It turned out, now, that it was not that, but a dog-show.

There was a double-leaded column about the king-feature of this one, which was called a Saint Bernard, and was worth $10,000, and was known to be the largest and finest of his species in the world.

I read all this with interest, because out of my school-boy readings I dimly remembered how the priests and pilgrims of St.Bernard used to go out in the storms and dig these dogs out of the snowdrifts when lost and exhausted, and give them brandy and save their lives, and drag them to the monastery and restore them with gruel.
Also, there was a picture of this prize-dog in the paper, a noble great creature with a benignant countenance, standing by a table.

He was placed in that way so that one could get a right idea of his great dimensions.

You could see that he was just a shade higher than the table--indeed, a huge fellow for a dog.