'Keeper of the Keys,' and
forthwith invested with all the rights of office. Nor was this
confidence misplaced. He would never give up his charge to any one but
to my uncle or myself; and always seemed fully sensible of the dignity
and responsibility of his new position."

Tolfrey gives, in his "Sportsman in France," so beautiful an instance
of a setter's untutored intelligence leading him to see the advantage
of placing running birds between himself and the gun, that I will
relate it.

"On gaining some high ground, the dog drew and stood. She was walked
up to, but to my astonishment we found no birds. She was encouraged,
and with great difficulty coaxed off her point. She kept drawing on,
but with the same ill success.

"I must confess I was for the moment sorely puzzled; but knowing the
excellence of the animal, I let her alone. She kept drawing on for
nearly a hundred yards--still no birds. At last, of her own accord,
and with a degree of instinct amounting almost to the faculty of
reason, she broke from her point, and dashing off to the right made a
_detour_, and was presently straight before me, some three hundred
yards off, setting the game whatever it might be, as much as to say,
'I'll be ---- if you escape me this time.' We walked steadily on; and
when within about thirty yards of her, up got a covey of red-legged
partridges, and we had the good fortune to kill a brace each.

"It is one of the characteristics of these birds to run for an amazing
distance before they take wing; but the sagacity of my faithful dog
baffled all their efforts to escape. We fell in with several coveys of
these birds during the day, and my dog ever after gave them the
double, and kept them between the gun and herself."

[Illustration]

[Illustration: THE COMFORTER, OR LAP-DOG PUG.]

THE PUG DOG.

"My pug makes a bad pet; he is useless in the field, is somewhat
snappish, has little sagacity, and is very cowardly: but there is
an air of _bon ton_ about him which renders him a fashionable
appendage to a fine lady."--_Parisian Gossip._

Pugs came into fashion, and probably first into this country, in the
early part of the reign of William the Third, and were then called
Dutch pugs. At that time they were generally decorated with orange
ribbons, and were in great request amongst the courtiers, from the
king being very partial to them.

It is difficult to say how this partiality arose, though it may
perha