SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS

  1. What is the effect of the title?
  2. How does Mr. Utter make us love the dog?
  3. What knowledge of dog life does the writer show?
  4. Point out words or expressions that are usually applied only to human beings, that are here applied to dogs.
  5. Point out adjective effects.
  6. How does the writer make the dog seem amusing?
  7. How does the writer make the dog seem admirable?
  8. What human characteristics are attributed to the dog?
  9. Point out noteworthy examples of humor.
  10. Show how the writer employs detail as a means of emphasis.
  11. Point out examples of especially effective metaphor.
  12. What is said concerning the pup-boy and the pup-girl?
  13. How does the essay make us feel toward dogs?
  14. What is the effect of the closing sentences?

SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION

1. My Dog11. Cats
2. Lap Dogs12. Kittens
3. Police Dogs13. Rabbits
4. Hounds14. Mice
5. Shepherd Dogs15. Squirrels
6. Boston Bulls16. Horses
7. Great Danes17. Robins
8. Newfoundland Dogs18. Sea Gulls
9. Greyhounds19. Cows
10. Stray Dogs20. Fish

DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING

Select for your subject some animal with which you are intimately familiar, and in which you are especially and sympathetically interested. Write about that animal in such a way that you will bring to the surface its most humorous qualities and its most admirable qualities. Give a great number of details concerning the animal's habits, but give those details in a gossipy manner. Use quotations, if you can, or make allusions to books. Make all your work emphasize goodness. Make your closing paragraph your most effective paragraph,—one that will appeal to sentiment.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] According to Homer's Odyssey when Ulysses returned after many years of wandering, his old dog “Argos” recognized him, even in disguise.

CHEWING GUM[2]

By CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER