rate."

In order that I might be broke on every kind of game I was to be absent one year, at the expiration of which period it was calculated my education would be completed.

If dogs are remarkable for faithfulness to their trust dog-breakers are not always so. About a month before my amiable young owner was to have received me from the hands of my trainer, the perfidious rascal sold me to a gentleman passing through the country for one hundred dollars; and immediately wrote word to his employer that I had died of the distemper, and he had thrown my carcase into the river.

How this matter was settled I had no opportunity of knowing, as I never saw either of the parties afterwards.

I had no sooner become the property of my new master than a chain collar was placed round my neck, with his name, as I understood, engraved upon it. What that name was I never learned, or I would in justice to the community make it public, to put them on their guard against one of the most polished villains that ever infested society. Often, very often, have I tried to see the name on my collar, but it was quite impossible for me to turn my head round short enough to get even a glimpse of it; when I resorted to a looking glass I found the words all reversed; and, never having been taught Hebrew, it was out of my power to decipher them by reading from the right hand to the left.

By this person I was taken to Havana, where he followed his business for a few weeks with various success; one night winning pockets-full of doubloons

and the next losing them back to the same parties, until, his connexions being formed and his plans matured, with the assistance of a confederate, who had joined him within a few days, he fleeced the whole party in one night; and the next morning saw him on board a brig under way for New York.

When arrived in this city my master visited his old haunts and introduced me to some fashionable men as a dog just imported from England, and belonging to the stock of a sporting nobleman of great celebrity, whose game-keeper frequently received fifty guineas for a dog pup of a year old. This story enabled him to part with me to advantage, and I was not sorry at the separation. It is a singular fact that notwithstanding he lived in the nefarious practices of a regular black-leg, and that circumstance well known to many: yet, being a fine looking fellew, of pleasing manners, always dresssing well, and extremely liberal in treating his friends, although it was with their own money, like the Frenchman in the story, who robbed his benefactor of every thing he had in the world, he was considered to be "a very genteel man, for all that."

My next master was an extravagant, weak-minded spendthrift, and one of the many victims to the arts of my last owner. He never hunted me; and having suffered himself to be duped out of his property by a set of sharpers, in a fit of despondency, went home one morning, (after involving himself in engagements which he could not possibly meet,) and finished his unwise career by cutting his throat!

His personal effects being sold at auction, I was pur

chased by an experienced sportsman, and remained with him for more than two years. My new master was an old bachelor, and a very good man. He was passionately fond of his gun and of me. I always slept in his chamber, frequently on his bed, and sometimes in it. He was particularly fond of me; and would often caress me as affectionately as though I was his mistress, letting me jump on him and requesting me to kiss him—an operation I could perform only by slobbering his mouth with mine.

This worthy old gentleman, whose kindness I shall never forget, became subject to attacks of rheumatism, and was consequently unable to enjoy those field exercises in which he so much delighted: he was induced, therefore, though with evident reluctance, to part with me; and I became the property of a sportsman of a very different character.

My present master was a fine looking, high-spirited, honourable, open-hearted young man; rich, gay, and fashionable: he drove a dashing equipage, and devoted his whole time to amusement. The only flaw in his character that I ever discovered, consisted in his being an egotistical, noisy braggart. According to his statement, he had the best horses, the purest wines, the finest made gun, and the most valuable dog, of any man in the world! And he hesitated not in all companies, to affirm that he was more profoundly skilled in "Love, Law, and Physic," than any other human being, that was ever born, begotten, or thought of. When any of these positions were attacked, he defended them with the most determined bravery; and whenever a breach

was made in his argument, he would immediately stop it from the resources of his lungs; like a clamorous demagogue at a ward meeting, he depended upon carrying his point, less by convincing the mind, than by "talking down all opposition."

This gentleman did not very well understand hunting, but he made up for this deficiency by puffing his skill. I have frequently stood listening to his stories. until I felt ashamed of the connection between us, with an expression, as far as I could throw it into my countenance, of disapprobation of his fibs; but he appeared never to understand my meaning. In praising my qualities, I have heard him say that I had the best nose of any dog in the country, and had frequently winded a single snipe at the distance of three hundred yards; though I was never conscious of doing so at more than one hundred, and that only under the most favourable circumstances of a moist atmosphere, and my position being dead to leeward of the game.

:

Having lost sight of him one dark evening in a street I had never seen before, I wandered about all night in the vain endeavour to find my home, and in the inorning, feeling the united effects of cold, hunger, and fatigue, suffered myself to be coaxed by a negro into a small house when I was immediately tied up and some coarse food thrown to me. In this situation I remained several weeks; till one day my coloured decoyer took me, with the rope round my neck, into the street, where we were shortly stopped by a tall, good-looking man, who made some very earnest inquiries respecting me. The negro told him that I was brought from Liv

erpool by the cook of a New York Packet, his brother, who, soon after dying, had left me to him as the only testimony he had it in his power to exhibit of his fraternal regard. That he had made up his mind never to part with me; but in consequence of the removal of the deposites, his business of a shoe-black had suffered in common with other mercantile concerns, and he was at that moment in great need of a few dollars to make up the amount of a note payable at one of the pet banks; under these circumstances he expressed a willingness to dispose of his brother's legacy for much less than what he conscientiously believed was its real value. After a few more inquiries, I was transferred to the tall stranger for five dollars, and the black fellow "went on his way rejoicing."

I was then taken to a house in the neighbourhood, and introduced to the company of several half-bred setters, spaniels and pointers; on whom my master appeared to set as great store as he did on me; in spite of which, I could not but consider myself much degraded by their acquaintance. It was not long before I discovered, that, although my master was exceedingly fond of the canine race, his wife hated and despised us; and many a broom stick have I seen broken on the backs of my companions for daring to intrude on her legitimate domain— the parlour or kitchen. As to myself I had by this time seen a good deal of mankind; and was always careful to learn the character of such individuals as I lived with before I made free with them; and by this practice, in the present case escaped all chastisement; and the only instance in which I was rebuked, occurred one day when,