There can be no doubt but that heredity plays a great role in these cases; her quick responsiveness bore witness to this, while, in addition, Lola evidently regarded her as the "flower of her flock," for she had always singled Ulse out for special attentions, generally retiring with her alone to a distant part of the barn. The question is whether Lola may not have given her some instruction, for, to some remark of mine, she had once replied: "Teaching Ulse!" Yet, for my part, I feel doubtful whether animals do transmit to others of their kind the things taught them by human beings. However, this may be, Ulse seemed predestined, so to speak, to learn to count and spell, mastering the numbers up to _five_ in a fabulously short time. Moreover, she _rapped_ better than Lola, or, rather, quite as well as Lola had done when in her very best days, raising her small paw high, and then bringing it down on my hand with a decided, though rather slow, beat. Ulse was also soon able to signify "yes" by two raps, and "no" by three, but I had to keep my questions within a very narrow limit, for her intercourse was of too short a duration to enable her to acquire a lengthy or varied vocabulary. Still, we practised 2 x 1, 2 x 2, 3 x 2, and her answers were always excellent, as long as nothing else was going on to excite or distract her. The amusing thing was that she loved doing it so that the little paw would be up in mid-air as soon as ever she saw me, as much as to show that she was quite ready for work. This was doubtless due to the very quiet existence she had led before coming indoors, and also perhaps to the little favours and tit-bits she had learnt to associate with her new accomplishments. Indeed, until these had blossomed out, her innate cleverness and brightness had gone almost unnoticed. When I had assured myself that she fully comprehended the rapping, I endeavoured to teach her to rap on a board, instead of on my hand, a thing I had never been able to get Lola to agree to. Indeed, I had had to relinquish any hope of it, in the case of the older dog; whether it was that the scratching of her toe-nails on the board irritated her or what, I do not know, but it practically stopped her working. My only reason for trying to introduce this method at all had been to put an end to the suggestions sometimes put forward by sceptical persons that I might be "helping her with my hand!" Anyway, the ease with which Ulse took to rapping on the board, and the excellent work she did by that method should have proved a sufficient reply to all doubters, and I had been full of hope that her gifts would, in time, have been further developed by her new mistress, yet it was to be otherwise. Ulse was to have gone to her new home in Meran (in the Tyrol), but the regulations as to travel obtaining during war-time prohibited this, so I placed her under the temporary charge of a young lady, and while there she unfortunately died of mange. LAST WORDS