THE ST. BERNARD DOG. 421

another, and this bag he used to give Bass to carry. Bass
always followed that man through all the villas in this neigh-
bourhood where he had deliveries to make, and he invariably
parted with him opposite to the gate of the Convent of St.
Margaret’s, and returned home. When our gate was shut
here to prevent his following the postman, the dog always
leaped a high wall to get after him. One day when the
postman was ill, or detained by some accidental circumstance,
he sent a man in his place. Bass went up to the man, curi-
ously scanning his face, whilst the man rather retired from
the dog, by no means liking his appearance. But as the
man left the place, Bass followed him, showing strong symp-
toms that he was determined to have the post-bag. The
man did all he could to keep possession of it. But at length
Bass seeing that he had no chance of getting possession of
the bag by civil entreaty, raised himself up on his hind-legs,
and putting a great forepaw on each of the man’s shoulders,
he laid him flat on his back in the road, and quietly picking
up the bag, he proceeded peaceably on his wonted way.
The man, much dismayed, arose and followed the dog,
making every now and then an ineffectual attempt to coax
him to give up the bag. At the first house he came to, he
told his fears, and the dilemma he was in; but the people
comforted him, by telling him that the dog always carried
the bag. Bass walked with the man to all the houses at
which he delivered letters, and along the road till he came
to the gate of St. Margaret’s, where he dropped the bag and
returned home.”
The St. Bernard “The convent of the Great St. Bernard is
at Work. situated near the top of the mountain known
by that name, near one of the most dangerous passages of
the Alps, between Switzerland and Savoy. In these regions
the traveller is often overtaken by the most severe weather,
even after days of cloudless beauty, when the glaciers glitter
in the sunshine, and the pink flowers of the rhododendron