DOG STORIES FROM PUNCH. Illustrated by George Morrow. (Clement Ingleby.
5s. net.)—The proud amateur who owns a dog is too much inclined to concentrate on his own possession, and, when he has paid for the licence, to lack charity and look on all other dogs with a resentful or belittling eye. This book will broaden his mind. Distinguished contri- butors to Punch, including Messrs. E. V. Lucas, A. A. Milne, E. V. Knox and R. C. Lehmann, have put their heads together for our delight. The open-minded reader of these stories will take his walks with renewed interest, for that aged thoroughbred at the corner, with the rather military bearing, may be the demobilized Matilda, and that desolate-looking mongrel strolling down the village street, on a half-holiday when the butcher's shop is closed, may be the original Towser or the real Bingo. It will be quickly noticed that humorists have little time for the aristocrat lapdog, the superb and self-conceited tenant of embroidered cushions. Humour is, in fact, demo- cratic, and its practitioners prefer to help the lame dog, in every sense, over the stile. Who has not met on Hampstead Heath those strange mongrels, the Pomerolloe, the Yorkinese, the Spahnation and the Airedoodle ? There are real live dogs —love-pups all of them, clever, joyous and spontaneous ! Their friendliness and fun are at the disposal of the lonely man, for an afternoon's adoption. One has only to make an occa- sional remark or throw an odd stick or stone. At the end of the afternoon one is not expected to supply a dinner and drinks, the little companion will run off with a knowing shake of the head, the glance of a friendly eye and a wag of a ridicu- lous tail.
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