t rose garden and equally dormant grape arbour. Through
this we came to the big wire corrals in which were kept the dogs. Here I
met old Ben.

Old Ben was not very old; but he was different from young Ben. He was a
pointer of the old-fashioned, stocky-built, enduring type common--and
serviceable--before our bench-show experts began to breed for speed,
fineness, small size--and lack of stamina. Ben proved in the event to be
a good all-round dog. He combined the attributes of pointer, cocker
spaniel, and retriever. In other words, he would hunt quail in the
orthodox fashion; or he would rustle into the mesquite thorns for the
purpose of flushing them out to us; or he would swim anywhere any number
of times to bring out ducks. To be sure he occasionally got a little
mixed. At times he might try to flush quail in the open, instead of
standing them; or would attempt to retrieve some perfectly lively
specimens. Then Ben needed a licking; and generally got it. He lacked in
his work some of the finish and style of the dogs we used after grouse
in Michigan, but he was a good all-round dog for the work. Furthermore,
he was most pleasant personally.

Next door to him lived the dachshunds.

The dachshunds were a marvel, a nuisance, a bone of contention, an
anomaly, an accident, and a farce. They happened because somebody had
once given the hostess a pair of them. I do not believe she cared
particularly for them; but she is good natured, and the ranch is large,
and they are rather amusing. At the time of my first visit the original
pair had multiplied. Gazing on that yardful of imbecile-looking canines,
my admiration for Noah's wisdom increased; he certainly needed no more
than a pair to restock the earth. Redmond claimed there were twenty-two
of them, though nobody else pretended to have been able to disentangle
them enough for a census. They were all light brown in colour; and the
aggregation reminded me of a rather disentangled bunch of angle-worms.
They lived in a large enclosure; and emerged therefrom only under
supervision, for they considered chickens and young pigs their especial
prey. The Captain looked upon them with exasperated tolerance; Redmond
with affection; the hostess, I think, with a good deal of the
partisanship inspired not so much by liking as by the necessity of
defending them against ridicule; and the rest of the world with amused
expectation as to what they would do next. The Captain was continually
utteri