e
did, on the occasion of a kind-hearted but unsophisticated neighbor
buying him; and a few days ago I saw him exposed for sale by those two
Arcadians, in another neighborhood, having been bought and paid for half
a dozen times in this.

But, it will be asked, if the life of a Boys' Dog is so unhappy, why
do they enter upon such an unenviable situation, and why do they not
dissolve the partnership when it becomes unpleasant? I will confess that
I have been often puzzled by this question. For some time I could not
make up my mind whether their unholy alliance was the result of the
influence of the dog on the boy, or vice versa, and which was the
weakest and most impressible nature. I am satisfied now that, at first,
the dog is undoubtedly influenced by the boy, and, as it were, is led,
while yet a puppy, from the paths of canine rectitude by artful and
designing boys. As he grows older and more experienced in the ways of
his Bohemian friends, he becomes a willing decoy, and takes delight in
leading boyish innocence astray, in beguiling children to play truant,
and thus revenges his own degradation on the boy nature generally. It is
in this relation, and in regard to certain unhallowed practices I
have detected him in, that I deem it proper to expose to parents and
guardians the danger to which their offspring is exposed by the Boys'
Dog.

The Boys' Dog lays his plans artfully. He begins to influence the
youthful mind by suggestions of unrestrained freedom and frolic which he
offers in his own person. He will lie in wait at the garden gate for a
very small boy, and endeavor to lure him outside its sacred precincts,
by gambolling and jumping a little beyond the inclosure. He will set off
on an imaginary chase and run around the block in a perfectly frantic
manner, and then return, breathless, to his former position, with a look
as of one who would say, "There, you see how perfectly easy it's done!"
Should the unhappy infant find it difficult to resist the effect which
this glimpse of the area of freedom produces, and step beyond the gate,
from that moment he is utterly demoralized. The Boys' Dog owns him
body and soul. Straightway he is led by the deceitful brute into the
unhallowed circle of his Bohemian masters. Sometimes the unfortunate
boy, if he be very small, turns up eventually at the station-house as
a lost child. Whenever I meet a stray boy in the street looking utterly
bewildered and astonished, I generally fin