Old Boney is a large shaggy dog of a deep tan color, and a general
favorite among the people in the quarter of the city in which he lives,
while he is honored and respected by every member of the canine race for
miles around. Especially are the little children fond of him; and it
seems to be as much a pastime for him as for his young playmates to
carry the boys and girls on his broad back, their little, chubby hands
buried in his long, matted hair in their half-frightened efforts to keep
from slipping off and tumbling upon the ground.
His owner’s daughter, a young girl just entering her teens, attends the
high school, about three blocks from her home, which is reached by
rather a circuitous route. Boney had often accompanied his young
mistress to the school and was familiar with the way thither as well as
with the main entrance and winding stairway of the building.
It was in the showery month of April, and Etta had repeatedly neglected
to wear her rubbers when she started for school in the morning, a fault
for which she had often been reprimanded.
Now it happened one warm afternoon that a copious shower came down in
due April style. The door leading from the dining room out upon the
veranda was wide ajar, and Etta’s mother, looking out, saw her
daughter’s rubbers upon the veranda floor near the rug where they were
usually deposited when not in use. “There,” exclaimed the mother, “that
child has gone again without her rubbers and will come home with wet
feet.”
This sharp remark aroused the attention of old Boney, for he got up from
his prone condition on the rug, looked at the speaker, sniffed at the
rubbers and lay down again. At this juncture Etta’s father quietly
picked up the rubbers, carried them over to the school building and
handed them to his daughter, whom he met at the upper landing of the
stairway. This had been done more than once, Boney generally lying upon
the veranda floor where he could easily hear and see what was being done
on such occasions, and he had often followed his master and stood by
when father and daughter met at the school building.
Now comes the interesting part of our story. A drenching shower came
down about three o’clock one afternoon and Etta had, as usual, neglected
to take her needed footwear. It happened this time that none of the
family was at home. Boney, however, was keeping house in his accustomed
place on the rug. Now, what do our readers think the noble animal did.
Why, he just picked up both of the rubbers, carried them in his mouth
through the driving rain to the school building, up the winding stairway
and laid them upon the landing. As if this were not enough, he lay down
and faithfully watched his charge till Etta made her appearance, when he
politely dropped her property at her feet.
Thereafter Etta’s father was relieved of this service, Boney regularly
attending to the business himself, and, what is more wonderful still, he
never attempted to discharge his duty on a pleasant day.
Query. Was this reason or instinct? If the latter, what is instinct?