86 THE WORLD OF ICE.

cause unknown, however, his tail had been cut or
bitten off, and nothing save the stump remained. But
this stump did as much duty as if it had been fifty
tails in one. It was never at rest for a moment, and
its owner evidently believed that wagging it was the
true and only way to touch the heart of man; there-
fore the dog wagged it, so to speak, doggedly. In
consequence of this animal’s thieving propensities,
which led him to be constantly poking into every hole
and corner of the ship in search of something to steal,
he was named Poker. Poker had three jet-black
spots in his white visage—one was the point of his
nose, the other two were his eyes.

Poker’s bosom friend, Dumps, was so named because
he had the sulkiest expression of countenance that
ever fell to the lot of a dog. Hopelessly incurable
melancholy seemed to have taken possession of his
mind, for he never by any chance smiled

 

and dogs
do smile, you know, just as evidently as human beings
do, although not exactly with their mouths. Dumps
never romped either, being old, but he sat and allowed
his friend Poker to romp round him with a sort of
sulky satisfaction, as if he experienced the greatest
enjoyment his nature was capable of in witnessing the
antics of his youthful companion—-for Poker was
young. The prevailing colour of Dumps’s shaggy hide
was a dirty brown, with black spots, two of which
had fixed themselves rather awkwardly round his
eyes, like a pair of spectacles. Dumps, also, was a
thief, and, indeed, so were all his brethren. Dumps