It is wonderful how completely dogs can be trained to the performance of
their duties.
A well-practised pointer was about to leap over a rail, when she
perceived a nest of partridges close to her nose.
Had she moved an inch she would have frightened them away. There she
stood for more than two hours, with her legs on the upper bar, awaiting
the arrival of the sportsman. For some time she was not discovered, and
not till he appeared would she quit her post, when, the birds rising,
some of them were shot; but the steady pointer was so stiff when thus
relieved that she could scarcely move.
Here is an example which my young readers should endeavour to follow
when they have a duty, however irksome, to perform. Remain steadily at
your post; let nothing draw you away. Do not say, I have stopped at
work long enough, I am sick of it. When tempted to give up, remember
the steady pointer.