Page:The power of the dog.djvu/100



TAUNCHEST of the staunch, the will fight to the death in the service of one he loves. Although of high courage he is not necessarily a seeker after quarrels with others of his kind, but when he has entered upon one he follows the advice of Polonius, so bearing himself that the opposed may beware of him. There is a story related of a Dalmatian whose duty it was to follow his master's carriage to the station every morning. At a certain house on the road was a surly retriever, who constantly made the unhappy creature lament that he was ever born a dog, what time his owner cursed his pusillanimity. One day this gentleman confided his trouble to a friend who kept a bull terrier. "We will soon settle the retriever," was the reply, and next morning the terrier, with artistic black spots dotted about his body, made the journey instead of the Dalmatian, and gave the bully such a bad quarter of an hour that for ever after he held his peace.