Sam and Gringo the Clown

Sam

Quote of the Day

Sam was a dog who lived a very interesting life. He didn't live in a house or on a farm or even on a boat as some dogs do - he lived in a circus. He belonged to a clown called Gringo, and they lived in a gaily painted caravan. The circus travelled all over the country, stopping here for a night and there for a night; and everywhere that it went crowds of cheering children, and grown-ups too, greeted the coming of the circus.

From THE DOG WHO COULDN'T LEARN TRICKS. Thanks to Elizabeth Lindsay for providing this story and illustrations.

The Dog Who Couldn't Learn Tricks

While doing some browsing recently, I came across this annual called The Treasure Box, undated but from the late 1940s or early 1950s. I was surprised to see that the first item in the contents was The Dog Who Couldn't Learn Tricks, by Jane Shaw, surprised because it was the first I had ever heard of this story; it's not even listed in Susan and Friends. This story doesn't seem to have been reprinted elsewhere. I've found three annuals with The Wilsons Won't Mind, and the same goes for Susan's School Play and even The Onion Man. However, the stories for very young children don't appear to have got the same mileage. Most of them are easy to find because they were printed in the Collins Children's Annual, which enjoyed a wide circulation. However, the three Treasure Box annuals obviously were not printed in such large numbers. But now this long-lost treasure has been unearthed.