spied him through the inner glass door, and was out upon
him, like the Assyrian, with a terrific _gowl_. I watched them.
Instantly Toby made at him with a roar too, and an eye more torve than
Scrymgeour's, who, retreating without reserve, fell prostrate, there
is reason to believe, in his own lobby. Toby contented himself with
proclaiming his victory at the door, and, returning, finished his bone-
planting at his leisure; the enemy, who had scuttled behind the glass
door, glared at him. From this moment Toby was an altered dog. Pluck
at first sight was lord of all . . . That very evening he paid a visit
to Leo, next door's dog, a big tyrannical bully and coward . . . To
him Toby paid a visit that very evening, down into his den, and walked
about, as much as to say, 'Come on, Macduff'; but Macduff did not come
on."
This story is one of the most amazing examples of instant change of
character on record, and disproves the sceptical remark that "no one was
ever converted, except prize-fighters, and colonels in the army." I am
sorry to say that Dr. Brown was too fond of dogs to be very much attached
to cats. I never heard him say anything against cats, or, indeed,
against anybody; but there are passages in his writings which tend to
show that, when young and thoughtless, he was not far from regarding cats
as "the higher vermin." He tells a story of a Ghazi puss, so to speak, a
victorious cat, which, entrenched in a drain, defeated three dogs with
severe loss, and finally escaped unharmed from her enemies.
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