AN ITALIAN DOG.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.i
Sin,—Have you room for one more dog-story which resembles one lately reported in a French journal ? A few years since I was sitting inside the door of a shop to escape from the rain while waiting for a trap to take me to the railway-station in the old Etruscan city of Ferentino. Presently an ill-bred dog of the pointer kind came and sat down in front of me, looking up in my face, and wagging his tail to attract my attention. " What does that dog want ?" I asked of a bystander. " Signore," he answered, "he wants you to give him a soldo to go and buy you a cigar with." I gave the dog the coin, and he presently returned bringing a cigar, which he held crossways in his month until I took it from him. Sent again and again, he brought me three or four more cigars from the tobacco-shop. At length the dog's demeanour changed, and he gave vent to his impatience by two or three low whines. " What does he want now P" I asked. " He wants you to give him two soldi to go to the baker's and buy bread for himself." I gave him a two-soldo piece, and in a few minutes the dog returned with a small loaf of bread which he laid at my feet, at the same time gazing wistfully in my face. "He won't take it until you give him leave," said another bystander. I gave the requisite permission, and the dear animal seized the loaf and disappeared with it in his month, and did not again make his appearance before I left the city. " He always dues like this," said the standers-by, " whenever be sees a stranger in Ferentino."—I am, Sir, &c.,
Cairo, January 19th. GREVILLE I. CHESTER.
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