their doings and their ways. And if, in many cases, they
were small and insignificant, with short legs like the Dachs, or,
perhaps, the Aberdeen, implicit trust was placed in their fidelity as
guardians of the home and family. Of course there were bigger fellows to
fulfil the heavier duties, like the huge Kitmer, the dog of the Seven
Sleepers, whom God allowed once to speak, and to answer for himself and
others for all time. "I love those," he said--"I love those who are dear
unto God: go to sleep, therefore, and I will guard you."

That was sufficient, surely. Then, too, there was Anubis, who was given a
dog's head and a man's body: he was worshipped as a deity and the genius
of the Nile, who had ordered the rising of the great river at the proper
season from the beginning of the world, and whose doings in this way were
marked by the coming of the Dog-star, with seventy times more power than
the sun--the brightest of all in the purple dome of the night.

An animal such as the dog, even if dumb, which in justice he could
scarcely be thought, was thus judged entitled to a consideration never
vouchsafed to others, and duly received it, therefore, at all times in
this enlightened land. And not only in the fleeting years of his
existence, but equally when he lay down under the common hand of death.
The dog, in those forgotten days, received embalmment, just as his master
and mistress, and was then carried with some solemnity to the
burial-ground that was set apart for dogs in every town. And when the
last good-bye had been said, the family to which he had belonged returned
again to their house, and put on mourning for their friend and faithful
guardian, shaving their heads, and abstaining for a time from food. So
was it with dogs all those thousands of years ago. We have not come so
very far since then.

Murphy was not told many of these latter things, though obscurantism is
always to be utterly condemned. It was thought better that he should not
know them, or other darker facts to do with modern scientific times, lest
by chance they give rise to strange and unorthodox reflections in a brain
so active as his.

When the day came for Dan's best friend--she called him "Best of all"--to
set out on a journey, to see the last of him, Murphy and his master,
being left alone, turned naturally in their talk to the place where Dan
was to be laid, as also to the doings of many other dogs who had lived
and loved and had had the sup