"One day, when Dumont, a tradesman of the Rue St. Denis, was walking
in the Boulevard St. Antoine with a friend, he offered to lay a wager
with the latter, that if he were to hide a six-livre piece in the
dust, his dog would discover and bring it to him. The wager was
accepted, and the piece of money secreted, after being carefully
marked. When the two had proceeded some distance from the spot, M.
Dumont called to his dog that he had lost something, and ordered him
to seek it. Caniche immediately turned back, and his master and his
companion pursued their walk to the Rue St. Denis. Meanwhile a
traveller, who happened to be just then returning in a small chaise
from Vincennes, perceived the piece of money, which his horse had
kicked from its hiding-place; he alighted, took it up, and drove to
his inn, in the Rue Pont-aux-Choux. Caniche had just reached the spot
in search of the lost piece when the stranger picked it up. He
followed the chaise, went into the inn, and stuck close to the
traveller. Having scented out the coin which he had been ordered to
bring back in the pocket of the latter, he leaped up incessantly at
and about him. The traveller, supposing him to be some dog that had
been lost or left behind by his master, regarded his different
movements as marks of fondness; and as the animal was handsome, he
determined to keep him. He gave him a good supper, and on retiring to
bed took him with him to his chamber. No sooner had he pulled off his
breeches, than they were seized by the dog; the owner conceiving that
he wanted to play with them, took them away again. The animal began to
bark at the door, which the traveller opened, under the idea that the
dog wanted to go out. Caniche snatched up the breeches, and away he
flew. The traveller posted after him with his night-cap on, and
literally _sans culottes_. Anxiety for the fate of a purse full of
gold Napoleons, of forty francs each, which was in one of the pockets,
gave redoubled velocity to his steps. Caniche ran full speed to his
master's house, where the stranger arrived a moment afterwards,
breathless and enraged. He accused the dog of robbing him. 'Sir,' said
the master, 'my dog is a very faithful creature; and if he has run
away with your breeches, it is because you have in them money which
does not belong to you.' The traveller became still more exasperated.
'Compose yourself, sir,' rejoined the other, smiling; 'without doubt
there is in your purse a six-livre piece, with such and such marks,
which you have picked up in the Boulevard St. Antoine, and which I
threw down there with the firm conviction that my dog would bring it
back again. This is the cause of the robbery which he has committed
upon you.' The stranger's rage now yielded to astonishment; he
delivered the six-livre piece to the owner, and could not forbear
caressing the dog which had given him so much uneasiness, and such an
unpleasant chase."
A gentleman in Cornwall possessed a dog, which seemed to set a value
on white and shining pebble stones, of which he had made a large
collection in a hole under an old tree. A dog in Regent Street is said
to have barked with joy on hearing the wheels of his master's carriage
driven to the door, when he could not by any possibility see the
vehicle, and while many other carriages were at the time passing and
repassing. This, I believe, is a fact by no means uncommon.
My retriever will carry an egg in his mouth to a great distance, and
during a considerable length of time, without ever breaking or even
cracking the shell. A small bird having escaped from its cage and
fallen into the sea, a dog conveyed it in his mouth to the ship,
without doing it the slightest injury.
[Illustration: RETRIEVER.]
One of the carriers of a New York paper called the "Advocate," having
become indisposed, his son took his place; but not knowing the
subscribers he was to supply, he took for his guide a dog which had
usually attended his father. The animal trotted on a-head of the boy,
and stopped at every door where the paper was in use to be left,
without making a single omission or mistake.