on, and
reached home; but to their surprise and disappointment the hitherto
faithful messenger did not return during the day. It afterwards
appeared that he had gone to the place where the shilling was
deposited, but the stone being too large for his strength to remove,
he had stayed howling at the place till two horsemen riding by, and
attracted by his seeming distress, stopped to look at him, when one of
them alighting, removed the stone, and seeing the shilling, put it
into his pocket, not at the time conceiving it to be the object of the
dog's search. The dog followed their horses for twenty miles, remained
undisturbed in the room where they supped, followed the chambermaid
into the bedchamber, and secreted himself under one of the beds. The
possessor of the shilling hung his trousers upon a nail by the
bed-side; but when the travellers were both asleep, the dog took them
in his mouth, and leaping out of the window, which was left open on
account of the sultry heat, reached the house of his master at four
o'clock in the morning with the prize he had made free with, in the
pocket of which were found a watch and money, that were returned upon
being advertised, when the whole mystery was mutually unravelled, to
the admiration of all the parties.[I]

Many years ago, I saw a horse belonging to a quartermaster in the 1st
Dragoon Guards, when the regiment was quartered at Ipswich, find a
shilling, which was covered with sawdust, in the riding-school at the
Cavalry Barracks at that place, and give it to his owner. I thought
this a wonderful instance of sagacity as well as docility, but how
very far does this fall short of the intellectual faculty of dogs! I
do not intend to assert that they are endowed with mental powers equal
to those which the human race possess, but to contend that there is
not a faculty of the human mind of which some evident proofs of its
existence may not be found in dogs. Thus we find them possessed of
memory, imagination, the powers of imitation, curiosity, cunning,
revenge, ingenuity, gratitude, devotion, or affection, and other
qualities. They are able to communicate their wants, their pleasures,
and their pains, their apprehensions of danger, and their prospects of
future good, by modulating their voices accordingly, and by
significant gestures. They perfectly comprehend our wishes, and live
with us as friends and companions. When the fear of man and dread of
him were inflicted as a curse on th