CHAPTER II.

T would be tedious to enter further into the details of all that happened to me during the first few weeks which I spent in my new home, and yet they were the weeks which gave the whole colour to my future life. Ah! that was wise training that I received at the hand of my dear mistress; and well would it be for parents, and well would it be for the children themselves, if the rules by which my education was conducted could be introduced into the nursery as well as into the kennel.

Obedience is not pleasant to children, neither is it pleasant to puppies; but the learning to obey forms the good dog, and I am very much mistaken if the same lesson, well learned, does not tend more than anything else to make the good man and the good woman.

I was quick enough to perceive that there was neither harshness nor caprice in the training I was receiving. I soon found that my mistress never gave me an unnecessary order. But then an order once given, it was expected to be strictly obeyed. I knew, therefore, what I had to do; and as my mistress never deceived me, it was not long before I learned to place implicit reliance on her word, and to feel sure that everything she told me to do was in reality for my good, whether or not I could myself see at the time that it would be so.

One instance which I well remember will serve to illustrate my training.

Some weeks had passed away since my arrival in my new home, and I was now strong enough to take a short walk with my mistress, when one day as we were leaving the house, she said to me

'Now, Nep, we are going to take a walk to-day to a place where you have never been before, so you must keep quite close to mequite close-do you hear?'

Yes,' replied I; 'I hear.'

'That is right,' said my mistress, who by this time had come to understand my language as well as I understood hers. And now, Nep, I will tell you something more: I am going to

give you your first lesson in swimming, and I wonder how you will like that?'

My first lesson in swimming!' thought I. 'What does that mean?' And so not being able to give any reply to the question, like a wise dog I held my tongue, and only answered by nestling in very closely to the side of my mistress's feet.

'Come, come, Nep,' said my mistress, as she stooped down and patted me caressingly; 'do not be afraid, no harm will come to you. Do not be afraid, you little goose; come, run on, and do not bite my heels.'

It was easy to leave off biting her heels, but it was not so easy to shake off all sense of fear. Still I tried to do my best, and by the time we had reached a fine broad sheet of water, my spirits had revived, and I was gambolling backwards and forwards quite forgetful of the threatened lesson.

'Now, Nep, come here—come quickly,' said my mistress, in a tone of voice which I knew must be obeyed. My mistress was standing on the edge of the bank which overhung the lake. Anxious to please her, I bounded a few steps forward, but when I saw the glittering of the water, as the sun shone brightly on its ripples, my heart misgave me, and, starting 92

B

back frightened, I planted my front-paws firmly on the ground, and glancing up beseechingly in my mistress's face, I tried to look the request I did not dare to make, that she would not again ask me to come near to that strange, glittering, moving mass of water.

Nep! Nep! for shame! for shame!' exclaimed my mistress. 'What! a Newfoundland dog, and afraid of the water! Come, come, you must learn to get over such nonsense as this. Now, Nep, jump in and bring me back this stick.' And suiting the action to the word, she threw a stick into the middle of the pond.

Instantly I bounded forward, an instinct within me telling me I could easily fetch it out if only I would jump boldly into the water and try. But somehow, no sooner did I reach the edge of the pond than all my old terror came over me, and I stood trembling, miserable, and uncertain, yelping out my tale of piteous dis

tress.

'Nep, Nep, this will never do at all,' said my mistress. If you are such a little fool, why, I must teach you wisdom; and if you will not go of your own accord, why, I must make you go after another fashion.'

And so saying, with a gentle push she toppled me over into the water; and down I

fell with a splash that sent up a shower of spray into her face.

Oh, the agony of that fall; the terror of that first splash. I gasped; I struck out. Death in all its horror seemed pressing upon me, when, lo! as I struggled with the water, the water gave way before me. A new, a delicious sensation came over me, and I felt within myself a power which I had never known before. It was no longer an effort, an exertion to save myself from sinking. Why, I rode upon the water as upon an element which I had conquered, and charmed with its soft and elastic springiness, I plunged along in pursuit of the stick, which, floating just ahead of me, seemed to be enjoying its bath just as much as I was myself. So, seizing it between my teeth, I bore it back to the shore, and laying it triumphantly at my mistress's feet, I looked up panting and impatient into her face, asking her to test my courage once again, and see whether there would be any further difficulty in persuading me to make trial of my new-found power.

Ah, Master Nep!' said my mistress, laughing, so you have found out, have you, that things are not always so bad as they seem?

Grasp a nettle boldly and it will not sting." Ay, ay, Nep, that is a good lesson for us all to