sang, 'Oh, the
merry-go-round, the merry-go-round, we'll--dance--till--day--'"

Nurse looked, and saw that little Ellie was fast asleep.

A WISE DOG.

Many anecdotes have been published respecting dogs, proving that,
besides giving evidence of being endowed with certain moral qualities,
they possess and exercise memory, reasoning powers, and forethought;
they can communicate with each other, form plans, and act in concert.
The subject, however, is by no means exhausted, and dog stories almost
always meet with a welcome reception, especially from juvenile readers.

The following story gives an instance, in the first place, of two dogs
combining to perform a certain action; in the second place, it shows
that one of these dogs evidently understood from the conversation of his
master and another man the consequences likely to result from this
action, and that he thereupon formed and carried out a plan to avoid
them.

[Illustration: COME OUT AND HAVE SOME FUN.]

A farmer who resided in a town on the borders of Dartmoor was the owner
of a valuable sheep-dog. So skillful was this dog in collecting and
driving the sheep, that he almost performed the part of a shepherd. If
the farmer, on his return from market, wanted the sheep to be driven to
the field, he had only to say, "Keeper, take the sheep to field," and
the dog would collect the flock and drive them to the field without
suffering a single one to stray. But the proverb, "Evil communications
corrupt good manners," is as applicable to dogs as to men. Keeper got
acquainted with another dog, which proved to be of disreputable
character, and like other disreputable characters, had a habit of
rambling about at night. When the farmer was smoking his evening pipe by
the kitchen fire, and Keeper was stretched along the hearth, apparently
asleep, a low bark would be heard outside; Keeper would prick up his
ears, and when the door was opened, would make his escape and join his
companion, and then away would go both dogs on a ramble.

This game was carried on for some little time; Keeper's bad habits were
not suspected at home, and he did his duty by his master's sheep as
faithfully as ever. In the mean time it became known in the town that a
few miles distant many sheep had been "worried" by dogs, but as yet the
culprit or culprits had not been discovered. It may, perhaps, be as well
to explain that by "worrying" sheep is meant that they have been
attacked by dogs,