t the end of a day or two, he is compelled to form new
bonds, and he sets about the task in an exceedingly human way. I dwell
in a town where dogs abound and where the frequent coming and going of
the people puts many of the creatures astray. Perhaps as often as once a
week, almost always late in the evening, one of these unhappy lost ones
seeks to make friends with me. His advances toward this end always begin
by his dogging my footsteps at a little distance. If I do not repulse
him he will come nearer until he has made sure of my attention. A
friendly word will bring him to my hand; but his behavior is never
effusive, as it would be if he had found his rightful owner, but mildly
propitiative and with a touch of sadness. There is, it seems to me, no
other feature in the life of the dog which tells so much as to his moral
nature as his conduct under these unhappy circumstances.

[Illustration: Poodles]

In the long catalogue of human qualities which characterize our
thoroughly domesticated dogs, we must not fail to take account of
their sense of property. In this the creature differs from all other
of our domesticated animals. It is a common characteristic of mammals,
both in their wild and tame state, that they feel a motive of
ownership in the food which they have captured or in the den which
they have made their lair; but beyond these narrow personal limits we
see no evidence of any sense of ownership in land or effects. We
readily observe, however, that our household dogs not only know the
chattels of their master and distinguish them from those of other
people, but they also learn to recognize the bounds of their house-lot
or even of a considerable farm. When a dog, even of a militant
quality, enters on territory which he does not feel to belong to him,
he is at once a very different creature as compared to his condition
when he is on his own land. He treads warily and will accept without
dispute an order to take himself off. A perception of this sort
indicates an extraordinary amount of sympathy and discernment. It
requires us to assume that the creature has a good sense of topography
and that he observes closely the various acts, none of them perhaps
very indicative, which go to show the limits of his master's claims.

Although the mental qualities of our highly domesticated dogs are
singularly like those of their masters, the likeness going to the
point that the household pet is apt to have acquired something