ntimental. The hopelessness remained to be
proved; and, as to the sentimental part of the business, some one averred
that sentiment lay at the bottom of most things. It might be unpractical
from a philosophic point of view, as well as often fitting matter for a
jibe; but sentiment, all the same, was generally a source of strength!
Without it neither nation nor man would be likely to get far; it
reflected the noblest part of man's nature, and touched a nation at its
quick, if flags meant anything, and were to be followed and set store by.

There was quite a bandying of words over the matter. This dog was so
different to Dan. It was not a matter of argument, certainly not on
abstruse points. The dog had been broken in nerve, and admittedly by
ill-usage. Probably he had been nervous from the first, and there was
therefore all the less chance of his recovery.

To this was interposed the fact that many well-bred dogs are
constitutionally nervous, and continue to be so all their lives, their
condition in this respect being probably largely due to their brain
development and increased powers of imagination.

That might be the case, came the answer; but all the same--how about the
tail? The nervous organisation of this dog and his imagination had to do
with his brain, which his eyes showed to be capable of development. These
points had to do with the head. What about the other end? The index to a
dog's character, as well as to his immediate proceedings, lies, as we all
know, in his tail--the angle at which it is held, the way it moves or
remains stiff and immovable; its position before a fight, its twist to
one side when stalking, its confident carriage when the owner has "got
his tail up." All these are so many signals, generally recognised by man
and other dogs alike. Granting all this, what was to be said here? This
dog had now been several days in the house, and no one had apparently
seen his tail: it had been kept firmly down, and in such a way as to
suggest that had it been long enough it would have been well between his
legs.

At this, some one said that he had seen it once, and it was bushy; the
only effect of this remark being to elicit the rejoinder that "_then_ it
wanted pulling." Another averred that, of course, nothing could be hoped
for till he got his tail up: the job was how to set about securing so
essential a condition in the case of the tail of this particular dog. No
doubt the first thing to be done was t