Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1886 — A. Knowing Dog. [ARTICLE]

A. Knowing Dog.

At a convent in France twenty poor people were served with dinner at a given hour every day. A dog belonging to the convent was always present at this meal, watching for any scraps that might be thrown to him. The guests being very hungry themselves, and not very charitable the poor dog did little more than smell the food. Each pauper rang a bell, and his share was delivered to him through a small opening, so that neither giver nor receiver could see each other. One day the dog waited till all were served, when he took the rope in his mouth and rang the bell. The trick succeeded, and was repeated the next day with the same success. At length the cook finding that twenty-one portions were doled out instead of twenty, determined to find out the thief, and at last the clever dog was detected. But when the monks heard the Story, they rewarded the dog’s ingenuity by allowing him to ring the bell every day, and a mess of broken victuals was thenceforth regularly served out to him in his turn.