'
"And the old boss pats his head, fairly took in, and says, 'That's a
good dog, what a faithful honest fellow you be, you are worth your
weight in gold.'
"Well, the next time he goes off on a spree in the same quarter, what
does he see but a border dog strung up by the neck, who has been
seized and condemned as many an innocent fellow has been before him on
circumstantial evidence, and he laughs and says to himself, 'What
fools humans be, they don't know half as much as we dogs do.' So he
thinks it would be as well to shift his ground, where folks ain't on
the watch for sheep-stealers, and he makes a dash into a flock still
farther off.
"Them Newfoundlanders would puzzle the London detective police, I
believe they are the most knowin' coons in all creation, don't you?"
"Well, they are," sais I, "that's a fact, and they have all the same
passions and feelings we have, only they are more grateful than man
is, and you can by kindness lay one of them under an obligation he
will never forget as long as he lives, whereas an obligation scares a
man, for he snorts and stares at you like a horse at an engine, and is
e'en most sure to up heels and let you have it, like mad. The only
thing about dogs is, they can't bear rivals, they like to have all
attention paid to themselves exclusively. I will tell you a story I
had from a British colonel.
"He was stationed in Nova Scotia, with his regiment, when I was a
venden of clocks there.
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