can know him without loving him. He is as regularly inquired after as
any other member of the family; for who that has ever known Rover can
forget him? He has an instinctive perception of his master's friends, to
whom he metes out his caresses in the proportion of their attachment to
the chief object of his affections. When I return from an absence, or
when he meets an old friend of mine, or of his own (which is the same
thing to him) his ecstacy is unbounded; he tears and curvets about the
room as if mad; and if out of doors, he makes the welkin ring with his
clear and joyous note. When he sees a young person in company he
immediately selects him for a play fellow. He fetches a stick, coaxes
him out of the house, drops it at his feet; then retiring backwards,
barking, plainly indicates his desire to have it thrown for him. He is
never tired of his work. Indeed, I fear poor fellow, that his teeth,
which already show signs of premature decay, have suffered from 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