There was a miser in Russia, some time ago, who was so rich that he sometimes lent to the Emperor a million of money at a time. He would barely allow himself food enough to live upon. He used to keep his money in casks which were buried in the cellar. His chief dependence for the protection of this treasure was upon a very fierce dog, who was kept chained up all day, and then at night would guard the house by barking loudly all the time. But at length the dog died. The poor rich man didn’t want to go to the expense of buying another dog. Besides, if he should buy one, he could not depend upon him to keep awake all night. So he thought he might as well be his own dog, and actually used to keep awake all night, and go about the house barking as loudly as he could in imitation of his faithful dog.
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