* a * * A GOLFING SPANIEL.
A spaniel of mine usually accompanies me to the golf links,
and seems to have a very fair idea of the game—knows the order of the holes and never touches the ball, though he likes on occasion to run up and look at it, as if he wanted to see if it was lying well. On my latest visit my opponent lost his ball. We were just giving up the search when the spaniel, whom we had forgotten, ran up to me, and jumped up, and something unusual in his manner struck me. So I bade him, "go seek." He trotted straight to a juniper bush, pulled out the ball and brought it. He was straying in front of us when we drove, and must, I think, have seen the ball go into the bush. I have no doubt at all that he came up to me solely to ask leave to find and fetch the ball. The ordinary spaniel's ability is surpassed by the groundsman's spaniel, which wades inch by inch into a pond on the links and retrieves 'an infinite number of balls, distinguishing them wholly 'by touch.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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