to his age and infirmities, I had dispensed do it, and then readily reared up to perwith the performance of these duties for form his task. I brought him into the many months; but on this occasion the habit of it by first rewarding him with servant found it convenient to try his biscuit, and afterwards making him do it skill and activity, and he still faithfully before I gratified any particular wish, and willingly tried to do his part. I when, at the word of command, he would heard his feet gently scratch at the door, shut the door in great haste. It was but, being very closely occupied, I would most amusing to see him sometimes, not move to let him in. He then repeat when the lock was perverse and would ed his scratches, but still I was deaf to spring back, for he would then shut it his signs. At length he drew a much again and again; and if I said, 'Do it longer and louder scratch, and I suppos- properly, sir!' he would run back and ed he wanted something particular. On give it a thorough bang. Never was opening the door, he stood a moment and there a more willing creature in serving looked at me, and I was just about to those whom he loved, and in aiming to shut him out, as he did not enter, when please. In this case, and in his general he took up the newspaper, which he had aptness to learn, I have known some who laid down behind the door-post while he might have taken from him a useful was waiting, and holding it up to me in lesson. his mouth, I received it in my hand; he then turned away, having discharged his message, and marched down stairs, not wishing at that time to enjoy my com pany. I had had him more than seven years, when I one day regretted that I had never taught him to shut the door. As a mere experiment, I tried what I could accomplish, little expecting that I should suc ceed so well. I never gave him more than three or four lessons, when the willing creature, as if desirous of pleasing his master, ever after shut the door at my bidding. The way in which I did it, was this: I placed his fore paws against the parlor door, and pushed it hard enough to shut. The animal perceived at once that this was the way to It is obvious that dogs understand language. Leibnitz, a celebrated German, informed the French academicians—a set of learned men in France—that he knew of a dog that had been taught by a peasant's son to utter as many as thirty words, and that he himself had heard him speak. I cannot boast that my dog could speak, but he certainly knew most things that I said about him; so that on many occasions I have been obliged to urge caution in speaking, lest he should be put on solicitations when I did not want them. It was quite enough to tell him he should go a-walking, and he prepared for it by stretching his limbs and dancing for joy. The word of command to go to his dinner or supper, needed not often to be twice repeated. In the same way, he knew when he was told to go to bed. And when he saw me going out, and it was not convenient to take him, he would instantly drop his ears and tail, and return behind, when I said, 'No, Frisk, you cannot go.' But two striking proofs of his keen intelligence here occur to my recollection. It was his custom every morning to tap at our bed-room doors when it was our usual hour of rising, and he would pay us a visit for a few moments to receive a pat, and then depart. One of the family, in an adjoining room, used occasionally to give him a morsel of biscuit that had remained in his pocket from the preceding day; and one morning, when he had given him all, and he still continued begging, he said to him, in a low tone, 'No, Frisk, I have got no more; if you want it, you must go down and ask the servant,' mentioning her name. Instantly the dog retreated, and did as he suggest ed: the servant asking him, when he went to breakfast, what it was he had sent the dog down for, for he had solicit ed her for something very earnestly, and she, suspecting what it was, had met his wishes. The words had no sooner escaped my lips, than he dropped lazily from the sofa, and as lazily shut the door, and then came looking up at me expecting his reward, when I was forced to rise, because I would not disappoint him, and thought that such intelligence ought to be rewarded. I could not help exclaiming, Did you ever see such extraordinary intelligence in an animal! How that dog understands words!' Bingley speaks of the favorite dog of an elderly lady, which discovered, some time after her death, the strongest emotion on the sight of her picture, when it was taken down to be cleaned. Before this, he had never been observed to notice the painting. This reminds me of a singular fact that occurred with regard to my dog. I had pinned against the wall of a dressing-room a colored print of a poodle, which bears this inscription, 'SANCHO, the property of the Marchioness of Worcester; taken at the battle of Salamanca, by the Marquis, from the grave of its master, a French officer, where it was found exhausted, and nearly starved to death, and was with much difficulty forced away from becoming a sacrifice to At another time, I was lounging on its own fidelity.' The dog in this print the sofa, on a cold day, when the door is scarcely so large as a rat, and yet my was left open. The animal was in his animal one day caught sight of it, and usual place on the sofa, slumbering at evidently perceived in it a likeness to one my feet, when I observed to his mistress, of his own stock. I observed his rewithout at all designing or expecting that markable attention to the picture, and he would notice my words, 'I wish that begged his mistress to notice it. She Frisk would get down and shut that door; was reclining on a sofa under it, when I would readily give him a bit of biscuit.' he reared up on his hind legs, and rest ing his fore feet upon the edge of the sofa, he looked at Sancho with a still more scrutinizing eye. Then he mounted on his mistress, whom I requested to be still, that we might see the result; and the observing creature, by rearing once more on his hind legs, was able to reach the object of his inquiry. He now sur veyed it, smelt it, and being satisfied that it was an illusion, he gave up further inquiry, nor did he ever notice it again. My dog had evidently, at times, much the appearance of the philosopher, or student of wisdom. He generally indulged in his musings before the fire. One afternoon he seated himself, with great importance and gravity, upon a chair which had been left vacant near the hearth, and here for a while he was seemingly 'Sinking from thought to thought, in vast profound; when he yielded to drowsiness, as many a student had done before him, and pitched head foremost from his elevation. He got up and shook himself, with half opened eyes, apparently wondering where he was, how he came there, and what had happened to him, the little fireside party heartily laughing at the poor fellow's mishap. Frisk however clearly formed a resolution, on this occasion, that he never more would nod on a chair, and he strictly adhered to it, from that day to the hour of his death for the moment he found himself getting drowsy, he jumped down and doubled himself up on the floor. It is well if we grow wise from experience; and, knowing what is injurious to us, avoid being exposed to it a second time, when it is in our power to guard against it. Dogs have been remarked to know the regular return of the Sabbath and so did he; and on that day he used to mount a chest of drawers or a dressingtable at the bed-room window, and there his beautifully white picture appeared to all beholders in the public road, glazed and framed, during the hours of divine service. The instant he saw his master and mistress return, he quitted his post of observation, and was speedily at the door, to welcome them home. I am one of those who think, that, as rational creatures, who receive daily bounties from the hand of Providence, and daily family comforts and mercies, I ought, with my family, to thank God for his goodness, and ask new favors from his hand. God gives his bounties even to the most forgetful and ungrateful; but they are much sweetened to those who thus own his kind hand in bestowing them all. The habits of this creature were remarkable in being conformed to mine; and he was a pattern for some young people, in his quiet and orderly behavior, when we were engaged in that which he was aware was something that appeared to require much gravity. As I am writing a memoir, every little trait of character may fairly be admitted into my narrative. I taught my dog to ask me to open the door, by laying down his head on the floor while he continued standing: this pretty and interesting atti tude he also assumed whenever he coax- breeze, and basked in the sun on the ed me; and when in the morning he grass-plot, and, as he had something of a visited my bed-room, this was one mode taste for hunting, his pleasure was greatly of soliciting my attention and asking for heightened if he could chace any intera pat. I also taught him to tap me on lopers, such as a neighboring cat or fowl; the arm or shoulder, at command, before in failure of which, he would content he received any thing to eat from my himself with pursuing a hopping frog. hand. He took the least morsel of food The gardeners too, have often laughed to gently from my fingers, and always knew see with what gravity he would watch when and where to carry a bone out of them sowing the patches of seed on the the room, which was too large to eat, flower-beds-for he would go and sit without dropping it on the carpet. Such down by them, or by his master, as they was his gentle temper, that he might al- were so engaged, watching and turning ways be passed when gnawing his bone; his head and eye acutely, as if to see and on some occasions he has allowed it that they performed their work properly, to be taken from him. Little infants and then removing his seat, as they rehave held out food for him in the hand, moved from place to place. Sometimes whose fingers were too small for the pur- he fetched a stone or a ball, and laying it pose; and as the hand was half closed, it at his master's feet, looked him full in was delightful to see the tenderness of the face, and then looked at the ball, the creature, in dealing with the child, pushing it towards him, to express his patiently working his nose into the palm desire that it might be thrown; when he of his hand, and then taking hold of the often flew as fast down the gravel walk piece of food so as not to occasion the as the ball itself, and would catch it aschild or spectator the least alarm. He cending at its first bound. Sometimes had indeed a peculiar partiality for chil- he might be seen sauntering down the dren; always preferring the youngest in walks at his master's heels, puss being the room, and treating the helpless infant in company; and frequently they were with the greatest kindness. To ill-use seen kindly saluting each other. It was any animal, shows a bad disposition; but a pretty sight; and this friendly token to have teased or ill-treated one with such was usually repeated between them in benevolence of character, would have dis- the morning, and after any long absence. played the worst of inclinations. Half I think some young persons who are the animals that are vicious, are made so given to quarrelling, might profitably by being teased. have taken a leaf out of their book, and learned a lesson of kindness towards each other.-I shall say more about my dog in the next number. My garden obviously afforded him much delight. He loved to ramble round it, and scented the fresh morning THE LITTLE GIRL'S ADDRESS TO THE GRASSHOPPER, IN OCTOBER. When the grass in the orchard is covered with snow? + I shall see you at play in the tall waving grass, W. MASTER WILLIAM CROTCH, THE MUSICAL PHENOMENON. THIS very extraordinary child was born at Norwich, on the 5th of July, 1775. His father being an ingenious carpenter, built an organ for his own amusement; and it was owing to this incidental circumstance that the musical talents of his little son William were discovered so early: they might have lain dormant for years, if a lady who taught music with great reputation, and was in |