Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-03-13
LEARNED FRENCH DOGS.


~ AeA OByGS uGBNS" OO010o
lIStfaerdinary Reasoning Powers Of No
bls Animal Taught 70 Nun Errands.
NY Hero Is not q mutilated ram nor .
(ssspy, In the technical terms of the po-
1ice, but large, robust, magnificent
dog, whose beautiful white and curly
fleece, like that of a sheep, was the
cause of his being named Mouton
(sheep.) His eye is mild and intelli-
rent. and at times, when he is in good
hunor, one would say that he laughs,
20 animated his eye becomes and his
jaws wriggle SO drolly.
Mouton belongs to Duke j who
resides ID Charolais. When say that
he belongs to the duke I'm mistaken,
kor Ne is the property of the adopted
son, the friend and the porter Of John,
his keeper.
John has brought him up carefully;he
has taught him to perform tricks, but
lhe has specially trained him to do his
Ierrands. The village from which the
supplies are obtained is nearly two
miles distant from the homestead, and
when John has not time to go there he
Writes an order Of what he needs on a
Epiece Of paper, puts the. paper in a
basket, and the handle of the basket in
tthe dogs mouth, then pointing in the
direction Of the village, he says to him:
l.sRun quick to Coulomier's." Cou.
homier lis the grocer who has Johns
patronage.
Mouton trots of, and trots along
without stopping even though he meet
"a weli-beloved female friend. Arriv.
ing at the village he deposits his basket
i'm Coulomier's store. If by chance there
is no one in the store he barks two or
three times to call attention. When
he sees the paper in the grocer's hands
he goes out to reconnoiter; he drinks
at the fountain, holding a smelling
conversation with the dogs stretched
out in the sun, like lizards, but he cal
culates his time so well that his loafing
never exceeds a quarter OF an hour,
when he returns to the grocer. Coulo-
,rtier has placed what is ordered in the
basket, gives it to Mouton, who seizes
iiy with his strong jaws and runs off
I. with it homeward bound.
u ,sIjBut one day the basket contained live
sells, wrapped in napkin. The route
WAS along near canal, and follows it
|for long distance. Mouton, with the
basket in his mouth, was trotting along,
when suddenly the child of the lock-
keeper, a baby two years old, fell into
the canal. The dog hears the cries Of
the infant and the sound of splashing
I'm the water; he sets down his basket,
lleaps into the canal, seizes the baby by
its clothing and brings it to terra firma.
THE child does not move, and Mouton,
rwho had laid it on the ground, takes il
up again by its garments. and bears il
to the lock-keeper's house. The mother
was seated in the kitchen pairing pota.
toes. Mouton enters at one bound
and places the child upon her lap, and
then hurries off to get his basket. But
|he finds that those rascally eels, per-
ceiving that they were near the water
have wriggled and struggled in such Q
way that they have succeeded in escap
ling from their cloth prison. They
were squirming in the dust, and aiming
for the canal. Mouton, instead o.
seizing them by the tail or the middle
of the bo1y, grasped them by thei,
heads and wrung their necks. After
(having thus laid them all out he
placed their bodies in the basket again
and took them to his master.
lcTo go and carry that basket to the
place where he had been taught to put
Ii might, if necessary, be attributed t.
instinct merely, but nobody had taught
him to save child from drowning, anG
then, seeing the child inanimate, t.
take it up again and carry it to III
mother, shows not only intelligence
but goodness Of heart.
!! Many man, less intelligent thar
Mouton, would not have reasoned sc
well as this: SIN order to take to my
master what has been intrusted to my
care ! must kill these eels, for living
cannot get them back into the napkin
as while am picking up one the other!
will get away" And notice that ths
seven cells were killed in the same way
This brave dog is, according to IN,
idea, more intelligent and has moro
mind than good number Of fres(
young men Of my acquaintance, wht
little suspect that they are far from
being of as much value as the goot
Mouton.
The scene of saving the child ant
that Of recnpturing the cells was wit
messed by two peasants who were OF
the other side of the canal.
This story, one year old, is absolutel.
truc.-Paris Revue Spirite.
Not To-Day.