whatever, and I was now getting quite used to the celerity
with which she worked. The only difficulties were in connexion with 10
x 3 and 10 x 4, where she would constantly make a slip, for then the
left paw came into action, and her consciousness was not yet
sufficiently concentrated on that left paw. Dogs and horses must, I
imagine, have a most splendid faculty for visualizing figures--to judge
from the rapidity with which they work.

It took us nine days to accomplish the multiplication table from two to
ten, keeping up, of course, a repetition of what had already been
learnt. This great speed is another point that often gives rise to
doubts, yet it is found to be equally the case with all animals who are
taught: I cannot account for it--I can merely say that it is so. I have
thought at times that the reason may lie in the fact that dogs and
horses have but a short span of life in comparison to man's, and
therefore, a briefer period of youth wherein to acquire their stock of
learning; that this might account for an animal being quicker than a
child, which has ampler time and seems to need it all in order to lay a
thorough foundation, since the multitude of subsequent impressions
would otherwise swamp all our earliest rudimentary learning.

Lola answered splendidly. It now happened at times that I myself made
mistakes and believing the fault to be hers, have said: "That is
wrong!" But she was not to be put out, and stuck to her reply. Then, on
going over it I would find that she was right after all!

I often put my question thus: "7 x 4 = ?" and the reply would be--left
paw 2, right paw 8: then: "9 x 3 = ?" Answer: left paw 2, right paw 7;
and again, "6 x 6 = ?" Answer: left paw 3, right paw 6. How accurate a
test this was might be gathered from the sure and quiet way in which
she tapped the palm of my hand, first with her left paw three times,
and then with the right, six. I held my hand quite flat, slantingly and
immovable--there was nothing about it that could convey any sort of
sign to her, otherwise she would not sometimes have rapped either less
or more than I expected, as has happened both in her spelling and at
her sums.

My thoughts now turned to the business of spelling and the replies to
be here obtained. A total of figures from 1-40 would suffice in order
to give expression to all the letters, while the same degree of
comprehension of my spoken word was all I required. Then I began to
tell Lola some fo