CANINE AND FELINE INSTINCT.
[To THIS EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOIC] have seen several stories about dogs lately in the news- papers, which makes me think I might tell a story of a dog we once had.
Two of my brothers bad to come home at two o'clock to dinner. one day a pretty little reddish-brown lady-dog followed them Come, and got a small share of their dinner. For two or three days it did the same. By-and-by the little creature, thinking it 'bad found a comfortable home, took up its abode altogether with 'us. It became a great favourite, and it got the name of " Beauty." It used to walk out with my brothers. One day two Irish labourers stopped and said, "That is our dog ; where did you get it?" My brothers said it had followed them home of its own accord, and they had got fond of it and kept it. The men said they must have it again, so the poor brute was carried away. Two -days erten that it came back, with a string about its neck by which it had been tied up somewhere. It bad pups soon after. Unluckily, one day it was seen again by the Irishmen. They took it away, and sent it to a friend in a sailing-vessel to Aber- deen, thinking it was sure to stay there. In about six weeks after, poor little " Beauty " appeared again at our house in Dundee, worn almost to a skeleton. She must have walked all the way from Aberdeen (I believe, fully eighty miles). One of her pups was lying on the rug at the dining-room fire when she came in, and it ran and got a bone and laid it down beside its mother, as much as to say, " You look very hungry, there is something for you to eat." Poor " Beauty " got leave to remain with us after that. Much about the same time we had a large, beautiful cat, who could also have told a long story of his travels, if he had had speech. We lived in a house where there was a garden, and where puss could run out and in when he chose ; but afterwards we removed to what is called a " flat " in Scotland, the servant got ill-natured with the poor cat, and was very unkind to it, so it was decided that it must be sent to some one who had a garden and at a good distance ; it was carried away in a basket, so that it might be kept in the dark about its new home, till it was delivered over to its new mistress. My brothers went out to the house (about two miles away) to see how it was getting on ; puss had disappeared two days after it had been taken there. About three months after that, we were sitting in the dining- room one night, when one of my brothers called out, "I hear my pussy !" We all laughed and thought it was fancy, but he went and listened in the lobby and heard the mew so well known ; he found puss at a window in one of the bedrooms. It, also, was worn to a skeleton. After that the servant behaved well to the poor beast, and it soon got fat and comfortable. IVhat a pity these two could not tell their adventures !—I am, Sir, &c.,
M. B.
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