Page:The power of the dog.djvu/108

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THE CHOW CHOW

"Beasts which Buff on never knew."

WE English are curiously eclectic in our tastes, canine as well as philosophical. Not content with what we have, we go on ransacking the world for something new, something strange, something that no one else has got, until in the process of time the variety we have acquired becomes so acclimatised that we almost think it our own. Among the strangers from the uttermost parts of the earth which have enriched the ranks of our domestic canidæ the Chow Chow holds high position, but, though he is with us, he never seems to be a part and parcel of our lives. Watch his demeanour. See him going through life occupied with his own concerns; rather, preoccupied, I should say, for he has a singular indifference to his surroundings. Is his mind in his old home in the far East?


"For the temple bells are callin', an' it's there that I would be." Perhaps, pondering the deeper mysteries of this world, he has arrived at Thoreau's conclusion that: "Public opinion is a