wk), near the house in Bruno's
presence, and then start off on a tramp accompanied by the blacks.

After we had gone a few miles I would suddenly call a halt, and pretend
to my companions that I had forgotten something. Then I would order
Bruno to go back and fetch it, with many mysterious whisperings. The
dear, sagacious brute always understood what I wanted him to do, and in
the course of perhaps an hour or two he would come and lay the article at
my feet, and accept the flattering adulation of my black companions with
the utmost calmness and indifference. Bruno never forgot what was
required of him when we encountered a new tribe of blacks. He would
always look to me for his cue, and when he saw me commence my acrobatic
feats, he too would go through his little repertoire, barking and
tumbling and rolling about with wonderful energy.

His quaint little ways had so endeared him to me that I could not bear to
think of anything happening to him. On one occasion, when going through
a burning, sandy desert, both he and I suffered terribly from the hot,
loose sand which poured between our toes and caused us great suffering.
Poor Bruno protested in the only way he could, which was by stopping from
time to time and giving vent to the most mournful howls. Besides, I
could tell from the gingerly way he put his feet down that the burning
sand would soon make it impossible for him to go any farther. I
therefore made him a set of moccasins out of kangaroo skin, and tied them
on his feet. These he always wore afterwards when traversing similar
deserts, and eventually he became so accustomed to them that as soon as
we reached the sand he would come to me and put up his paws appealingly
to have his "boots" put on!

But now age began to tell upon him; he was getting stiff in his limbs,
and seldom accompanied me on hunting expeditions. He seemed only to want
to sleep and drowse away the day. He had been a splendid kangaroo
hunter, and took quite an extraordinary amount of pleasure in this
pursuit. He would run down the biggest kangaroo and "bail him up"
unerringly under a tree; and whenever the doomed animal tried to get away
Bruno would immediately go for his tail, and compel him to stand at bay
once more until I came up to give the _coup de grace_. Of course, Bruno
received a nasty kick sometimes and occasionally a bite from a snake,
poisonous and otherwise. He was not a young dog when I had him first;
and I had now m