to light on the picture of a very peculiar-looking dog.

"Yes, it's a queer picture of a queer dog. The drawing is bad enough, and
never pleased me!" And Landseer picked up the picture and gave it a toss
out of the window. "You may have it if you care to go get it," he
carelessly remarked to the visitor. Smith made haste to run downstairs
and out of the house to secure his prize. He found it lodged in the
branches of a tree.

In telling the tale years afterward, Smith remarked that, whereas many
men had climbed trees to evade dogs, yet he alone of all men had once
climbed a tree to secure one.

Sir Walter Scott saw Landseer's picture of "The Cat's Paw," and was so
charmed with it that he hunted out the young artist, and soon after
invited him to Abbotsford.

Leslie, the American artist, was at that time at Scott's home painting
the novelist's portrait. This portrait, by the way, became the property
of the Ticknor family of Boston, and was exhibited a few years ago at the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Landseer, Leslie and Scott made a choice trio of congenial spirits. They
were all "outdoor men," strong, sturdy, good-natured, and fond of boyish
romp and frolic. Many were the long tramps they took across mountain,
heath and heather. They visited the Highland district together, fished in
Loch Lomond, paddled the entire length of Loch Katrine, and hunted deer
on the preserve of Lord Gwydr.

On one hunting excursion, Landseer was stationed on a runway, gun in