A TRUE "RETRIEVER."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:] Sin,—Your correspondent K. Clarke's account of "A Canine Guardian," in the Spectator of July 15th, has induced me to send you the following facts in regard to a collie dog possessed. by me a few years ago. On Christmas Saturday, 1888, my younger boy, who was then three years and four months old, wandered away from his nursemaid while shopping in the busiest street here. After a careful search, and a call at the police-station, the maid came home in great agitation. It is certain that the boy had no idea of direction even, notwith- standing which fact, he had to come a mile away to a side- street, to cross two streets of exceptional danger, and to pass through the busiest thoroughfare, unusually crowded in con- sequence of the presence in the town of the Maori Football Team. In less than forty minutes after being missed, the boy arrived home perfectly undisturbed ; but the arduous convoy- duty which the dog bad performed had worked him up to a pitch of strange excitement. For twelve months after this event, the dog evinced a previously unknown hatred of horses, engendered, doubtless, by the seeming danger they had offered him and his valuable charge on that memorable Saturday afternoon. Is it not strange, however, that his subsequent conduct towards men should have remained unchanged, although many must have actually obstructed his path, and not a few must have separated him occasionally from the boy? —I am, Sir, &ea
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