The cunning little ways of the small red dog were learned later when I came to know him in the city of Buenos Ayres. Loitering at the waterside one day. I became aware of an animal of this kind following me, and no sooner did he catch my eye than he came up, wagging, wrig-ind grinning, smiling, so to speak, and I, thinking he had nds and touched by his appeal, allowed him to follow me through the streets to the house of relations where I was staying. I told them I intended keeping the outcast awhile to see what could be done' with him. My friends did not welcome him warmly, and they even made some disparaging remarks about little red dogs in general; but they gave him his dinner—a big plateful of meat—which he devoured greedily, and then, very much at home, he stretefed himself out on the hearthrug and went fast asleep. When he woke an hour later he jumped up and ran to the hall, and, finding the street-door closed, made a great row, howling and scratching at the panels. I hurried out and-opened the door, and out and off he went, without so much as a thank-you. He had found a fool and had succeeded in getting something out of him, and his business with me was ended. There was no hesitation; he was going straight home, and knew his way quite well.
Years afterwards it was a surprise to me to find that the little red dog was an inhabitant of London. There was no muzzling order then, inthe seventies, and quite a common sight was the independent dog, usually a cur, roaming the streets in search of stray' scraps of food. He shared the sparrows' broken bread; he turned over the rubbish bogy lett by the road-sweepers; he sniffed about areas, on the lookout for an open dust-bin; alk he flung persistently about the butcher's shop, where a jealous dye "was Kept on his movements." "These dogs doubtless had owners, who paid the yearly tax; but it fs probable that in most cases they found for themselves. _Probably, too, the adventurous life of the streets, where carrion was not too plentiful, had the effect of sharpening their wits. Here, at all events, I was witness of an action on the part of a small red dog which fairly astonished me; that confidence trick the little Argentine beast had practised on me was nothing to it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.