A RUSE DOG.
I To THE EDITOR OF THE " BPECTATOE 'SIR,-A story which came to my knowledge a few months ago may be of interest in connection with the Spectator's series of -anecdotes illustrating the intelligence of animals.
• One summer afternoon a groupof children were playing at -the end of a pier which projects into Lake Ontario, near Kingston, New York, U.S.A. The proverbial careless child of the party made the proverbial backward step off from the pier into the water. None of his companions could save him, and -their cries had brought no one from the shore, when, just SH hewas sinking for the third time, a superb Newfoundland dog rushed down the pier into the water, and pulled the boy out. -Those of the children who did not accompany the boy home took the dog to a confectioner's on the shore, and fed him with as great a variety of cakes and other sweets as he would eat. So far the story is, of course, only typical of scores of wellknown cases. The individuality of this case is left for the -sequel.
The next afternoon, the same group of children were playing at the same place, when the canine hero of the day before came
trotting down to them with the most friendly wags and nods. There being no occasion this time for supplying him with delicacies, the children only stroked and patted him. The dog, however, had not come out of pure sociability. A child in the water and cakes and candy stood to him in the close and obvious relation of cause and effect, and if this relation was not clear to the children, he resolved to impress it upon them. Watching his chance, he crept up behind the child who was standing nearest to the edge of the pier, gave a sudden push, which sent him into the water, then sprang in after him, and gravely brought him to shore.
To those of us who have had a high respect for the disinterestedness of dogs, this story may give a melancholy proof that the development of the intelligence, at the expense of the moral nature, is by no means exclusively human.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Oxford, March 17th. CLARA FRENCH.
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