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Entered according to Act of Congress, in J une, 1867, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia. Vol. I. Written for Burke’s Weekly. SANCHO AND PHIL. »ID you ever hear of an educated eat ? When I was a little boy I saw a dog who did so many ■*' wonderful things that he was known, far and wide, as the learned dog. Ilis master C# w as blind of an eye. and wa Ijy a ventriloquist. You all know what a ventriloquist is.— Well, this man who owned the smart dog was a magician and ventriloquist, like Signor Blitz, and the dog helped him in his show. He stood erect on his hind legs, and jumped through a hoop, and stood on his head, and climbed up and down a ladder, and did many other things; but the smartest thing about him was, that he ac tually knew his letters. All the letters of the alphabet were spread out before him on the floor, and he would pick out one by one, and give them to his master, until he had spelled the required word. For instance, if any one told him to spell “John Smith,” he would pick up a J, and then an O, and an 11, and one letter after another, in regular order, until he handed his master the last letter, and then he would give a short bark, as if to say: “See how smart I am.” I saw this dog spell a great many words, and he made fewer mis- takes than many boys would have done. He made mistakes, however, now and then, but when he started to pick up the wrong letter, a look from his master would cause him to drop it as if it burnt him. But I set out to tell you about a cat. ou see the two little boys in the picture. MACON, G-A., JUNE 27, 1868. Well, their names are Tommy and Eddy Brooks, and they live in Alabama. Be fore the war, their father was quite a rich man, and lived in an elegant house, with everything around him in abundance, but the Yankees burned his house, and de stroyed much of his property, so that he has had almost to begin life again. y - j i — j Tommy and Eddy were little children when the w r ar began ;in fact, they are not old now, one being nine and the other eleven. The Yankees did not get to where they lived until the last year of the war. Their home was between Selma and Montgomery, and after Gen. Wilson had taken Selma, Mrs. Brooks and the two little boys went away off into a part of the country where they were safe from the Yankees. After peace was declared, and it was no longer necessary to stay away, they went back home, but they scarcely knew the place. Their beautiful dwelling had been burned to the ground, the shade trees cut down, the fences de- stroyed, and everything was in a state of ruin. It was a good while before they were even comfortable again, but in the course of time anew house took the place of the old one, and things began to put on their old ap pearance. There were two things the Yan kees did not destroy. These were the old house dog, Sancho, and a cat named Phil. Sancho and Phil had been the playmates of Tommy and Eddy ever since they could remember, and you may be sure that they were glad enough when they got back home to find that their old friends were still alive. How they escaped the Yankees I do not know, but I rather suspect that master Phil took to the swamp, and it may be that Sancho followed him. Well, Phil was the educated cat lam going to tell you about. I don’t mean to say that he has a very thorough education. In fact, he is not even as well educated as the dog I told you about, for he does not know his letters, but he is pretty smart for a cat. lie has a very wise look, and if he isn’t very smart, he looks as it he is, and that is nearly as good. One of Phil’s smart tricks is to sit up and beg for his dinner, and he will hold a piece of bread on his nose until you count one, two, three, and at the word “three” up goes the bread and down it No. 52