The Red Book Of Animal Stories - online children's book

Stories of Animals, Fantastic and Mundane, Edited By Andrew Lang

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276 TWO BIG DOGS AND A LITTLE ONE
years ago, to a Mr. Mclntyre in Edinburgh, that have nothing to do either with water or sheep.
This Newfoundland, whose name was Dandie, could pick out his own master's hat from any number of others, and his knife from a heap on the floor. He could even, we are told, detect among a pack, thrown carelessly down, the card chosen by his master. On one occasion he picked up a shilling that had been accidentally dropped by a gentleman present, and concealed it in his mouth, sitting quietly in a corner all the time, and paying no attention to what was going on. At last, when the whole room had been searched, his master said, ' Dandie, find me that shilling, and I will give you a biscuit,' and Dandie jumped straight upon the table, and laid the shilling in front of the owner. Like the dog in the ' Arabian Nights ' (only that dog really was a man), Dandie could go out and do his own shopping. His friends, who were many, used to allow him a penny a day, and he took the money regularly to a baker's shop, and bought bread for himself. One day the penny was forgotten by one of these gentlemen, and when Dandie went up to him in the street, he was obliged to confess it. ' But come to me when I go back,' he said,' and you shall have it.' Some hours after, he heard a great noise at his door, and sent to see what was the matter. It was Dandie, come for his penny. In order to find out what the dog would do, the gentleman gave him a bad one. This the ' Arabian Nights' dog would have found out at once ; but people had always behaved well to Dandie, and he was too polite to suspect anything wrong. He went off with his penny to the baker, who refused, of course, to give him the bread. Upon this, Dandie returned to the house he had come from, knocked at the door again, and, when it was opened, laid the penny at the gentleman's feet, with a look that told of the contempt that was passing in his mind. From that day he never took the slightest notice of the man who had made fun of him.
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