much moisture, and outside
the Downs the world was as yet a closed book to Finn. But spring
asserted itself notably in his veins, and appeared to enter into a
partnership with his lusty youth, and wholesome, generous scale of
living, to speed the young Wolfhound's growth in wonderful style.
Long, slow trots along the Sussex highways and by-ways, behind the
bicycle of the Master or the Mistress, hardened Finn's round feet
without overstraining his young legs, for the reason that the pace
was always set with special reference to his capabilities in this
direction. Even in the winter nine-tenths of his waking hours were
spent in the open; yet so wise and constant was the supervision of
his life that he never knew what chill meant, and never lay on damp
ground, never missed a meal, and never suffered from the penalties
which attend overtaxed canine digestion, as surely as they attend
the same state in human beings.

[Illustration]

On the morning of his first birthday, Finn, with his sister
Kathleen and Tara and the Master, walked down to the little local
railway station and was weighed. He weighed 119 lbs., exactly 26
1/2 lbs. more than his sister, and thirteen pounds less than his
mother. With the standard pressed down upon his shoulder-bones he
stood within an eighth of an inch of thirty-five inches in height.
(The height of Wolfhounds is measured from the shoulder to the
ground, not from the head.) It must be remembered that although
some dogs reach their full development in one year from birth,
Irish Wolfhounds are not really fully developed before the end of
the second year, though they may be said to attain their full
height, and probably their full length, in about eighteen months.
After that, however, comes a good deal of what breeders call
"furnishing," which means filling out, general development of flesh
and muscle and coat, and an all-round hardening and "setting."
Chest and loin deepen and widen a good deal in the second year;
ribs, legs, jaws