ed to the floor by the
courageous mastiff was roaring for assistance. It was found to be the
valet, who little expected such a reception. He tried to apologize for
his intrusion, and to make the reasons which led him to take this step
appear plausible; but the importunity of the dog, the time, the place,
the manner of the valet, all raised the suspicions of his master, and he
determined to refer the investigation of the business to a magistrate.
The Italian at length confessed that it was his intention to murder his
master and then rob the house. This he would surely have done, had it
not been for the great wisdom of the dog and his wonderful friendship
for a master who had never treated him with the kindness that he should
have done.

[Illustration]

XXXV

A FAITHFUL COMPANION

A gardener, in removing some rubbish one day, found two ground toads of
uncommon size, weighing no less than seven pounds. While he was watching
them, he was surprised to see that one of them got upon the back of the
other, and then both moved slowly over the ground toward a place of
retreat. Upon further examination he found that the one on the back of
the other had been badly wounded by a blow from his spade, and was thus
unable to get back to its home without the help of its friend.

[Illustration]

XXXVI

ELEPHANT ROPE DANCING

The ease with which the elephant is taught to perform the most difficult
feats forms a remarkable contrast to its huge size and clumsiness.
Aristotle tells us that in ancient times elephants were taught by their
keepers to throw stones at a mark, to cast up arms in the air, and catch
them again on their fall; and to dance, not merely on the earth, but on
the rope. The first, according to the historian Suetonius, who exhibited
elephant rope dancers, was Galba at Rome. The manner of teaching them to
dance on the ground was simple enough (simply music and a very hot
floor); but we are not told how they were taught to skip the rope, or
whether it was the tight or the slack rope, or how high the rope was.
The silence of history on these points is fortunate for the dancers of
the present day; since, but for this, their fame might have been utterly
eclipsed. Elephants may, in the days of old Rome, have been taught to
dance on a rope, but when was an elephant ever known to skip on a rope
over the heads of an audience, or to caper amidst a blaze of fire fifty
feet aloft in the air? What would Aristot