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diff --git a/37330.txt b/37330.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4ec24e --- /dev/null +++ b/37330.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11510 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aileen Aroon, A Memoir, by Gordon Stables + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Aileen Aroon, A Memoir + With other Tales of Faithful Friends and Favourites + +Author: Gordon Stables + +Release Date: September 6, 2011 [EBook #37330] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AILEEN AROON, A MEMOIR *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Aileen Aroon, A Memoir +With other Tales of Faithful Friends and Favourites +By Gordon Stables +Published by S.W. Partridge & Co., 9 Paternoster Row, London. +This edition dated 1884. + +Aileen Aroon, A Memoir, by Gordon Stables. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +AILEEN AROON, A MEMOIR, BY GORDON STABLES. + +PREFACE. + +Prefaces are not always necessary; but when an author has either to +acknowledge a courtesy, or to make an apology, then a preface becomes a +duty. I have to do both. + +Firstly, then, as regards acknowledgment. I have endeavoured in this +book to give sketches--as near to nature as a line could be drawn--of a +few of my former friends and favourites in the animal world, and many of +these have appeared from time to time in the magazines and periodicals, +to which I have the honour to contribute. + +I have to thank, then, the good old firm of Messrs. Chambers, of +Edinburgh, for courteously acceding to my request to be allowed to +republish "My Cabin Mates and Bedfellows," and "Blue-Jackets' Pets," +from their world-known Journal. + +I have also to thank Messrs. Cassell and Co., London, for the +re-appearance herein of several short stories I wrote for their charming +magazine _Little Folks_, on the pages of which, by the way, the sun +never sets. + +Mr Dean, one of my publishers, kindly permitted me to reprint the story +of my dead-and-gone darling "Tyro," and the story of "Blucher." This +gentleman I beg to thank. I have also to thank Messrs. Routledge and +Son for a little tale from my book, "The Domestic Cat." + +Nor must I forget to add that I have taken a few sketches, though no +complete tales, from some of my contributions to that queen of +periodicals yclept _The Girl's Own Paper_, to edit which successfully, +requires as much skill and taste, as an artist displays in the culling +and arrangement of a bouquet of beautiful flowers. + +With the exception of these tales and sketches, all else in the book is +original, and, I need hardly add, painted from the life. + +Secondly, as regards apology. The wish to have, in a collected form, +the life-stories of the creatures one has loved; to have, as it were, +the graves of the pets of one's past life arranged side by side, is +surely only natural; no need to apologise for that, methinks. But, +reader, I have to apologise, and I do so most humbly, for the too +frequent appearance of the "_ego_" in this work. + +I have had no wish to be autobiographical, but my own life has been as +intimately mixed up with the lives of the creatures that have called me +"master," as is the narrow yellow stripe, in the tartan plaid of the +Scottish clan to which I belong. And so I crave forgiveness. + +Gordon Stables. + +_Gordon Grove, Twyford, Berks_. + +CHAPTER ONE. + +PROLOGISTIC. + +Scene: A lofty pine wood, from which can be caught distant glimpses of +the valley of the Thames. "Aileen Aroon," a noble Newfoundland, has +thrown herself down by her master's side. All the other dogs at play in +the wood. + +Aileen's master (_speaks_): "And so you have come and laid yourself down +beside me, Aileen, and left your playmates every one? left your +playmates roaming about among the trees, while you stay here by me? + +"Yes, you may put your head on my knee, dear, honest Aileen, or your +chin at all events, for you yourself, old girl, have no idea of the +weight of your whole head. No, Aileen, thank you, not a paw as well; +you are really attempting now to take the advantage of my good nature. +So be content, `Sable' [Note 1]--my good, old, silly, simple Sable. +There, I smooth your bonnie brow to show you that the words `old' and +`silly' are truly terms of endearment, and meant neither as a scoff at +your age, nor to throw disparagement upon the amount or quality of your +intellect. Intellect? Who could glance for a single moment at that +splendid head of yours, my Aileen, and doubt it to be the seat of a +wisdom almost human, and of a benevolence that might easily put many of +our poor fallen race to shame. And so I smooth your bonnie brow thus, +and thus. But now, let us understand each other, Aileen. We must have +done with endearments for a little time. For beautiful though the day +be, blue the sky, and bright the sunshine, I really have come out here +to the quiet woods to work. It is for that very purpose I have seated +myself beneath this great tree, the branches of which are close and +thick enough to defend us against yonder shower, that comes floating up +the valley of the Thames, if indeed it can ever reach this height, my +Sable. + +"No noisy school children, no village cries to disturb and distract one +here, and scatter his half-formed ideas to the winds, or banish his best +thoughts to the shades of oblivion. Everything is still around us, +everything is natural; the twittering of the birds, the dreamy hum of +insect life, the sweet breath of the fir-trees, combine to calm the mind +and conduce to thought. + +"Why do I not come and romp and play? you ask. I cannot explain to you +why. There _are_ some things, Aileen, that even the vast intellect of a +Newfoundland cannot comprehend; the electric telegraph, for instance, +the telephone, and why a man must work. You do not doubt the existence +of what you do not understand, however, my simple Sable. We poor mortal +men do. What a thing faith is even in a Newfoundland! + +"No, Sable, I must work. Here look, is proof of the fifteenth chapter +of my serial tale, copy of the sixteenth must go to town with that. In +this life, Aileen, one must keep ahead of the printer. This is all +Greek to you, is it? Well then, for just one minute I will talk to you +in language that you do understand. + +"There, you know what I mean, don't you, when I fondle your ear, and +smooth it and spread it over my note-book? What a great ear it is, +Aileen! No, I positively refuse to have that paw on my knee in addition +to your head. Don't be offended, I know you love me. There, put back +that foot on the grass. + +"Yes, Aileen, it _was_ very good of you, I admit, to leave your fan and +your romps, and come and lay your dear kindly head on my lap. The other +dogs prefer to play. Even `Theodore Nero,' your husband, is tumbling on +the ground on that broad back of his, with his four immense legs +pointing skywards, and his whole body convulsed with merriment. The +three collies are in chase of a hare, the occasional excited yelp that +is borne along on the breeze can tell us that; we pray they may not meet +the keeper. The Dandie Dinmont is hidden away in the dark depths of a +rabbit burrow, and the two wiry wee Scotch terriers are eagerly watching +the hole 'gainst the rabbit bolts. + +"Fun and romps did I say, Aileen? Alas! dear doggie, these are hardly +the words to apply to your little games, for you seldom play or romp +with much heart, greatly though it rejoices me to see you lively. You +seldom play with much heart, mavourneen, and when you do play, you seem +but to play to please me and you tire all too soon. I know you have a +deep sorrow at your heart, for you lost your former master, Aileen, and +you are not likely to forget him. There always is a sad look in those +hazel eyes of yours, and forgive me for mentioning it, but you are +turning very grey around the lips. Your bright saucy-eyed husband +yonder is three years older than you, Sable, and he isn't grey. But, +Aileen, I know something that you don't know, poor pet, for I'm very +learned compared to you. The seeds of that terrible disease, phthisis, +are in your blood, I fear, and will one day take you from me, and I'll +have to sit and write under this tree--alone. I'm talking Greek again, +am I? It is as well, Aileen, it should be Greek to you. Why do my eyes +get a trifle moist, you seem to ask me. Never mind. There! the sad +thoughts have all flown away for a time, but, my dear, loving dog, when +you have gone to sleep at last and for ever, I'll find a quiet corner to +lay your bones in, and--I'll write your story. Yes, I promise you that, +and it is more than any one will ever do for me, Aileen. + +"Don't sigh like that. You have a habit of sighing, you tell me. Very +well, so be it, but I thought at first that it was the wind soughing +through this old pine-tree of ours. Yes, _ours_--yours and mine, +Aileen. Now, _do_ let me work. See, I'll put my note-book close to +your great nose, and your chin shall touch my left hand; you can lie so +and gaze all the time in my face. That will help me materially. But +by-and-by you'll fall asleep and dream, and I'll have to wake you, +because you'll be giving vent to a whole series of little +ventriloquistic barks and sobs and sighs, and I will not know whether +you are in pain or whether your mind is but reverting to-- + + "`Visions of the chase, + Of wild wolves howling over hills of snow, + Slain by your stalwart fathers, long ago.'" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. The subject of this memoir was called `Sable' before she came +into my possession. She is well remembered by all lovers of the true +Newfoundland, as Sable One of the show benches, and was generally +admitted to be the largest and most handsome of her breed and sex ever +exhibited.--The Author. + +CHAPTER TWO. + +INTRODUCING AILEEN AROON. + + "With eye upraised his master's looks to scan, + The joy, the solace, and the aid of man, + The rich man's guardian, and the poor man's friend, + The only creature faithful to the end." + + Crabbe. + + "The Newfoundland, take him all in all, is unsurpassed, and possibly + unequalled as the companion of man."--_Idstone_. + + "These animals are faithful, good-natured, and friendly. They will + allow no one to injure either their master or his property, however + great be the danger. They only want the faculty of speech to make + their good wishes understood."--"_Newfoundland Dogs_," in _McGregor's + "Historical and Descriptive Sketches of British America_." + + _Dog Barks_. Shepherd.--"Heavens! I could hae thocht that was + `Bronte.'" + + _Christopher North_.--"No bark like his, James, now belongs to the + world of sound." + + _Shepherd_.--"Purple black was he all over, as the raven's wing. + Strength and sagacity emboldened his bounding beauty, but a fierceness + lay deep down within the quiet lustre of his eye, that tauld ye, had + he been angered he could hae torn in pieces a lion." + + _North_.--"Not a child of three years old and upwards in the + neighbourhood that had not hung by his mane, and played with his paws, + and been affectionately worried by him on the flowery + greensward."--"_Noctes Ambrosianae_." + +"Heigho!" I sighed, as I sat stirring the fire one evening in our +little cosy cottage. "So that little dream is at an end." + +"Twenty guineas," said my wife, opening her eyes in sad surprise. +"Twenty guineas! It is a deal of money, dear." + +"Yes," I assented, "it is a deal of money for us. Not, mind you, that +Sable isn't worth double. She has taken the highest honours on the show +benches; her pedigree is a splendid one, and all the sporting papers are +loud in her praises. She is the biggest and grandest Newfoundland ever +seen in this country. But twenty guineas! Yes, that is a deal of +money." + +"I wish I could make the money with my needle, dear," my wife remarked, +after a few minutes' silence. + +"I wish I could make the money with my pen, Dot," I replied; "but I fear +even pen and needle both together won't enable us to afford so great a +luxury for some time to come. There are bills that must be paid; both +baker and butcher would soon begin to look sour if they didn't get what +they call their little dues." + +"Yes," said Dot, "and there are these rooms to be papered and painted." + +"To say nothing of a new carpet to be bought," I said, "and oilcloth for +the lobby, and seeds for the garden." + +"Yes, dear," said my wife, "and that American rocking-chair that you've +set your heart upon." + +"Oh, that can wait, Dot. There are plenty other things needed more than +that. But it is quite evident, Sable is out of the question for the +present." + +I looked down as I spoke, and patted the head of my champion +Newfoundland Theodore Nero, who had entered unseen and was gazing up in +my face with his bonnie hazel eyes as if he comprehended every word of +the conversation. + +"Poor Nero," I said, "I _should_ have liked to have had Sable just to be +a mate and companion for you, old boy." + +The great dog looked from me to my wife, and back again at me, and +wagged his enormous tail. + +"I've got you, master," he seemed to say, "and my dear mistress. What +more could I wish?" + +Just as I pen these lines, gentle reader, two little toddlers are coming +home from forenoon school, with slates under their arms; but when the +above conversation took place, no toddlers were on the books, as they +say in the navy. We were not long married. It was nine long years ago, +or going on that way. The previous ten years of my life had been spent +at sea; but service in Africa had temporarily ruined my health, so that +invaliding on a modicum of half-pay seemed more desirable than active +service on full. + +These were the dear old days of poverty and romance. Retirement from +active duty afloat and--marriage. It is too often the case that he who +marries for love has to work for siller. Henceforward, literature was +to be my staff, if not the crutch on which I should limp along until "my +talents should be recognised," as my wife grandly phrased it. + +"Poor and content is rich, and rich enough," says the greatest William +that ever lived. There is nothing to be ashamed of in poverty, and just +as little to boast about. Naval officers who retire young are all poor. +I know some who once upon a time were used to strut the quarter-deck or +ship's bridge in blue and gold, and who are now, God help them, selling +tea or taking orders for wine. + +"With all my worldly goods I thee endow." I squeezed the hand of my +bride at the altar as I spoke the words, and well she knew the pressure +was meant to recall to her mind a fact of which she was already +cognisant, that "all my worldly goods" consisted of a Cremona fiddle, +and my Newfoundland dog, and my old sea-chest; but the bottom of that +was shaky. + +But to resume my story. + +"Hurrah!" I shouted some mornings after, as I opened the letters. +"Here's news, Dot. We're going to have Sable after all. Hear how D. +O'C writes. He says-- + +"`Though I have never met you, judging from what I have seen of your +writings, I would rather you accepted Sable as a gift, than that any one +else should have my favourite for money,' and so on and so forth." + +These are not the exact words of the letter, but they convey the exact +meaning. + +Sable was to come by boat from Ireland, and I was to go to Bristol, a +distance of seventy miles, to meet her, for no one who values the life +and limbs of a dog, would trust to the tender mercies of the railway +companies. + +"I'll go with you, Gordon," said my dear friend, Captain D--. Like +myself, he had been a sailor, but unmarried, for, as he used to express +it, "he had pulled up in time." He had taken _Punch's_ advice to people +about to marry--"Don't." + +Captain D--didn't. + +"Well, Frank," I said, "I'll be very glad indeed of your company." + +So off we started the night before, for the boat would be in the basin +at Hotwells early the next morning. The scene and the din on board that +Irish boat beggars description, and I do not know which made the most +noise, the men or the pigs. I think if anything the pigs did. It +seemed to me that evil spirits had entered into the pigs, and they +wanted to throw themselves into the sea. I believe evil spirits had +entered into the men, too; some of them, at all events, _smelt_ of evil +spirits. + +"Is it a thremendeous big brute 'av a black dog you've come to meet, +sorr?" said the cook to me. + +"Yes," I replied, "a big black dog, but not a brute." + +"Well, poor baste, sorr, it's in my charge she has been all the way, and +she's had lashin's to ate and to drink. Thank you koindly, sir, and God +bless your honour. Yonder she is, sorr, tied up foreninst the +horse-box, and she's been foighting with the pigs all the noight, sorr." + +She certainly had been fighting with the pigs, for she herself was +wounded, and the ears of some of the pigs were in tatters. + +Sable was looking very sour and sulky. She certainly had not relished +the company she had been placed among. She permitted me to lead her on +shore; then she gave me one glance, and cast one towards my friend. + +"You'll be the _man_ that has come for me," she said; she did not say +"the gentleman." + +"Who is your fat friend?" she added. + +We both caressed her without eliciting the slightest token on her part +of any desire to improve our acquaintance. + +"You may pat me," she told us, "and call me pet names as much as you +please. I won't bite you as I did the pigs, but I don't care a bone for +either of you, and, what is more, I never intend to. I have left my +heart in Ireland; my master is there." + +"Come on, Sable," I said; "we'll go now and have some breakfast." + +"Don't pull," said Sable; "I'm big enough to break the chain and bolt if +I wish to. I'll go with you, but I'll neither be dragged nor driven." + +No dog ever had a better breakfast put before her, but she would not +deign even to look at it. + +"Yes," she seemed to say, "it is very nice, and smells appetising, and +I'm hungry, too; a bite of a sow's ear is all I've had since I left +home; but for all that I don't mean to eat; I'm going to starve myself +to death, that is what I'm going to do." + +It is very wrong and unfair to bring home any animal, whether bird or +beast, to one's house without having previously made everything needful +ready for its reception. Sable's comfort had not been forgotten, and on +her arrival we turned her into the back yard, where, in a small wooden +house, was a bed of the cleanest straw, to say nothing of a dish of +wholesome food, and a bowl of the purest water. The doors to the yard +were locked, but no chain was put on the new pet, for the walls were +seven feet high or nearly so, and her safety was thus insured. + +So we thought, but, alas for our poor logic! We had yet to learn what +Sable's jumping capabilities were. When I wrote next day, and told her +old master that Sable had leapt the high wall and fled, the reply was +that he regretted very much not having told me, that she was the most +wonderful dog to jump ever he had seen or heard tell of. + +Meanwhile Sable was gone. But where or whither? The country is +well-wooded, but there are plenty of sheep in it. Judging from Sable's +pig-fighting qualities, I felt sure she would not starve, if she chose +to feed on sheep. But one sheep a day, even for a week, would make a +hole in my quarter's half-pay, and I shuddered to think of the little +bill Sable might in a very short time run me up. No one had seen Sable. +So days passed; then came a rumour that some school children had been +frightened nearly out of their little wits by the appearance of an +enormous bear, in a wood some miles from our cottage. + +My hopes rose; the bear must be Sable. So an expedition was organised +to go in search of her. The rank and file of this expedition consisted +of schoolboys. I myself was captain, and Theodore Nero, the +Newfoundland, was first lieutenant. + +We were successful. My heart jumped for joy as I saw the great dog in +the distance. But she would not suffer any one to come near her. That +was not her form. I must walk on and whistle, and she would follow. I +was glad enough to close with the offer, and gladder still when we +reached home before she changed her mind and went off again. + +Chaining now became imperative until Sable became reconciled to her +situation in life, until I had succeeded in taming her by kindness. + +This was by no means an easy task. For weeks she never responded to +either kind word or caress, but one day Sable walked up to me as I sat +writing, and, much to my surprise, offered me her great paw. + +"Shake hands," she seemed to say as she wagged her tail, "Shake hands. +You're not half such a bad fellow as I first took you for." + +My friend, Captain D--, was delighted, and we must needs write at once +to Sable's old master to inform him of the unprecedented event. + +Sable became every day more friendly and loving in her own gentle +undemonstrative and quiet fashion. But as yet she had never barked. + +One day, however, on throwing a stick to Nero, she too ran after it, and +on making pretence to throw it again, Sable began to caper. Not +gracefully perhaps, but still it was capering, and finally she barked. + +When I told friend Frank he was as much overjoyed as I was. I suggested +writing at once to Ireland and making the tidings known. + +"A letter, Gordon," said my friend emphatically, "will not meet the +requirements of the case. Let us telegraph. Let us wire, thus--`_Sable +has barked_.'" + +The good dog's former master was much pleased at the receipt of the +information. + +"She will do now," he wrote; "and I'm quite easy in my mind about her." + +Now all this may appear very trivial to some of my readers, but there +really was for a time, a probability that Sable would die of sheer +grief, as, poor dog, she eventually succumbed to consumption. + +We were, if possible, kinder to Sable, or Aileen Aroon, as she was now +called, than ever. She became the constant companion of all our walks +and rambles, and developed more and more excellences every week. +Without being what might be called brilliant, Aileen was clever and most +teachable. She never had been a trained or educated dog. Theodore Nero +had, and whether he took pity on his wife's ignorance or not, I cannot +say, but he taught her a very great deal she never knew anything about +before. + +Here is a proof that Aileen's reasoning powers were of no mean order. +When Master Nero wanted a tit-bit he was in the habit of making a bow +for it. The bow consisted in a graceful inclination or lowering of the +chest and head between the outstretched fore-paws. Well, Aileen was not +long in perceiving that the performing of this little ceremony always +procured for her husband a morsel of something nice to eat, that "To +boo, and to boo, and to boo," was the best of policies. + +She therefore took to it without any tuition, and to see those "twa +dogs," standing in front of me when a biscuit or two were on the board, +and booing, and booing, and booing, was a sight to have made a +dray-horse smile. + +I am sure that Nero soon grew exceedingly fond of his new companion, and +she of him in her quiet way. + +I may state here parenthetically, that Master Nero had had a companion +before Aileen. His previous experience of the married state, however, +had not been a happy one. His wife, "Bessie" to name, had taken to +habits of intemperance. She had been used to one glass of beer a day +before she came to me, and it was thought it might injure her to stop +it. If she had kept to this, it would not have mattered, but she used +to run away in the evenings, and go to a public-house, where she would +always find people willing to treat her for the mere curiosity of seeing +a dog drink. When she came home she was not always so steady as she +might be, but foolishly affectionate. She would sit down by me and +insist upon shaking hands about fifteen times every minute, or she would +annoy Nero by pawing him till he growled at her, and told her, or seemed +to tell her, she ought to be ashamed of herself for being in the state +she was. She was very fat, and after drinking beer used to take Nero's +bed from him and sleep on her back snoring, much to his disgust. This +dog was afterwards sold to Mr Montgomery, of Oxford, who stopped her +allowance for some months, after which she would neither look at ale nor +gin-and-water, of which latter she used to be passionately fond. + +Aileen and Nero used to be coupled together in the street with a short +chain attached to their collars. But not always; they used to walk +together jowl to jowl, whether they were coupled or not, and these two +splendid black dogs were the wonder and admiration of all who beheld +them. Whatever one did the other did, they worked in couple. When I +gave my stick to Nero to carry, Aileen must have one end of it. When we +went shopping they carried the stick thus between them, with a bag or +basket slung between, and their steadiness could be depended on. + +They used to spring into the river or into the sea from a boat both +together, and both together bring out whatever was thrown to them. +Their immense heads above the water both in friendly juxta-position, +were very pretty to look at. + +They were in the habit of hunting rats or rabbits in couples, one going +up one side of the hedge, the other along the other side. + +I am sorry to say they used at times, for the mere fun of the thing, and +out of no real spirit of ill-nature, to hunt horses as well as rabbits, +one at one side of the horse the other at the other, and likewise +bicyclists; this was great fun for the dogs, but the bicyclists looked +at the matter from quite another point of view. But I never managed to +break them altogether of these evil habits. + +It has often seemed to me surprising how one dog will encourage another +in doing mischief. A few dogs together will conceive and execute deeds +of daring, that an animal by himself would never even dream of +attempting. + +As I travelled a good deal by train at that time, and always took my two +dogs with me, it was more convenient to go into the guard's van with my +pets, than take a first or second class carriage by storm. I shall +never forget being put one day with the two dogs into a large almost +empty van. It was almost empty, but not quite. There was a ram tied up +at the far end of it. + +Now if this ram had chosen to behave himself, as a ram in respectable +society ought to, it would have saved me a deal of trouble, and the ram +some danger. But no sooner had the train started than the obstreperous +brute began to bob his head and stamp his feet at me and my companions +in the most ominous way. + +Luckily the dogs were coupled; I could thus more easily command them. +But no sooner had the ram begun to stamp and bob, than both dogs +commenced to growl, and wanted to fly straight at him. "Let us kill +that insolent ram," said Nero, "who dares to stamp and nod at us." + +"Yes," cried Aileen, "happy thought! let us kill him." + +I was ten minutes in that van before the train pulled up, ten minutes +during which I had to exercise all the tact of a great general in order +to keep the peace. Had the ram, who was just as eager for the fray as +the dogs, succeeded in breaking his fastenings, hostilities would have +commenced instantly, and I would have been powerless. + +By good luck the train stopped in time to prevent a catastrophe, and we +got out, but for nearly a week, as a result of my struggle with the +dogs, I ached all over and felt as limp as a stranded jelly-fish. + +CHAPTER THREE. + +CONTAINING THE STORY OF ONE OF AILEEN'S FRIENDS. + + "The straw-thatched cottage, or the desert air, + To him's a palace if his master's there." + +Just eighteen months after the events mentioned in last chapter, as +novelists say, things took a turn for the better, and we retired a +little farther into the country into a larger house. A bigger house, +though certainly not a mansion; but here are gardens and lawn and +paddock, kennels for dogs, home for cats, and aviaries for birds, many a +shady nook in which to hang a hammock in the summer months, and a garden +wigwam, which makes a cool study even in hot weather, bedraped as it is +in evergreens, and looks a cosy wee room in winter, when the fire is +lighted and the curtains are drawn. "Ah! Gordon," dear old Frank used +to say--and there was probably a grain of truth in the remark--"there is +something about the quiet contented life you lead in your cottage, with +its pleasant surroundings, that reminds me forcibly of the idyllic +existence of your favourite bard, Horace, in his home by the banks of +the Anio. + + "`Beatus ille qui procul negotiis, + Ut prisca gens mortalium, + Patenta rure bubus exercet suis + Solutus omni fenore, + Neque excitatur classico miles truci + Neque horret iratum mare.'" + +"True, Frank," I replied, "at sea I often thought I would dearly love a +country life. My ambition--and I believe I represent quite a large +majority of my class--used to be, that one day I might be able to retire +on a comfortable allowance--half-pay, for instance--take a house with a +morsel of land, and keep a cow and a pony, and go in for rearing +poultry, fruit, and all that sort of thing. Such was my dream. + +"There were six of us in our mess in the saucy little `Pen-gun.' + +"It was hot out there on the East Coast of Africa, where we were +stationed, and we did our best to make it hotter--for the dhows which we +captured, at all events, because we burned them. Nearly all day, and +every day, we were in chase, mostly of slave dhows, but sometimes of +jolly three-masters. + +"Away out in the broad channel of the blue Mozambique, with never a +cloud in the sky, nor a ripple on the ocean's breast, tearing along at +the rate of twelve knots an hour, with the chase two miles ahead, and +happy in the thoughts of quite a haul of prize-money, it wasn't half bad +fun, I can assure you. Then we could whistle `A sailor's life is the +life for me,' and feel the mariner all over. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"But, when the chase turned out to be no prize, but only a legitimate +trader, when the night closed in dark and stormy, with a roaring wind +and a chopping sea, then, it must be confessed, things did not look +quite so much _couleur de rose_, dot a mariner's life so merry-o! + +"On nights like these, when the fiddles were shipped across the table to +keep things straight--for a lively lass was the saucy `Pen-gun,' and +thought no more of breaking half-a-dozen wine-glasses, than she did of +going stem first in under a wave she was too lazy to mount--when the +fiddles were shipped, when we had wedged ourselves into all sorts of +corners, so as we shouldn't slip about and fall, when the steward had +brought the coffee and the biscuits called ships', then it was our wont +to sit and sip and talk and build our castles in the air. + +"`It's all very fine,' one of us would say, `to talk of the pleasures of +a sailor's life, it's all very well in songs; but, if I could only get +on shore now, on retired pay--' + +"`Why, what would you do?'--a chorus. + +"`Why, go in for the wine trade like a shot,' from the first speaker. +`That's the way to make money. Derogatory, is it? Well, I don't see +it; I'd take to tea--' + +"Chorus again: `Oh! come, I say!' + +"Some one, more seriously and thoughtfully: `No; but wouldn't you like +to be a farmer?' The ship kicks, a green sea breaks over her. We are +used to it, but don't like it, even although we do take the cigars from +our lips, as we complacently view the water pouring down the hatchway +and rising around our chairs' legs. + +"`A farmer, you know, somewhere in the midland counties; green fields +and lowing kine; a nice stream, meandering--no not meandering, but-- + + "`Chattering over stony ways, + In little sharps and trebles, + Bubbling into eddying bays. + Babbling o'er the pebbles; + Winding about, and in and out, + With here a blossom sailing, + And here and there a lusty trout, + And here and there a grayling.' + +"`Yes,' from another fellow, `and of course a comfortable house of solid +English masonry, and hounds not very far off, so as one could cut away +to a hunt whenever he liked.' + +"`And of course balls and parties, and a good dinner _every_ day.' + +"`And picnics often, and the seaside in season, and shooting all the +year round.' + +"`And I'd go in for bees.' + +"`Oh! yes, I think every fellow would go in for bees.' + +"`And have a field of Scottish heather planted on purpose for them: +fancy how nice that would look in summer!' + +"`And I'd have a rose garden.' + +"`Certainly; nothing could be done without a rose garden.' + +"`Then one could go in for poultry, and grow one's own eggs.' + +"`Hear the fellow!--fancy _growing_ eggs!' + +"`Well, lay them, then--it's all the same. I'm not so green as to +imagine eggs grow on trees.' + +"`And think of the fruit one might have.' + +"`And the mushroom beds.' + +"`And brew one's own beer and cider.' + +"`And of course one could go in for dogs.' + +"`Oh! la! yes--have them all about the place. Elegant Irish setters, +dainty greyhounds, cobby wee fox-terriers, a noble Newfoundland or two, +and a princely bloodhound at each side of the hall-door.' + +"`That's the style!' + +"`Now, give us a song, Pelham!' + +"`What shall it be--Dibdin?' + +"`No, Pelham, give us, "Sweet Jessie, the Flower o' Dumblane," or +something in that style. Let us fancy we are farmers. Doesn't she +pitch and roll, though! Dibdin and Russell are all very well on shore, +or sitting under an awning in fine weather when homeward bound. We're +not homeward bound--worse luck!--so heave round with the "Flower o' +Dumblane."' + +"My dream has in some measure been fulfilled, my good friend Frank; I +can sit now under my own vine and my own fig-tree, but still look back +with a certain degree of pleasure to many a night spent on board that +heaving, pitching, saucy, wee ship." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Our new home nestles among trees not far from a very primitive wee town +indeed. We have only to descend along the hill-side through the +pine-trees, wind some way round the knoll, and there at our feet lies +_our_ village--Fernydale, to wit. It might just as well be called +Sleepy Hollow, such a dreamy little spot it is. Not very far from a +great line of rails--just far enough to subdue the roar of the trains, +that night and day go whirling past in a drowsy monotone, like the +distant sound of falling water. Everything and everybody about our +little village looks quiet and drowsy; the little church itself, that +nestles among the wealth of foliage, looks the picture of drowsiness, +and the very smoke seems as if it preferred lingering in Fernydale to +ascending upwards and joining the clouds. We have a mill here--oh! such +a drowsy old mill! No one was ever known to be able to pass that mill +without nodding. Intoxicated lieges, who have lain down to rest +opposite that mill, have been known to sleep the sleep that knows no +waking; and if at any time you stop your horse for a moment on the road, +while you talk to the miller, the animal soon begins to nod; and he +nods, and nods, and nid-nid-nods, and finally goes to sleep entirely, +and it takes no end of trouble to start him off again. + +Our very birds are drowsy. The larks don't care to sing a bit more than +suffices for conjugal felicity, and the starlings are constantly +tumbling down our bedroom chimney, and making such a row that we think +the burglars have come. + +The bees are drowsy; they don't gather honey with any degree of +activity; they don't seem to care whether they gather it or not. They +are often too lazy to fly back to hive, and don't go home till morning; +and if you were to take a walk along our road at early dawn--say 11:45 +a.m.--you would often find these bees sitting limp-winged and half +asleep on fragrant thistle-tops, and if you poked at them with a stalk +of hay, and tried to reason with them, they would just lift one lazy +fore-leg and beckon you off, as much as to say, peevishly-- + +"Oh! what was I born for? _Can't_ you leave a poor fellow alone? What +do ye come pottering around here at midnight for?" + +Such is the hum-drum drowsiness of little Fernydale. + +But bonny is our cottage in spring and summer, when the pink-eyed +chestnuts are all ablaze at the foot of the lawn, when flowers bloom +white on the scented rowans, when the yellow gorse on the knoll beyond +glints through the green of the trees, when the merlin sings among the +drooping limes, and the croodling pigeons make soft-eyed love on the +eaves; and there is beauty about it, too, even in winter, when the world +is robed in snow, when the leafless branches point to leaden skies, and +the robin, tired of his sweet little song, taps on the panes with his +tiny bill, for the crumbs he has never to ask for in vain. + +It was one winter's evening in the year eighteen hundred and seventy +something, that Frank stood holding our parlour-door in his hand, while +he gazed with a pleased smile at the group around the fire. It wasn't a +large group. There were Dot and Ida knitting: and my humble self +sitting, book in hand and pipe in mouth. Then there were the +Newfoundland dogs on the hearth, and pussy singing on the footstool, +singing a duet with the kettle on the hob. And I must not forget to +mention "Poll," the parrot. Nobody knew how old Polly was, but with her +extreme wisdom you couldn't help associating age. She didn't speak much +at a time; like many another sage, she went in for being laconic, pithy, +and to the point. I think, however, that some day or other Polly will +tell us quite a long story, for she often clears her throat and says, +"_Now_," in quite an emphatic manner; then she cocks her head, and says +"Are you listening?" + +"We are all attention, Polly," we reply. So Polly begins again with her +decided "_Now_;" but up to this date she has not succeeded in advancing +one single sentence farther towards the completion of her story. + +Well, upon the winter's evening in question Frank stood there, holding +the door and smiling to himself, and any one could see at a glance that +Frank was pregnant with an idea. + +"I've been thinking," said Frank, "that there is nothing needed to +complete the happiness of the delightful evenings we spend here, except +a story-teller." + +"No one better able than yourself, Frank, to fill the post," I remarked. + +"Well, now," said Frank, "for that piece of arrant flattery, I fine you +a story." + +"Read us that little sketch about `Dandie,'" my wife said. + +"Yes, do," cried Ida, looking up from her work. + +If a man is asked to do anything like this he ought to do it heartily. + +Dandie, I may premise, is, or rather was, a contemporary of Aileen +Aroon. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +OUR DANDIE. + +A very long doggie is Dandie, with little short bits of legs, nice close +hanging ears, hair as strong and rough as the brush you use for your +hair, and a face--well, some say it is ugly; I myself, and all my +friends, think it is most engaging. To be sure, it is partially hidden +with bonnie soft locks of an ambery or golden hue; but push those locks +aside, and you will see nothing in those beautiful dark hazel eyes but +love and fun. For Dandie is fall of fun. Oh! doesn't she enjoy a run +out with the children! On the road she goes feathering, here, there, +and everywhere. Her legs are hardly straight, you must understand--the +legs of very few Dandies are, for they are so accustomed to go down +drains, and all sorts of holes, and go scraping here, and scraping +there, that their feet and fore-legs turn at last something like a +mole's. + +Dandie wasn't always the gentle loving creature she is now, and this is +the reason I am writing her story. Here, then, is how I came by Dandie. + +I was sitting in my study one morning, writing as usual, when a carriage +stopped at the door, and presently a friend was announced. + +"Why, Dawson, my boy!" I cried, getting up to greet him, "what wind +blew you all the way here?" + +"Not a good one, by any means," said Dawson; "I came to see you." + +"Well, well, sit down, and tell me all about it. I sincerely hope Miss +Hall is well." + +"Well! yes," he replied abstractedly. "I think I've done all for the +best; though that policeman nearly had her. But she left her mark on +him. Ha! ha!" + +I began to think my friend was going out of his mind. + +"Dawson," I said, "what have you done with her?" + +"She's outside in the carriage," replied Dawson. + +I jumped up to ring the bell, saying, "Why, Dawson, pray have the young +lady in. It is cruel to leave her by herself." + +Dawson jumped up too, and placing his hand on my arm, prevented me from +touching the bell-rope. + +"Nay, nay!" he cried, almost wildly, I thought; "pray do not think of +it. She would bite you, tear you, rend you. Oh, she is a _vixen_!" +This last word he pronounced with great emphasis, and sinking once more +into the chair, and gazing abstractedly at the fire, he added, "And +still I love her, good little thing!" + +I now felt quite sorry for Dawson. A moment ago I merely _thought_ he +was out of his mind, now I felt perfectly sure of it. + +There was a few minutes' silence; and then suddenly my friend rushed to +the window, exclaiming-- + +"There, there! She's at it again! She has got the cabby by the +coat-tails, and she'll eat her way through him in five minutes, if I +don't go." + +And out he ran; and I followed, more mystified than ever; and there in +the carriage was no young lady at all, but only the dear little Dandie +whose story I am writing. She was most earnestly engaged in tearing the +driver's blue coat into the narrowest strips, and growling all the while +most vigorously. + +She quieted down, however, immediately on perceiving her master, jumped +into his arms, and began to lick his face. + +So the mystery was cleared up; and half an hour afterwards I was +persuaded to become the owner of that savage Dandie, and Dawson had +kissed her, and left lighter in heart than when he had come. + +I set aside one of the best barrel kennels for her, had a quantity of +nice dry straw placed therein, and gave her two dishes, one to be filled +daily with pure clean water--without which, remember, no dog can be +healthy--and the other to hold her food. + +Now, I am not afraid of any dog. I have owned many scores in my time, +and by treating them gently and firmly, I always managed to subdue even +the most vicious among them, and get them to love me. But I must +confess that this Dandie was the most savage animal that I had ever yet +met. + +When I went to take her dish away next morning, to wash and replenish +it, only my own celerity in beating a retreat prevented my legs from +being viciously bitten. I then endeavoured to remove the dish with the +stable besom. Alas for the besom! Howling and growling with passion, +with scintillating eyes and flashing teeth, she tore that broom to +atoms, and then attacked the handle. But I succeeded in feeding her, +after which she was quieter. + +Now, dogs, to keep them in health, need daily exercise, and I determined +Dandie should not want that, wild though she seemed to be. There was +another scene when I went to unloose her; and I found the only chance of +doing so was to treat her as they do wild bulls in some parts of the +country. I got a hook and attached it to the end of a pole the same +length as the chain. I could then keep her at a safe distance. And +thus for a whole week I had to lead her out for exercise. I lost no +opportunity of making friends with her, and in about a fortnight's time +I could both take her dish away without a broom and lead her out without +the pole. + +She was still the vixen, however, which her former master had called +her. When she was presented with a biscuit, she wouldn't think of +eating it, before she had had her own peculiar game with it. She would +lay it first against the back of the barrel, and for a time pretend not +to see it, then suddenly she would look round, next fly at it, growling +and yelping with rage, and shake it as she would a rat. Into such a +perfect fury and frenzy did she work herself during her battle with the +biscuit, that sometimes on hearing her chain rattle she would turn round +and seize and shake it viciously. I have often, too, at these times +seen her bite her tail because it dared to wag--bite it till the blood +sprang, then with a howl of pain bite and bite it again and again. At +last I made up my mind to feed her only on soil food, and that +resolution I have since stuck to. + +Poor Dandie had now been with us many months, and upon the whole her +life, being almost constantly on the chain, was by no means a very happy +one. Her hair, too, got matted, and she looked altogether morose and +dirty, and it was then that the thought occurred to my wife and me that +she would be much better _dead_. I considered the matter in all its +bearings for fully half an hour, and it was then I suddenly jumped up +from my chair. + +"What _are_ you going to do?" asked my wife. + +"I'm going to wash Dandie; wash her, comb out all her mats, dry her, and +brush her, for, do you know, I feel quite guilty in having neglected +her." + +My wife, in terror of the consequences of washing so vicious a dog, +tried to dissuade me. But my mind was made up, and shortly after so was +Dandie's bed--of clean dry straw in a warm loft above the stable. +"Firmly and kindly does it," I had said to myself, as I seized the vixen +by the nape of the neck, and in spite of her efforts to rend any part of +my person she could lay hold of, I popped her into the tub. + +Vixen, did I say? She was popped into the tub a vixen, sure enough, but +I soon found out I had "tamed the shrew," and after she was rinsed in +cold water, well dried, combed, and brushed, the poor little thing +jumped on my knee and kissed me. Then I took her for a run--a thing one +ought never to neglect after washing a dog. And you wouldn't have known +Dandie now, so beautiful did she look. + +Dandie is still alive, and lies at my feet as I write, a living example +of the power of kindness. She loves us all, and will let my sister, +wife, or little niece do anything with her, but she is still most +viciously savage to nearly all strangers. She is the best guard-dog +that I ever possessed, and a terror to tramps. She is very wise too, +this Dandie of mine, for when out walking with any one of my relations, +she is as gentle as a lamb, and will let anybody fondle her. She may +thus be taken along with us with impunity when making calls upon +friends, but very few indeed of those friends dare go near her when in +her own garden or kennel. We have been well rewarded for our kindness +to Dandie, for although her usual residence by day is her own barrel, +and by night she has a share of the straw with the other dogs, she is +often taken into the house, and in spite of our residence being in a +somewhat lonely situation, whenever I go from home for the night she +becomes a parlour boarder, and I feel quite easy in my mind because +_Dandie is in the house_. + +"Well," said Frank, when I had finished, "if that little story proves +anything, it proves, I think, that almost any dog can be won by +kindness." + +"Or any animal of almost any kind," I added. + +"Ah!" cried Frank, laughing, "but you failed with your hyaena. Didn't +you?" + +"Gratitude," I replied, smiling, "does not occupy a very large corner in +a hyaena's heart, Frank." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note. Since writing the above, poor Dandie has gone to her little grave +in the orchard. + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +DEDICATED TO GIRLS AND BOYS ONLY. + + "A little maiden, frank and fair, + With rosy lips apart, + And sunbeams glinting in her hair, + And sunshine at her heart." + +In my last chapter I mentioned the name of Ida. Ida Graham was my +little niece. Alas! she no longer brightens our home with the sunshine +of her smile. Poor child, she was very beautiful. We all thought so, +and every one else who saw her. I have but to close my eyes for a +moment and I see her again knitting quietly by the fire on a winter's +evening, or reading by the open window in the cool of a summer's day; +or, reticule in hand, tripping across the clovery lea, the two great +dogs, Aileen and Nero, bounding in front of her; or blithely singing as +she feeds her canaries; or out in the yard beyond, surrounded by hens +and cocks, pigeons, ducks, and geese, laughing gaily as she scatters the +barley she carries in her little apron. + +It was not a bit strange that every creature loved Ida Graham, from the +dogs to the bees. We lost her one day, I remember, in summer-time, and +found her at last sound asleep by the foot of a tree, with deer browsing +quietly near her, a hare washing its face within a yard of her, and wild +birds hopping around and on her. + +Such was Ida. It is no wonder, then, that we miss the dear child. + +Very often I would have Ida all to myself for a whole day, when my wife +was in town or visiting, and Frank was gardening or had the gout, for he +suffered at times from that aristocratic but tantalising ailment. + +On these occasions, when the weather was fine, we always took the dogs +and went off to spend an hour or two in the woods. If it rained we +stayed indoors, seated by the open window in order to be near the birds. +But wet day or fine, Ida generally managed to get a story from me. It +was in the wood, and seated beneath the old pine-tree, that I told her +the following. I called it-- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +PUFF: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PERSIAN PUSSY. + +I am one of seven. Very much to the grief and sorrow of my poor patient +mother, all the rest of my little brothers and sisters met with a watery +grave. I did not know what mother meant when she told me this, with +tears in her eyes. I was too young then, but I think I know now. But I +was left to comfort my parent's heart. This was humane at least in my +mistress, because, although it seems the fate of us poor pussies that +very many of us come into the world to be speedily drowned, it is cruel, +for many reasons, to destroy all a mother's darlings at once. + +Well, the very earliest thing that I can remember is being taken up in +the arms of a pretty young lady. I was two months old then, and had +been playing with a ball of worsted, which I had succeeded in getting +entangled among the chair-legs. + +"Oh, what a dear, beautiful, wee puss!" said this young miss, holding me +round, so that she might look at my face. "And, oh!" she added, "it has +such lovely eyes, and such a nice long coat." + +"You may have it, Laura dear," said my mistress, "if you will be kind to +it." + +"Thank you so very much," said Laura, "and I know I shall be fond of it +always." + +And I do not doubt for a moment that Laura meant what she said. Her +fault, however, and my misfortune lay, as you shall see, in the fact +that she did not know a bit how to treat a pussy in order to make it +happy. + +Laura liked me, and romped with me morning and night, it is true; but +although cats are ever so fond of attention and of romps, they cannot +live upon either, and often and often I have gone hungry to my saucer +and found it empty, which made me feel very cold and sad and dispirited. +Yet, in spite of this, I grew to be very fond indeed of my new +mistress, and as I sometimes managed to catch a mouse I was not so very +badly off after all. + +When I gazed at Miss Laura's gentle face and her sweet eyes--they were +just like my own--I could not help thinking that if she only knew how +hungry and cold I often was, she would surely feed me twice a day at +least. But my crowning sorrow was to come; and this was nothing less +than the loss, I fear entirely, of my mistress's affection. + +My grief was all the more bitter in that I was in some measure to blame +for it myself. You see, I was a growing cat, and every day the pangs of +hunger seemed more difficult to bear; so one day, when left by myself in +the kitchen, I found out a way to open the cupboard, and--pray do not +blame me; I do think if you had seen all the nice things therein, and +felt as hungry as I felt, you would have tasted them too. + +One little sin begets another, and before two months were over I was +known in the kitchen as "that thief of a cat." I do not think Miss +Laura knew of my depredations downstairs, for I was always honest in the +parlour, and she would, I feel certain, have forgiven me even if she had +known. As I could not be trusted in the kitchen, I was nearly always +tamed out-of-doors of a night. This was exceedingly unkind, for it was +often dark and rainy and cold, and I could find but little shelter. On +dry moonlight nights I did not mind being out, for there was fun to be +got--fun and field-mice. Alas! I wish now I had kept to fun and +field-mice; but I met with evil company, vagrant outdoor cats, who took +a delight in mewing beneath the windows of nervous invalids; who +despised indoor life, looked upon theft as a fine art, and robbed +pigeon-lofts right and left. + +Is it any wonder, then, that I soon turned as reckless as any of them? +I always came home at the time the milk arrived in the morning, however; +and even now, had my young mistress only fed me, I would have changed my +evil courses at once. But she did not. + +Now this constant stopping out in all weathers began to tell on my +beautiful coat; it was no longer silky and beautiful. It became matted +and harsh, and did show the dirt, so much so that I was quite ashamed to +look in the glass. And always, too, I was so tired, all through my +wanderings, when I returned of a morning, that I did nothing all day but +nod drowsily over the fire. No wonder Miss Laura said one day-- + +"Oh, pussy, pussy! you do look dirty and disreputable. You are no +longer the lovely creature you once were; I cannot care for such a cat +as you have grown." + +But I still loved her, and a kind word from her lips, or a casual caress +was sure to make me happy, even in my dullest of moods. + +The end came sooner than I expected, for one day Miss Laura went from +home very early in the morning. As soon as she was gone, Mary Jane, the +servant, seized me rudely by the neck. I thought she was going to kill +me outright. + +"I'll take good care, my lady," she said, "that you don't steal +anything, at any rate for four-and-twenty hours to come." + +Then she marched upstairs with me, popped me into my mistress's bedroom, +locked the door, and went away chuckling. There was no one else in the +room, only just myself and the canary. And all that long day no one +ever came near me with so much as a drop of milk. When night came I +tried to sleep on Miss Laura's bed, but the pangs of hunger effectually +banished slumber. When day broke I felt certain somebody would come to +the door. But no. I thought this was so cruel of Mary Jane, especially +as I had no language in which to tell my mistress, on her return, of my +sufferings. Towards the afternoon I felt famishing, and then my eyes +fell upon the canary. + +"Poor little thing!" said I; "you, too, are neglected and starving." + +"Tweet, tweet!" said the bird, looking down at me with one eye. + +"Now, dicky," I continued, "I'm going to do you a great kindness. If +you were a very, very large bird, I should ask you to eat me and put me +out of all this misery." + +"Tweet, tweet!" said the bird very knowingly, as much as to say, "I +would do it without the slightest hesitation." + +"Well," said I, "I mean to perform the same good office for you. I +cannot see you starving there without trying to ease your sufferings, +and so--" + +Here I sprang at the cage. I draw a veil over what followed. + +And now my appetite was appeased, but my conscience was awakened. How +ever should I be able to face my mistress again? Hark! what is that? +It is Miss Laura's footstep on the stair. She is singing as sweetly as +only Laura can. She approaches the door; her hand is on the latch. I +can stand it no longer. With one bound, with one wild cry, I dash +through a pane of glass, and drop almost senseless on to the lawn +beneath the window. + +It was sad enough to have to leave my dear mistress and my dear old +home, which, despite all I had endured, I had learned to love, as only +we poor pussies can love our homes. But my mind was made up. I had +eaten Miss Laura's pet canary, and I dare never, never look her in the +face again. + +Till this time I had lived in the sweet green country, but I now +wandered on and on, caring little where I went or what became of me. By +day I hid myself in burrows and rat-haunted drains, and at night came +forth to seek for food and continue my wanderings. So long as the grass +and trees were all around me, I was never in want of anything to eat; +but in time all this changed, and gradually I found myself caning nearer +and nearer to some great city or town. First, rows upon rows of +neatly-built villas and cottages came into view, and by-and-by these +gave place to long streets where never a green thing grew, and I passed +lofty, many-windowed workshops, from which issued smoke and steam, and +much noise and confusion. I met with many cats in this city, who, like +myself, seemed to be outcasts, and had never known the pleasures of home +and love. They told me they lived entirely by stealing, at which they +were great adepts, and on such food as they picked out of the gutter. +They listened attentively to my tales of the far-off country, where many +a rippling stream meandered through meadows green, in which the daisies +and the yellow cowslips grew; of beautiful flowers, and of birds in +every bush. Very much of what I told them was so very new to them that +they could not understand it; but they listened attentively, +nevertheless, and many a night kept me talking to them until I was so +tired I felt ready to drop. In return for my stories they taught me--or +rather, tried to teach me--to steal cleverly, not clumsily, as country +cats do. But, alas! I could not learn, and do as I would I barely +picked up a living; then my sufferings were increased by the cruelty of +boys, who often pelted me with stones and set wild wicked dogs to chase +me. I got so thin at last that I could barely totter along. + +One evening a large black tom-cat who was a great favourite of mine, and +often brought me tit-bits, said to me, "There's a few of us going out +shopping to-night; will you come?" + +"I'll try," I answered feebly, "for I do feel faint and sick and +hungry." + +We tried some fishmongers' shops first, and were very successful; then +we went to another shop. Ill as I was, I could not help admiring the +nimble way my Tom, as I called him, sprang on to a counter and helped +himself to a whole string of delicious sausages. I tried to emulate +Tom's agility, but oh, dear! I missed my footing and fell down into the +very jaws of a terrible dog. + +How I got away I never could tell, but I did; and wounded and bleeding +sorely, I managed to drag myself down a quiet street and into a garden, +and there, under a bush, I lay down to die. It was pitilessly cold, and +the rain beat heavily down, and the great drops fell through the bush +and drenched me to the skin. Then the cold and pain seemed all at once +to leave me. I had fallen into an uneasy doze, and I was being chased +once more by dogs with large eyes and faces, up and down in long wet +streets where the gas flickered, through many a muddy pool. Then I +thought I found myself once again in the fields near my own home, with +the sun brightly shining and the birds making the air ring with their +music. Then I heard a gentle voice saying-- + +"Now, Mary, I think that will do. The cheese-box and cushion make such +a fine bed for her; and when she awakes give the poor thing that drop of +warm milk and sugar." + +I did awake, and was as much surprised as pleased to find myself in a +nice snug room, and lying not far from the fire. A neatly-dressed +servant-girl was kneeling near me, and not far off a lady dressed in +black sat sewing. + +This, then, was my new mistress, and--_I was saved_. How different she +was from poor Miss Laura, who, you know, did not _mean_ to be cruel to +me. This lady was very, very kind to me, though she made but little +fuss about it. Her thoughtfulness for all my comforts and her quiet +caresses soon wooed me back again to life, and now I feel sure I am one +of the happiest cats alive. I am not dirty and disreputable now, nor is +my fur matted. I am no longer a thief, for I do not need to steal. My +mistress has a canary, but I would not touch it for worlds--indeed, I +love to hear it sing, although its music is not half so sweet to me as +that of the teakettle. Of an evening when the gas is lighted, and a +bright fire burning in the grate, we all sing together--that is, the +kettle, canary, and myself. They say I am very beautiful, and I believe +they are right, for I have twice taken a prize at a cat show, and hope +to win another. And if you go to the next great exhibition of cats, be +sure to look for me. I am gentle in face and short in ears, my fur is +long, and soft, and silky, and my eyes are as blue as the sea in summer. +So you are sure to know me. + +Ida sat silent, but evidently thinking, for some time after I had +finished. + +"That is quite a child's story, isn't it?" she said at last. + +"Yes," I replied; "but don't you like it?" + +"Oh yes, I do," she said--"I like all your stories; so now just tell me +one more." + +"No, no," I cried, "it is quite time we returned; your auntie will be +back, and dinner waiting; besides, we have about three miles to walk." + +"Just one little, little tale," she pleaded. + +"Well," I replied, "it must be a very little, little one, and then we'll +have to run. I shall call the story--" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +LOST; OR, LITTLE NELLIE'S FAVOURITE. + +"It was a bitterly cold morning in the month of February, several years +ago. How the time does fly, to be sure! Snow had been lying on the +ground for weeks, and more had fallen during the night; the wind, too, +blew high from the east, and the few passengers who were abroad made the +best of their way along the street, I can assure you, and looked as +though they would rather be at home and at the fireside. I myself was +out in the cold from force of habit. It had long been my custom to take +a short walk before breakfast, and as the post-office of our village was +only half a mile from my residence, going down for the letters that +arrived by the first mail afforded me just sufficient excuse for my +early ramble. But on this particular morning, as I was returning +homewards, I was very much surprised to find my little friend Nellie May +standing at her gate bare-headed, and with her pretty auburn hair +blowing hither and thither in the wind. + +"`Why, Nellie, dear!' I exclaimed, `what can have sent you out of the +house so early? It is hardly eight o'clock, and the cold will kill you, +child.' + +"`I was watching for you, sir,' said Nellie, looking as serious as a +little judge. `Do come and tell me what I shall do with this poor dog. +He was out in the snow, looking so unhappy, and has now taken up his +abode in the shed, and neither Miss Smith nor I can entice him out, or +get him to go away. And we are afraid to go near him.' + +"I followed Nellie readily enough, and there, lying on a sack, which he +had taken possession of, was the dog in question. To all intents and +purposes he was of a very common kind. Nobody in his senses would have +given sixpence for him, except perhaps his owner, and who that might be +was at present a mystery. + +"`Will you turn him out and send him away?' asked Nellie. + +"The dog looked in my face, oh, so pleadingly! + +"`Kind sir,' he seemed to say, `do speak a word for me; I'm so tired, my +feet are sore, I've wandered far from home, and I am full of grief.' + +"`Send him away?' I replied to Nellie. `No, dear; you wouldn't, would +you, if you thought he was weary, hungry, and in sorrow for his lost +mistress? Look how thin he is.' + +"`Oh!' cried Nellie, her eyes filling with tears, `I'll run and bring +him part of my own breakfast.' + +"`Nellie,' I said, as we parted, `be kind to that poor dog; he may bring +you good fortune.' + +"I do not know even now why I should have made that remark, but events +proved that my words were almost prophetic. It was evident that the dog +had travelled a very long way; but under Nellie's tender care he soon +recovered health and strength and spirits as well, and from that day for +three long years you never would have met the girl unaccompanied by +`Tray,' as we called him. + +"Now it came to pass that a certain young nobleman came of age, and a +great fete was given to his tenantry at P--Park, and people came from +quite a long distance to join in it. I saw Nellie the same evening. It +had been a day of sorrow for her. Tray had found his long lost +mistress. + +"`And, oh, such an ugly little old woman!' said Nellie almost +spitefully, through her tears. `Oh, my poor Tray, I'll never, never see +him more!' + +"Facts are stranger than fiction, however, and the little old lady whom +Nellie thought so ugly adopted her (for she was an orphan), and Nellie +became in time very fond of her. The dog Tray, whose real name by the +way was Jumbo, had something to do with this fondness, no doubt. + +"The old lady is not alive now; but Nellie has been left all she +possessed, Jumbo included. He is by this time very, very old; his lips +are white with age, he is stiff too, and his back seems all one bone. +As to his temper--well, the less I say about that the better, but he is +always cross with everybody--except Nellie." + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +EMBODYING A LITTLE TALE AND A LITTLE ADVENTURE. + + "Reason raise o'er instinct as you can-- + In this 'tis Heaven directs, in that 'tis man." + +If ever two days passed by without my seeing the portly form of my +friend Captain D--, that is Frank, heaving in sight about twelve o'clock +noon, round the corner of the road that led towards our cottage, then I +at once concluded that Frank either had the gout or was gardening, and +whether it were the fit of the gout or merely a fit of gardening, I felt +it incumbent upon me to walk over to his house, a distance of little +more than two miles, and see him. + +Welcome? Yes; I never saw the man yet who could give one a heartier +welcome than poor Frank did. He was passionately fond of my two dogs, +Nero and Aileen Aroon, and the love was mutual. + +But Frank had a dog of his own, "Meg Merrilees" to name, a beautiful and +kind-hearted Scotch collie. Most jealous though she was of her master's +affections, she never begrudged the pat and the caress Nero and Aileen +had, and, indeed, she used to bound across the lawn to meet and be the +first to welcome the three of us. + +On the occasion of my visits to Frank, I always stopped and dined with +him, spending the evening in merry chatter, and tales of "auld lang +syne," until it was time for me to start off on the return journey. + +When I had written anything for the magazines during the day, I made a +practice of taking it with me, and reading over the manuscript to my +friend, and a most attentive and amused listener he used to be. The +following is a little _jeu d'esprit_ which I insert here, for no other +reason in the world than that Frank liked it, so I think there _must_ be +a little, _little_ bit of humour in it. It is, as will be readily seen, +a kind of burlesque upon the show-points and properties of the +Skye-terrier. I called the sketch-- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"THAT SKYE-TERRIER."--A BURLESQUE. + +"He's a good bred 'un, sir." This is the somewhat unclassical English +with which "Wasp's" Yorkshire master introduced the puppy to me as he +consigned it to my care, in return for which I crossed his hand five +times with yellow gold. "And," he added, "he's a game 'un besides." + +I knew the former of these statements was quite correct from young +Wasp's pedigree, and of the latter I was so convinced, before a week was +over, that I consented to sell him to a parson for the same money I gave +for him--and glad enough to get rid of him even then. At this time the +youthful Wasp was a mere bundle of black fluff, with wicked blue eyes, +and flashing teeth of unusually piercing properties. He dwelt in a +distant corner of the parson's kitchen, in a little square basket or +creel, and a servant was told off to attend upon him; and, indeed, that +servant had about enough to do. Wasp seemed to know that Annie was his +own particular "slavey," and insisted on her being constantly within +hail of him. If she dared to go upstairs, or even to attend the +door-bell, Wasp let all the house hear of it, and the poor good-natured +girl was glad to run back for peace' sake. Another thing he insisted on +was being conveyed, basket and all, to Annie's bedroom when she retired +for the night. He also intimated to her that he preferred eating the +first of his breakfasts at three o'clock every morning sharp, upon pain +of waking the parson; his second at four; third at five, and so on until +further notice. + +I was sorry for Annie. + +From the back of his little basket, where he had formed a fortress, +garrisoned by Wasp himself, and provisioned with bones, boots, and +slippers enough to stand a siege of any length of time, he used to be +always making raids and forays on something. Even at this early age the +whole aim of his existence seemed to be doing mischief. If he wasn't +tearing Annie's Sunday boots, it was because he was dissecting the +footstool; footstool failing, it was the cat. The poor cat hadn't a +dog's life with him. He didn't mind pussy's claws a bit; he had a way +of his own of backing stern on to her which defied her and saved his +eyes. When close up he would seize her by the paw, and shake it till +she screamed with pain. + +I was sorry for the cat. + +If you lifted Wasp up in your arms to have a look at him, he flashed his +alabaster teeth in your face one moment, and fleshed them in your nose +the next. He never looked you straight in the face, but aslant, from +the corners of his wicked wee eyes. + +In course of time--not Pollok's--Wasp's black puppy-hair fell off, and +discovered underneath the most beautiful silvery-blue coat ever you saw +in your life; but his puppy-manners did not mend in the least. In his +case the puppy was the father of the dog, and if anything the son was +worse than the father. + +Talk of growing, oh! he did grow: not to the height--don't make any +mistake, please; Wasp calculated he was plenty high enough already--but +to the length, if you like. And every day when I went down to see him +Annie would innocently ask me-- + +"See any odds on him this morning, doctor?" + +"Well, Annie," I would say, "he really does seem to get a little longer +about every second day." + +"La! yes, sir, he do grow," Annie would reply--"'specially when I puts +him before the fire awhile." + +Indeed, Annie assured me she could see him grow, and that the little +blanket with which she covered him of a night would never fit in the +morning, so that she had to keep putting pieces to it. + +As he got older, Wasp used to make a flying visit upstairs to see the +parson, but generally came flying down again; for the parson isn't +blessed with the best of tempers, anyhow. Quickly as he returned, Wasp +was never down in time to avoid a kick from the clergyman's boot, for +the simple reason that when Wasp's fore-feet were at the kitchen-door +his hindquarters were never much more than half-way down the stairs. + +N.B.--I forgot to say that this story may be taken with a grain of salt, +if not found spicy enough to the taste. + +There was a stove-pipe that lay in a back room; the pipe was about two +yards long, more or less. Wasp used to amuse himself by running in at +one end of it and out at the other. Well, one day he was amusing +himself in this sort of way, when just as he entered one end for the +second time, what should he perceive but the hindquarters of a pure-bred +Skye just disappearing at the other. (You will please to remember that +the stove-pipe was two yards long, more or less.) Day after day Wasp +set himself to pursue this phantom Skye, through the pipe and through +the pipe, for Wasp couldn't for the life of him make out why the animal +always managed to keep just a _little_ way ahead of him. Still he was +happy to think that day after day he was gaining on his foe, so he kept +the pot a-boiling. And one day, to his intense joy, he actually caught +the phantom by the tail, in the pipe. Joy, did I say? I ought to have +said sorrow, for the tail was his own; but, being a game 'un, he +wouldn't give in, but hung on like grim death until the plumber came and +split the pipe and relieved him. (Don't forget the length of the pipe, +please.) Even after he _was_ clear he spun round and round like a Saint +Catherine's wheel, until he had to give in from sheer exhaustion. Yes, +he was a long dog. + +And it came to pass, or was always coming to pass, that he grew, and he +grew, and he grew, and the more he grew, the longer and thicker his hair +grew, till, when he had grown his full length--and I shouldn't like to +say how long that was--you couldn't have told which was his head and +which was his tail till he barked; and even Annie confessed that she +frequently placed his dish down at the wrong end of him. It was funny. +If you take half a dozen goat-skins and roll them separately, in +cylinders, with the hairy side out, and place them end to end on the +floor, you will have about as good an idea of Wasp's shape and +appearance as any I can think about. You know those circular +sweeping-machines with which they clean the mud off the country roads? +Well, Wasp would have done excellently well as the roller of one of +those; and indeed, he just looked like one of them--especially when he +was returning from a walk on a muddy morning. It was funny, too, that +any time he was particularly wet and dirty, he always came to the front +door, and made it a point of duty always to visit the drawing-room to +have a roll on the carpet previously to being kicked downstairs. + +Getting kicked downstairs was Wasp's usual method of going below. I +believe he came at last to prefer it--it saved time. + +Wasp's virtues as a house-dog were of a very high order: he always +barked at the postman, to begin with; he robbed the milkman and the +butcher, and bit a half-pound piece out of the baker's leg. No +policeman was safe who dared to live within a hundred yards of him. One +day he caught one of the servants of the gas company stooping down +taking the state of the metre. This man departed in a very great hurry +to buy sticking-plaster and visit his tailor. + +I lost sight of Wasp for about six months. At the end of that time I +paid the parson a visit. When I inquired after my longitudinal friend, +that clergyman looked very grave indeed. He did not answer me +immediately, but took two or three vigorous draws at his meerschaum, +allowing the smoke to curl upwards towards the roof of his study, and +following it thoughtfully with his eyes; then he slowly rose and +extracted a long sheet of blue foolscap from his desk, and I imagined he +was going to read me a sermon or something. + +"Ahem!" said the parson. "I'll read you one or two casual items of +Wasp's bill, and then you can judge for yourself how he is getting on." + +There is no mistake about it-- + +Wasp was a "well bred 'un and a game 'un." At the same time, I was +sorry for the parson. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"I am really vexed that it is so dark and wet," said Frank that night, +as he came to the lawn-gate to say good-bye. "I wish I could walk in +with you, but my naughty toe forbids; or, I wish I could ask you to +stay, but I know your wife and Ida would feel anxious." + +"Indeed they would," I replied; "they would both be out here in the pony +and trap. Good-night; I'll find my way, and I've been wet before +to-night." + +"Good-night; God bless you," from Frank. + +Now the lanes of Berkshire are most confusing even by daylight, and +cabmen who have known them for years often go astray after dark, and +experience considerable difficulty in finding their way to their +destination. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that I, almost a +stranger to them, should have lost myself on so dark a night. + +Aileen Aroon and Nero were coupled together, and from the centre of the +short chain depended a small bicycle lamp, which rendered the darkness +visible if it did nothing else. + +I led the dogs with a leathern strap. + +"It is the fourth turning to the right, then the second to the left, and +second to the right again; so you are not going that way." + +I made this remark to the dogs, who had stopped at a turning, and wanted +to drag me in what I considered the wrong direction. + +"The fourth turning, Aileen," I repeated, forcing them to come with me. + +The night seemed to get darker, and the rain heavier every moment, and +that fourth turning seemed to have been spirited away. I found it at +last, or thought I had done so, then the second to the left, and finally +the second to the right. + +By this time the lights of the station should have appeared. + +They did not. We were lost, and evidently long miles from home. Lost, +and it was near midnight. We were cold and wet and weary; at least I +was, and I naturally concluded the poor dogs were so likewise. + +We tried back, but I very wisely left it to the two Newfoundlands now to +find the way if they could. + +"Go home," I cried, getting behind them; and off they went willingly, +and at a very rapid pace too. + +Over and over again, I felt sure that the poor animals were bewildered, +and were going farther and farther astray. + +Well, at all events, I was bewildered, and felt still more so when I +found myself on the brow of a hill, looking down towards station lights +on the right instead of on the left, they ought to have been. They were +our station lights, nevertheless, and a quarter of an hour afterwards we +were all having supper together, the Newfoundlands having been +previously carefully dried with towels. Did ever dogs deserve supper +more? I hardly think so. + +CHAPTER SIX. + +AILEEN AND NERO--A DOG'S RECEIPT FOR KEEPING WELL--DOG'S IN THE SNOW IN +GREENLAND--THE LIFE-STORY OF AILEEN'S PET, "FAIRY MARY." + + "Give me a look, give me a face, + That makes simplicity a grace." + +Simplicity was one of the most prominent traits of Aileen's character. +In some matters she really was so simple and innocent, that she could +hardly take her own part. Indeed, in the matter of food, her own part +was often taken from her, for any of the cats, or the smaller dogs, +thought nothing of helping the noble creature to drink her drop of milk +of a morning. + +Aileen, when they came to her assistance in this way, would raise her +own head from the dish, and look down at them for a time in her kindly +way. + +"You appear to be very hungry," she would seem to say, "perhaps more so +than I am, and so I'll leave you to drink it all." + +Then Aileen would walk gently away, and throw herself down beneath the +table with a sigh. + +There was a time when illness prevented me from leaving my room for many +days, but as I had some serials going on in magazines, I could not +afford to leave off working; I used, therefore, to write in my bedroom. +As soon as she got up of a morning, often and often before she had her +breakfast, Aileen would come slowly upstairs. I knew her quiet but +heavy footsteps. Presently she would open the door about half-way, and +look in. If I said nothing she would make a low and apologetic bow, and +when I smiled she advanced. + +"I'm not sure if my feet be over clean," she would seem to say as she +put her head on my lap with the usual deep-drawn sigh, "but I really +could not help coming upstairs to see how you were this morning." + +Presently I would hear more padded footsteps on the stairs. This was +the saucy champion Theodore Nero himself, there could be no mistake +about that. He came upstairs two or three steps at a time, and flung +the half-open door wide against the wall, then bounded into the room +like a June thunderstorm. He would give one quick glance at Aileen. + +"Hallo!" he would say, talking with eyes and tail, "you're here, are +you, old girl? Keeping the master company, eh? Well, I'm not very +jealous. How goes it this morning, master?" + +Nero always brought into the sick-room about a hundredweight at least of +jollity, sprightliness, life, and love. It used to make me better to +see him, and make me long to be up and about, and out in the dear old +pine woods again. + +"You always seem to be well and happy, Nero," I said to him one day; +"how do you manage it?" + +"Wait," said Nero, "till I've finished this chop bone, and I'll tell you +what you should do in order to be always the same as I am now." + +As there is some good in master Nero's receipt, I give it here in fall. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +A DOG'S RECEIPT FOR KEEPING WELL. + +"Get up in the morning as soon as the birds begin to sing, and if you're +not on chain, take a good run round the garden. Always sleep in the +open air. Don't eat more breakfast than is good for you, and take the +same amount of dinner. Don't eat at all if you're not hungry. Eat +plenty of grass, or green vegetables, if you like that better. Take +plenty of exercise. Running is best; but if you don't run, walk, and +walk, and walk till you're tired; you will sleep all the better for it. +One hour's sleep after exercise is deeper, and sweeter, and sounder, and +more refreshing than five hours induced by port-wine negus. Don't +neglect the bath; I never do. Whenever I see a hole with water in it, I +just jump in and swim around, then come out and dance myself dry. Do +good whenever you can; I always do. Be brave, yet peaceful. Be +generous, charitable, and honest. Never refuse a bit to a beggar, and +never steal a bone from a butcher; so shall you live healthfully and +happy, and die of the only disease anybody has any right to die of-- +sheer old age." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +I never saw a dog appreciate a joke better than did poor Nero. He had +that habit of showing his teeth in a broad smile, which is common to the +Newfoundland and collie. + +Here is a little joke that Nero once unintentionally perpetrated. He +had a habit of throwing up the gravel with his two immense hinder paws, +quite regardless of consequences. A poor little innocent mite of a +terrier happened one day to be behind master Nero, when he commenced to +scrape. The shower of stones and gravel came like the discharge from a +_mitrailleuse_ on the little dog, and fairly threw him on his back. +Nero happened to look about at the same time, and noticed what he had +done. + +"Oh!" he seemed to say as he broke into a broad grin, "this is really +too ridiculous, too utterly absurd." + +Then bounding across a ditch and through a hedge, he got into a green +field, where he at once commenced his usual plan of working off steam, +when anything extra-amusing tickled him, namely, that of running round +and round and round in a wide circle. Many dogs race like this, no +doubt for this reason: they can by so doing enjoy all the advantages of +a good ran, without going any appreciable distance away from where +master is. _Apropos_ of dogs gambolling and racing for the evident +purpose of getting rid of an extra amount of animal electricity, I give +an extract here from a recent book of mine [Note 1]. The sketch is +painted from real life. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +DOGS IN THE SNOW IN GREENLAND. + +"The exuberance of great `Oscar's' joy when out with his master for a +walk was very comical to witness. Out for a _walk_ did I say? Nay, +that word but poorly expresses the nature of Oscar's pedal progression. +It was not a walk, but a glorious compound of dance, scamper, race, +gallop, and gambol. Had you been ever so old it would have made you +feel young again to behold him. He knew while Allan was dressing that +he meant to go out, and began at once to exhibit signs of impatience. +He would yawn and stretch himself, and wriggle and shake; then he would +open his mouth, and try to round a sentence in real verbal English, and +tailing in this, fall back upon dog language, pure and simple, or he +would stand looking at Allan with his beautiful head turned on one side, +and his mouth a little open, just sufficiently so to show the tip of his +bright pink tongue, and his brown eyes would speak to his master. +`Couldn't you,' the dog would seem to ask--`couldn't you get on your +coat a little--oh, _ever_ so little--faster? What can you want with a +muffler? _I_ don't wear a muffler. And now you are looking for your +fur cap, and there it is right before your very eyes!' + +"`And,' the dog would add, `I daresay we are off at last,' and he would +hardly give his master time to open the companion door for him. + +"But once over the side, `Hurrah!' he would seem to say, then away he +would bound, and away, and away, and away, straight ahead as crow could +fly, through the snow and through the snow, which rose around him in +feathery clouds, till he appeared but a little dark speck in the +distance. This race straight ahead was meant to get rid of his +super-extra steam. Having expended this, back he would come with a +rush, and a run, make pretence to jump his master down, but dive past +him at the last moment. Then he would gambol in front of his master in +such a daft and comical fashion that made Allan laugh aloud; and, seeing +his master laughing, Oscar would laugh too, showing such a double +regiment of white, flashing, pearly teeth, that, with the quickness of +the dog's motions, they seemed to begin at his lips and go right away +down both sides of him as far as the tail. + +"Hurroosh! hurroosh! Each exclamation, reader, is meant to represent a +kind of a double-somersault, which I verily believe Oscar invented +himself. He performed it by leaping off the ground, bending sideways, +and going right round like a top, without touching the snow, with a +spring like that of a five-year-old salmon getting over a weir. + +"Hurroosh! hurroosh! + +"Then Allan would make a grab at his tail. + +"`Oh, that's your game!' Oscar would say; `then down _you_ go!' + +"And down Allan would roll, half buried in the powdery snow, and not be +able to get up again for laughing; then away Oscar would rush wildly +round and round in a complete circle, having a radius of some fifty +yards, with Allan McGregor on his broad back for a centre." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Theodore Nero was as full of sauciness and _chique_ as ever was an Eton +boy home for the holidays, or a midshipman on shore for a cruise. The +following anecdote will illustrate his merry sauciness and Aileen's +good-natured simplicity at the same time. + +Nero was much quicker in all his motions than Aileen, so that although +she never failed to run after my walking-stick, she was never quick +enough to find first. Now one day in throwing my stick it fell among a +bed of nettles. Nero sprang after it as light as a cork, and brought it +out; but having done so, he was fain to put it down on the road till he +should rub his nose and sneeze, for the nettles had stung him in a +tender part. To see what he would do, I threw the stick again among the +nettles. But mark the slyness of the dog: he pretended not to see where +it had fallen, and to look for it in quite another place, until poor +simple Aileen had found it and fetched it. As soon as she got on to the +road she must needs put down the stick to rub her nose, when, laughing +all over, he bounded on it and brought it back to me. I repeated the +experiment several times, with precisely the same result. Aileen was +too simple and too good-natured to refuse to fetch the stick from the +nettle-bed. + +About five minutes afterwards the fun was over. Nero happened to look +at Aileen, who had stopped once more to rub her still stinging nose. +Then the whole humour of the joke seemed to burst upon his imagination. +Simply to smile was not enough; he must needs burst through a hedge, and +get into a field, and it took ten minutes good racing round and round, +as hard as his four legs could carry him, to restore this saucy rascal's +mental equilibrium. + +Aileen Aroon was as fond of the lower animals, pet mice, cats, and rats, +as any dog could be. Our pet rats used to eat out of her dish, run all +over her, sit on her head while washing their faces, and go asleep under +her chin. + +I saw her one day looking quite unhappy. She wanted to get up from the +place where she was lying, but two piebald rats had gone to sleep in the +bend of her forearm, and she was afraid to move, either for fear of +hurting the little pets or of offending me. + +Seeing the situation, I at once took the rats away and put them in the +cage; then Aileen got up, made a low and grateful bow, and walked out. + +The following is the life-story of one of Aileen's especial +favourites:-- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"FAIRY MARY." + +My Mary is a rat. It is just as well to state this much at the outset. +Candour, indeed, necessitates my doing so, because I know the very name +of "rat" carries with it feelings which are far from pleasing to many. +And now, having broken the ice, I may tell you that Mary is not an +ordinary black or brown rat, but a rat of high, high caste indeed, +having come from a far-away Oriental clime--Java, to wit. If you had +never seen one of the same breed before, you would hardly take Mary to +be a rat at all. Children are exceedingly fond of her; gentlemen admire +her; old ladies dote on her, and young ones love her. I think even my +black tom-cat is especially fond of her, judging from the notice he +takes of her; he will sit for hours, and hardly ever take his green eyes +off her cage. + +Black Tom once paid Mary a domiciliary visit, by way of appearing +neighbourly. It was a grand spring, but missed by an inch, so Tom +returned, looking inglorious. + +Having so far introduced my Mary, and confident you will like her better +as you read on, let me try to describe the winsome wee thing. Mary--my +rodent, let me call her--is smaller than a rat, and not quite the same +in shape, for Mary's symmetry is elegance itself. Her eyes round, +protrusive, but loving withal, are living burning garnets--garnets that +speak. Her whole body is covered with long snowy fur, far richer than +the finest ermine, and with an almost imperceptible golden tint at the +tips, this tint being only seen in certain lights. Her tail is perhaps +one of her principal points of beauty--long, sweeping, and graceful; she +positively seems to talk with it. The forearms are very short and +delicate, the hind-legs strong and muscular. Sitting on one end is +Mary's almost constant position--kangaroo-like; then she holds up her +little hands beseechingly before her. These latter are almost human in +shape, and when she gives you her delicate, cold, transparent paw, you +might easily fancy you were shaking hands with a fairy; and thus she is +often called "Fairy Mary." Mary's hands are bare and pink, and the +wrists are covered with very short downy fur, after which the coat +suddenly elongates, so much so, that when she stands on end to watch a +fly on the ceiling, you would imagine she wore a gown tight at the +wrist, and with drooping sleeves. + +Now Mary is not only beautiful, but she is winning and graceful as well, +for every one says so who sees her. And in under her soft fur Mary's +skin is as clean and white and pure as mother-of-pearl. It only remains +to say of this little pet, that in all her ways and manners she is as +cleanly as the best-bred Persian cat, and her fur has not the faintest +odour, musky or otherwise. + +Fairy Mary was originally one of three which came to me as a present. +Alas for the fate of Mary's twin sister and only brother! A vagrant cat +one evening in summer, while I was absent, entered by the open window, +broke into the cage, and Mary alone was left alive. For a long time +after this Mary was missing. She was seen at times, of an evening, +flitting ghost-like across the kitchen floor, but she persistently +refused to return to her desolated cage-home. She much preferred +leading a free and easy vagrant kind of life between the cellar, the +pantry, and the kitchen. She came out at times, however, and took her +food when she thought nobody was looking, and she was known to have +taken up her abode in one corner of the pantry, where once a mouse had +lived. When she took this new house, I suppose she found it hardly +large enough for her needs, because she speedily took to cleaning it +out, and judging from the shovelfuls of rags, paper, shavings, and +litter of all sorts, very industrious indeed must have been the lives of +the "wee, tim'rous, cowerin' beasties" who formerly lived there. Then +Mary built unto herself a new home in that sweet retirement, and very +happy she seemed to be. + +Not happening to possess a cat just then, the mice had it all their own +way; they increased and multiplied, if they didn't replenish the +kitchen, and Mary reigned among them--a Bohemian princess, a gipsy +queen. I used to leave a lamp burning in the kitchen on purpose to +watch their antics, and before going to bed, and when all the house was +still, I used to go and peep carefully through a little hole in the +door. And there Fairy Mary would be, sure enough, racing round and +round the kitchen like a mad thing, chased by at least a dozen mice, and +every one of them squeaking with glee. But if I did but laugh--which, +for the life of me, I could not sometimes help--off bolted the mice, +leaving Fairy Mary to do an attitude wherever she might be. Then Mary +would sniff the air, and listen, and so, scenting danger, hop off, +kangaroo fashion, to her home in the pantry corner. + +It really did seem a pity to break up this pleasant existence of Mary's, +but it had to be done. Mice eat so much, and destroy more. My mice, +with Mary at their head, were perfect sappers and miners. They thought +nothing of gutting a loaf one night, and holding a ball in it the next. +So, eventually, Mary was captured, and once more confined to her cage, +which she insisted upon having hung up in our sitting-room, where she +could see all that went on. Here she never attempted, even once, to +nibble her cage, but if hung out in the kitchen nothing could keep her +in. + +At this stage of her existence, the arrangements for Mary's comfort were +as follows: she dwelt in a nice roomy cage, with two perches in it, +which she very much enjoyed. She had a glass dish for her food, and +another for her milk, and the floor of the cage was covered with pine +shavings, regularly changed once in two days, and among which Mary built +her nest. + +Now, Fairy Mary has a very strong resemblance to a miniature polar bear, +that is, she has all the motions of one, and does all his attitudes--in +fact, acts the part of Bruin to perfection. This first gave me the +notion--which I can highly recommend to the reader--of making Mary not +only amusing, but ornamental to our sitting-room as well, for it must be +confessed that a plain wooden cage in one's room is neither graceful nor +pretty, however lovely the inmate may be. And here is how I managed it. +At the back of our sitting-room is the kitchen, the two apartments +being separated by a brick wall. Right through this wall a hole or +tunnel was drilled big enough for Mary to run through with ease. The +kitchen end of this tunnel was closed by means of a little door, which +was so constructed that by merely touching an unseen spring in the +sitting-room, it could be opened at will. Against the kitchen end of +the tunnel a cage for Mary was hung. This was to be her dining-room, +her nest, and sleeping-berth. Now, for the sitting-room end of the +tunnel, I had a painting made on a sheet of glass, over two feet long by +eighteen inches high. The scene represented is from a sketch in North +Greenland, which I myself had made, a scene in the frozen sea--the usual +blue sky which you always find over the ice, an expanse of snow, a bear +in the distance, and a ship frozen in and lying nearly on her beam ends. +A dreary enough look-out, in all conscience, but true to nature. + +There was a hole cut in the lower end of this glass picture, to match +the diameter of the tunnel, and the picture was then fastened close +against the wall. So far you will have followed me. The next thing was +to frame this glass picture in a kind of cage, nine inches deep; the +peculiarity of this cage being, that the front of it was a sheet of +clear white glass, the sides only being of brass wire; the floor and top +were of wood, the former being painted white, like the snow, and the +latter blue, to form a continuation of the sky; a few imitation icebergs +were glued on here and there, and one of these completely hides the +entrance to the tunnel, forming a kind of rude cave--Fairy Mary's cave. + +In the centre of this cage was raised a small bear's pole steps and all +complete. We call it the North Pole. The whole forms a very pretty +ornament indeed, especially when Mary is acting on this little Greenland +stage. + +Mary knows her name, and never fails to come to call, and indeed she +knows a very great deal that is said to her. Whenever she pops through +her tunnel, the little door at the kitchen end closes behind her, and +she is a prisoner in Greenland until I choose to send her off. If she +is in her kitchen cage, and I wish her to come north, and disport +herself to the amusement of myself or friends--one touch to the spring, +one cabalistic word, and there comes the little performer, all alive and +full of fun. + +Now I wish the reader to remember that Fairy Mary is not only the very +essence of cleanliness, but the pink of politeness as well. Hence, Mary +is sometimes permitted to come to table. And Mary is an honest rat. +She has been taught to look at everything, but handle nothing. +Therefore there cannot be the slightest possible objection to her either +sitting on my shoulder on one end, and gazing wonderingly around her, or +examining my ear, or making a nest of my beard, or running down my arm, +and having a dance over the tablecloth. I think I said Mary was an +honest rat, but she has just one tiny failing in the way of honesty, +which, as her biographer, I am bound to mention. She can't quite resist +the temptation of a bit of butter. But she helps herself to just one +little handful, and does it, too, with such a graceful air, that, for +the life of me, I couldn't be angry with her. + +Well, except a morsel of butter, Mary will touch nothing on the table, +nor will she take anything from your hand, if you offer it to her ever +so coaxingly. She prefers to eat her meals in Greenland, or on the +North Pole itself. + +Mary's tastes as regards food are various. She is partial to a bit of +cheese, but would not touch bacon for the world. This is rather +strange, because it was exactly the other way with her brother and +sister. + +The great treat of the twenty-four hours with Mary is to get down in the +evening, when the lamps are lighted, to have a scamper on the table. +Her cage is brought in from the kitchen, and set down, and the door of +it thrown open. This cage thus becomes Mary's harbour of refuge, from +which she can sally forth and play tricks. Anything you place on the +table is seized forthwith, and carried inside. She will carry an apple +nearly as big as herself, and there will not be much of it left in the +morning; for one of Mary's chief delights is to have a little feast all +to herself, when the lights are out. Lettuce leaves she is partial to, +and will carry them to her cage as fast as you can throw them down to +her. She rummages the work-basket, and hops off with every thimble she +can find. + +After Fairy Mary's private establishment was broken up in the kitchen, +it became necessary to clean up the corner of the pantry where she had +dwelt. Then was Mary's frugality and prudence as a housewife made clear +to the light of day I could hardly be supposed to tell you everything +she had stored up, but I remember there were crusts of bread, bits of +cheese, lumps of dog-biscuit, halves of apples, small potatoes, and +crumbs of sugar, and candle ends, and bones and herrings' heads, besides +one pair of gold sleeve-links, an odd shirt-stud, a glass stopper from a +scent-bottle, brass buttons, and, to crown the lot, one silver +threepenny-piece of the sterling coin of the realm. + +And that is the story of my rat; and I'm sure if you knew her you, too, +would like her. She is such a funny, wee, sweet little _mite_ of a +Mary. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. "The Cruise of the _Snowbird_" published by Messrs. Hodder and +Stoughton, Paternoster Row. + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +ONLY A DOG. + + "Old dog, you are dead--we must all of us die-- + You are gone, and gone whither? Can any one say? + I trust you may live again, somewhat as I, + And haply, `go on to perfection'--some way!" + + Tupper. + +Poor little Fairy Mary, the favourite pet of Aileen Aroon, went the way +of all rats at last. She was not killed. No cat took her. Our own +cats were better-mannered than to touch a pet. But we all went away on +a summer holiday, and as it was not convenient to take every one of our +pets with us, Mary was left at home in charge of the servants. When we +returned she was gone, dead and buried. She had succumbed to a tumour +in the head which was commencing ere we started. + +I think Aileen missed her very much, for she used to lie and watch the +empty cage for an hour at a time, thinking no doubt that by-and-by Fairy +Mary would pop out of some of her usual haunts. + +"Dolls" was one of Aileen's contemporaries, and one that she had no +small regard for. Dolls was a dog, and a very independent little fellow +he was, as his story which I here give will show. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +DOLLS: HIS LITTLE STORY. + +There was a look in the dark-brown eyes of Dolls that was very +captivating when you saw it. I say when you saw it, because it wasn't +always you could see it, for Dolls' face was so covered with his +dishevelled locks, that the only wonder was that he could find his way +about at all. + +Dolls was a Scotch terrier--a _real_ Scotch terrier. Reddish or sandy +was he all over--in fact, he was just about the colour of gravel in the +gloaming; I am quite sure of this, because when he went out with me +about the twilight hour, I couldn't see him any more than if he wasn't +in existence; when it grew a little darker, strange to say, Dolls became +visible once more. + +Plenty of coat had Dolls too. You could have hidden a glove under his +mane, and nobody been a bit the wiser. When he sat on one end, gazing +steadfastly up into a tree, from which some independent pussy stared +saucily down upon him, Dolls looked for all the world like a doggie +image draped in a little blanket. + +Dolls had a habit of treeing pussies. This, indeed, was about the only +bad trait in Dolls' character. He hated a pussy more than sour milk, +and nobody knew this better than the pussies themselves. Probably, +indeed, they were partly to blame for maintaining the warfare. I've +seen a cat in a tree, apparently trying her very best to mesmerise poor +Dolls--Dolls blinking funnily up at her, she gazing cunningly down. +There they would sit and sit, till suddenly down to the ground would +spring pussy, and with a warlike and startling "Fuss!" that quite took +the doggie's breath away, and made all his hair stand on end, clout +Master Dolls in the face, and before that queer wee specimen of caninity +could recover his equanimity, disappear through a neighbouring hedgerow. + +Now cats have a good deal more patience than dogs. Sometimes on coming +trotting home of an evening, Dolls would find a cat perched up in the +pear-tree sparrow-expectant. + +"Oh! _you're_ there, are you?" Dolls would say. "Well, I'm not in any +particular hurry, I can easily wait a bit." And down he would sit, with +his head in the air. + +"All right, Dolls, my doggie," Pussy would reply. "I've just eaten a +sparrow, and not long ago I had a fine fat mouse, and, milk with it, and +now I'll have a nap. Nice evening, isn't it?" + +Well, Master Dolls would watch there, maybe for one hour and maybe for +two, by which time his patience would become completely exhausted. + +"You're not worth a wag of my tail," Dolls would say. "So good-night." +Then off he would trot. + +But Dolls wasn't a beauty, by any manner of means. I don't think +anybody who wasn't an admirer of doormats, and a connoisseur in heather +besoms could have found much about Dolls to go into raptures over, but, +somehow or other, the little chap always managed to find friends +wherever he went. + +Dolls was a safe doggie with children, that is, with well-dressed, +clean-looking children, but with the gutter portion of the population +Dolls waged continual warfare. Doubtless, because they teased him, and +made believe to throw pebbles at him, though I don't think they ever did +in reality. + +Dolls was a great believer in the virtues of fresh air, and spent much +of his time out of doors. He had three or four houses, too, in the +village which he used to visit regularly once, and sometimes twice, a +day. He would trot into a kitchen with a friendly wag or two of his +little tail, which said, plainly enough, "Isn't it wet, though?" or +"Here is jolly weather just!" + +"Come away, Dolls," was his usual greeting. + +Thus welcomed, Dolls would toddle farther in, and seat himself by the +fire, and gaze dreamily in through the bars at the burning coals, +looking all the while as serious as possible. + +I've often wondered, and other people used to wonder too, what Dolls +could have been thinking about as he sat thus. Perhaps--like many a +wiser head--he was building little morsels of castles in the air, +castles that would have just the same silly ending as yours or mine, +reader--wondering what he should do if he came to be a great big +bouncing dog like Wolf the mastiff; how all the little doggies would +crouch before him, and how dignified he would look as he strode +haughtily away from them; and so on, and so forth. But perhaps, after +all, Dolls was merely warming his mite of a nose, and not giving himself +up to any line of thought in particular. + +Now, it wasn't with human beings alone that this doggie was a favourite; +and what I am now going to mention is rather strange, if not funny. You +see, Dolls always got out early in the morning. There was a great +number of other little dogs in the village besides himself--poodles, +Pomeranians, and Skyes, doggies of every denomination and all shades of +colour, and many of these got up early too. There is no doubt early +morn is the best time for small dogs, because little boys are not yet +up, and so can't molest them. Well, it did seem that each of these +doggies, almost every morning, made up its mind to come and visit Dolls. +At all events, most of them _did_ come, and, therefore, Dolls was wont +to hold quite a tiny _levee_ on the lawn shortly after sunrise. + +After making obeisance to General Dolls, these doggies would form +themselves into a _conversazione_, and go promenading round the +rose-trees in twos and twos. + +Goodness only knows what they talked about; but I must tell you that +these meetings were nearly always of a peaceable, amicable nature. Only +once do I remember a _conversazione_ ending in a general conflict. + +"Well," said Dolls, "if it _is_ going to be a free fight, I'm in with +you." Then Dolls threw himself into it heart and soul. + +But to draw the story of Dolls to a conclusion, there came to live near +my cottage home an old sailor, one of Frank's friends. This ancient +mariner was one of the Tom Bowling type, for the darling of many a crew +he had been in his time, without doubt. There was good-nature, combined +with pluck, in every lineament of his manly, well-worn, red and rosy +countenance, and his hair was whitened--not by the snows of well-nigh +sixty winters, for I rather fancy it was the summers that did it, the +summers' heat, and the _bearing of_ the brunt of many a tempest, and the +anxiety inseparable from a merchant skipper's pillow. There was a merry +twinkle in his eyes, that put you mightily in mind of the monks of old. +And when he gave you his hand, it was none of your half-and-half shakes, +let me tell you; that there was honesty in every throb of that man's +heart you could tell from that very grasp. + +Yes, he was a jolly old tar, and a good old tar; and he hadn't seen +Dolls and been in his company for two hours, before he fell in love with +the dog downright, and, says he, "Doctor, you want a good home for +Dolls; there is something in the little man's eye that I a sort of like. +As long as he sails with me, he'll never want a good bed, nor a good +dinner; so, if you'll give him to me, I'll be glad to take him." + +We shook hands. + +Now this was to be the last voyage that ever that ancient mariner meant +to make, until he made that long voyage which we all must do one of +these days. And it _was_ his last too; not, however, in the way you +generally read of in stories, for the ship didn't go down, and he wasn't +drowned, neither was Dolls. On the contrary, my friend returned, +looking as hale and hearty as ever, and took a cottage in the country, +meaning to live happily and comfortably ever after. And almost the +first intimation I received of his return was carried by the doggie +himself, for going out one fine morning, I found Dolls on the lawn, +surrounded as usual, by about a dozen other wee doggies, to whom, from +their spellbound look, I haven't a doubt he was telling the story of his +wonderful adventures by sea and by land, for, mind you, Dolls had been +all the way to Calcutta. And Dolls was so happy to see me again, and +the lawn, and the rose-trees, and vagrant pussies, and no change in +anything, that he was fain to throw himself at my feet and weep in the +exuberance of his joy. + +Dolls' new home was at H--, just three miles from mine; and this is +somewhat strange--regularly, once a month the little fellow would trot +over, all by himself, and see me. He remained in the garden one whole +day, and slept on the doormat one whole night, but could never be +induced either to _enter the house or to partake of food_. So no one +could accuse Dolls of cupboard love. When the twenty-four hours which +he allotted to himself for the visit were over, Dolls simply trotted +home again, but, as sure as the moon, he returned again in another +month. + +A bitter, bitter winter followed quickly on the heels of that pleasant +summer of 187--. The snow fell fast, and the cold was intense, +thermometer at times sinking below zero. You could ran the thrushes +down, and catch them by hand, so lifeless were they; and I could show +you the bushes any day where blackbirds dropped lifeless on their +perches. Even rooks came on to the lawn to beg; they said there wasn't +a hip nor a haw to be found in all the countryside. And robin said he +couldn't sing at all on his usual perch, the frost and the wind quite +took his breath away; so he came inside to warm his toes. + +One wild stormy night, I had retired a full hour sooner to rest, for the +wind had kept moaning so, as it does around a country house. The wind +moaned, and fiercely shook the windows, and the powdery snow sifted in +under the hall-door, in spite of every arrangement to prevent it. I +must have been nearly asleep, but I opened my eyes and started at +_that_--a plaintive cry, rising high over the voice of the wind, and +dying away again in mournful cadence. Twice it was repeated, then I +heard no more. It must have been the wind whistling through the +keyhole, I thought, as I sunk to sleep. Perhaps it was, reader; but +early next morning I found poor wee Dolls dead on the doorstep. + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +A TALE TOLD BY THE OLD PINE-TREE. + + "Dumb innocents, often too cruelly treated, + May well for their patience find future reward." + + Tupper. + +Bonnie Berkshire! It is an expression we often make use of. Bonnie +Berks--bonnie even in winter, when the fields are robed in starry snow; +bonnie in spring-time, when the fields are rolling clouds of tenderest +green, when the young wheat is peeping through the brown earth, when +primroses cluster beneath the hedgerows, and everything is so gay and so +happy and hopeful that one's very soul soars heavenwards with the lark. + +But Berks I thought never looked more bonnie than it did one lovely +autumn morning, when Ida and I and the dogs walked up the hill towards +our favourite seat in the old pine wood. It was bright and cool and +clear. The hedges alone were a sight, for blackthorn and brambles had +taken leave of their senses in summer-time, and gone trailing here and +climbing there, and playing all sorts of fantastic tricks, and now with +the autumn tints upon them, they formed the prettiest patches of light +and shade imaginable; and though few were the flowers that still peeped +through the green moss as if determined to see the last of the sunshine, +who could miss them with such gorgeous colour on thorn and tree? The +leaves were still on the trees; only whenever a light gust of wind swept +through the tall hedge with a sound like ocean shells, Ida and I were +quite lost for a time, in a shower as of scented yellow snow. + +My niece put her soft little hand in mine, as she said--"You haven't +forgotten the manuscript, have you?" + +"Oh! no," I said, smiling, "I haven't forgotten it." + +"Because," she added, "I do like you to tell me a story when we are all +by ourselves." + +"Thank you," said I, "but this story, Ida, is one I'm going to tell to +Aileen, because it is all about a Newfoundland dog." + +"Oh! never mind," she cried, "Nero and I shall sit and listen, and it +will be all the same." + +"Well, Ida," I said, when we were seated at last, "I shall call my +tale--" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +BLUCHER: THE STORY OF A NEWFOUNDLAND. + +"We usually speak of four-in-hands rattling along the road. There was +no rattling about the mail-coach, however, that morning, as she seemed +to glide along towards the granite city, as fast as the steaming horses +could tool her. For the snow lay deep on the ground, and but for the +rattle of harness, and champing of bits, you might have taken her for +one of Dickens's phantom mails. It was a bitter winter's morning. The +driver's face was buried to the eyes in the upturned neck of his +fear-nothing coat; the passengers snoozed and hibernated behind the +folds of their tartan plaids; the guard, poor man! had to look abroad on +the desolate scene and his face was like a parboiled lobster in +appearance. He stamped in his seat to keep his feet warm, although it +was merely by reasoning from analogy that he could get himself to +believe that he had any feet at all, for, as far as feeling went, his +body seemed to end suddenly just below the knees, and when he attempted +to emit some cheering notes from the bugle, the very notes seemed to +freeze in the instrument. Presently, the coach pulled up at the +eighth-milehouse to change horses, and every one was glad to come down +if only for a few moments. + +"The landlord,--remember, reader, I'm speaking of the far north, where +mail-coaches are still extant, and the landlords of hostelries still +visible to the naked eye. The landlord was there himself to welcome the +coach, and he rubbed his hands and hastened to tell everybody that it +was a stormy morning, that there would, no doubt, be a fresh fall ere +long, and that there was a roaring fire in the room, and oceans of +mulled porter. Few were able to resist hints like these, and orders for +mulled porter and soft biscuits became general. + +"Big flakes of snow began to fall slowly earthward, as the coach once +more resumed its journey, and before long so thick and fast did it come +down that nothing could be seen a single yard before the horses' heads. + +"Well, there was something or other down there in the road that didn't +seem to mind the snow a bit, something large, and round, and black, +feathering round and round the coach, and under the horses' noses--here, +there, and everywhere. But its gambols, whatever it was, came to a very +sudden termination, as that howl of anguish fully testified. The driver +was a humane man, and pulled up at once. + +"`I've driven over a bairn, or a dog, or some o' that fraternity,' he +said; `some o' them's continually gettin' in the road at the wrang time. +Gang doon, guard, and see aboot it. It howls for a' the warld like a +young warlock.' + +"Down went the guard, and presently remounted, holding in his arms the +recipient of the accident. It was a jet-black Newfoundland puppy, who +was whining in a most mournful manner, for one of his paws had been +badly crushed. + +"`Now,' cried the guard, `I'll sell the wee warlock cheap. Wha'll gie +an auld sang for him? He is onybody's dog for a gill of whuskey.' + +"`I'll gie ye twa gills for him, and chance it,' said a quiet-looking +farmer in one of the hinder seats. The puppy was handed over at once, +and both seemed pleased with the transfer. The farmer nursed his +purchase inside a fold of his plaid until the coach drew up before the +door of the city hotel, when he ordered warm water, and bathed the +little creature's wounded paw. + +"Little did the farmer then know how intimately connected that dog was +yet to be, with one of the darkest periods of his life's history. + +"Taken home with the farmer to the country, carefully nursed and tended, +and regularly fed, `Blucher,' as he was called, soon grew up into a very +fine dog, although always more celebrated for his extreme fidelity to +his master, than for any large amount of good looks. + +"One day the farmer's shepherd brought in a poor little lamb, wrapped up +in the corner of his plaid. He had found it in a distant nook of a +field, apparently quite deserted by its mother. The lamb was brought up +on the bottle by the farmer's little daughter, and as time wore on grew +quite a handsome fellow. + +"The lamb was Blucher's only companion. The lamb used to follow Blucher +wherever he went, romped and played with him, and at night the two +companions used to sleep together in the kitchen; the lamb's head +pillowed on the dog's neck, or _vice versa_, just as the case might be. +Blucher and his friend used to take long rambles together over the +country; they always came back safe enough, and looking pleased and +happy, but for a considerable time nobody was able to tell where they +had been to. It all came out in good time, however. Blucher, it seems, +in his capacity of _chaperon_ to his young friend, led the poor lamb +into mischief. It was proved, beyond a doubt, that Blucher was in the +daily habit of leading `Bonny' to different cabbage gardens, showing him +how to break through, and evidently rejoicing to see the lamb enjoying +himself. I do not believe that poor Blucher knew that he was doing any +injury or committing a crime. `At all events,' he might reason with +himself, `it isn't I who eat the cabbage, and why shouldn't poor Bonny +have a morsel when he seems to like it so much?' + +"But Blucher suffered indirectly from his kindness to Bonny, for +complaints from the neighbours of the depredations committed in their +gardens by the `twa thieves,' as they were called, became so numerous, +that at last poor Bonny had to pay the penalty for his crimes with his +life. He became mutton. A very disconsolate dog now was poor Blucher, +moaning mournfully about the place, and refusing his food, and, in a +word, just behaving as you and I would, reader, if we lost the only one +we loved. But I should not say the only one that Blucher loved, for he +still had his master, the farmer, and to him he seemed to attach himself +more than ever, since the death of the lamb; he would hardly ever leave +him, especially when the farmer's calling took him anywhere abroad. + +"About one year after Bonny's demise, the farmer began to notice a +peculiar numbness in the limbs, but paid little attention to it, +thinking that no doubt time--the poor man's physician--would cure it. +Supper among the peasantry of these northern latitudes is generally laid +about half-past six. Well, one dark December's day, at the accustomed +hour, both the dog and his master were missed from the table. For some +time little notice was taken of this, but as time flew by, and the night +grew darker, his family began to get exceedingly anxious. + +"`Here comes father at last,' cried little Mary, the farmer's daughter. + +"Her remark was occasioned by hearing Blucher scraping at the door, and +demanding admittance. Little Mary opened the door, and there stood +Blucher, sure enough; but although the night was clear and starlight, +there wasn't a sign of father. The strange conduct of Blucher now +attracted Mary's attention. He never had much affection for her, or for +any one save his master, but now he was speaking to her, as plain as a +dog could speak. He was running round her, barking in loud sharp tones, +as he gazed into her face, and after every bark pointing out into the +night, and vehemently wagging his tail. There was no mistaking such +language. Any one could understand his meaning. Even one of those +_strange people, who hate dogs_, would have understood him. Mary did, +anyhow, and followed Blucher at once. On trotted the honest fellow, +keeping Mary trotting too, and many an anxious glance he cast over his +shoulder to her, saying plainly enough, `Don't you think you could +manage to run just a _leetle_ faster?' Through many a devious path he +led her, and Mary was getting very tired, yet fear for her father kept +her up. After a walk, or rather run, of fully half an hour, honest +Blucher brought the daughter to the father's side. + +"He was lying on the cold ground, insensible and helpless, struck down +by that dreadful disease--paralysis. But for the sagacity and +intelligence of his faithful dog, death from cold and exposure would +certainly have ended his sufferings ere morning dawned. But Blucher's +work was not yet over for the night, for no sooner did he see Mary +kneeling down by her father's side, than he started off home again at +full speed, and in less than half an hour was back once more, +accompanied by two of the servants. + +"The rest of this dog's history can be told in very few words, and I am +sorry it had so tragic an ending. + +"During all the illness which supervened on the paralysis, Blucher could +seldom, if ever, be prevailed on to leave his master's bedside, and +every one who approached the patient was eyed with extreme suspicion. I +think I have already mentioned that Mary was no great favourite with +Blucher, and Mary, if she reads these lines, must excuse me for saying, +I believe it was her own fault, for if you are half frightened at a dog +he always thinks you harbour some ill-will to him, and would do him an +injury if you could. However, one day poor Mary came running in great +haste to her father's bedside. Most incautious haste as it turned out, +for the dog sprang up at once and bit her in the leg. For this, honest +Blucher was _condemned to death_. I think, taking into consideration +his former services, and the great love he bore to his afflicted master, +he might have been forgiven just for this once. + +"That his friends afterwards repented of their rashness I do not doubt, +for they have erected a monument over his grave. This monument tells +how faithfully he served his master, and how he loved him, and saved his +life, and although fifty years have passed since its erection, it still +stands to mark the spot where faithful Blucher lies." + +CHAPTER NINE. + +TEA ON THE LAWN, AND THE STORY OF A STARLING. + + "Thy spangled breast bright sprinkled specks adorn, + Each plume imbibes the rosy-tinted morn." + +"Sit down, Frank," said I; "my wife and Ida will be here presently. It +is so pleasant to have tea out of doors." + +"Yes," said Frank, "especially such tea as this. But," he added, +fishing a flower-spray from his cup with his spoon, "I do not want +jasmine in mine." + +"Good wine needs no bush," I remarked. + +"Nor good tea no scent," said my friend. + +"Although, Frank, the Chinese do scent some of their Souchongs with +jasmine, the _Jasminum Sambuc_." + +"Oh! dear uncle," cried Ida, "don't talk Latin. Maggie the magpie will +be doing it next." + +"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the pie called Maggie, who was very busy in the +bottom of her cage. I never, by the way, heard any bird or human being +laugh in such a cuttingly tantalising way as that magpie did. + +It was a sneering laugh, which made you feel that the remark you had +just made previously was ridiculously absurd. As she laughed she kept +on pegging away at whatever she was doing. + +"Go on," she seemed to say. "I am listening to all you are saying, but +I really can't help laughing, even with my mouth full. Ha! ha! ha!" + +"Well, Ida dear," I said, "I certainly shall not talk Latin if there be +the slightest chance of that impudent bird catching it up. Is this +better? + + "`My slight and slender jasmine tree, + That bloomest on my border tower, + Thou art more dearly loved by me + Than all the wealth of fairy bower. + I ask not, while I near thee dwell, + Arabia's spice or Syria's rose; + Thy light festoons more freshly smell, + Thy virgin white more freshly glows.'" + +"And now," said my wife, "what about the story?" + +"Yes, tea and a tale," cried Frank. + +"Do you know," I replied, "that the starling is the best of all talking +pets? And I do wonder why people don't keep them more often than they +do?" + +"They are difficult to rear, are they not?" + +"Somewhat, Frank, when young, as my story will show." + +"These," I continued, "are some kindly directions I have written about +the treatment of these charming birds." + +"Dear me!" cried the magpie. + +"Hold your tongue, Maggie," I said, "or you'll go into the house, cage +and all." + +Maggie laughed sneeringly, and all throughout the story she kept +interrupting me with impudent remarks, which quite spoiled the effect of +my eloquence. + +_The Starling's Cage_.--This should be as large and as roomy as +possible, or else the bird will break his tail and lose other feathers, +to the great detriment of his plumage and beauty. The cage may be a +wicker-work one, or simply wire, but the bars must not be too wide. +However much liberty you allow Master Dick in your presence, during your +absence it will generally be as well to have him inside his +dwelling-place; let the fastening of its door, then, be one which he +cannot pick. Any ordinary wire fastening is of no use; the starling +will find the cue to it in a single day. Tin dishes for the bird's food +will be found best, and they must be well shipped, or else he will +speedily tear them down. A large porcelain water fountain should be +placed outside the cage; he will try to bathe even in this, and I hardly +know how it can be prevented. Starlings are very fond of splashing +about in the water, and ought to have a bath on the kitchen floor every +day, unless you give them a proper bathing cage. After the bath place +him in the sun or near the fire to dry and preen himself. + +_Cleanliness_.--This is most essential. The cage and his feeding and +drinking utensils should be washed every day. The drawers beneath must +be taken out, cleaned, washed, and _dried_ before being put back, and a +little rough gravel scattered over the bottom of it. If you would wish +your bird to enjoy proper health--and without that he will never be a +good speaker or musician--keep all his surroundings dry and sweet, and +never leave yesterday's food for to-day's consumption. + +_Food_.--Do not give the bird salt food, but a little of anything else +that is going can always be allowed him. Perhaps bread soaked in water, +the water squeezed out, and a little new milk poured over, forms the +best staple of diet. But, in addition to this, shreds of raw meat +should be given, garden worms, slugs, etc. Carry him round the room on +your finger, stopping when you see a fly on the wall or a picture-frame, +and holding the starling near it. He will thus soon learn to catch his +own flies, and take such delight in this kind of stalking that, as soon +as he can speak, he will pester you with his importunities to be thus +carried round. + +White fish these birds are very fond of, and also fresh salmon. Fruit +should be given to them now and then, a fig being considered by them an +especial delicacy. A little chickweed or other green food is also +relished. This may be placed on the top of the cage. Finally +starlings, no matter how well you feed them, will not thrive without +plenty of exercise. The male bird is the better talker, and more active +and saucy, as well as more beautiful and graceful in shape and plumage. +Be assured the bird is very young before purchasing it. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +MY STARLING "DICK." + +I feel very lonely now since my starling is gone. I could not bear to +look upon his empty cage, his bath and playthings, so I have had them +all stowed away; but the bird will dwell in my memory for many a day. +The way in which that starling managed to insinuate itself into my heart +and entwine its affections with mine, I can never rightly tell; and it +is only now when it is gone that I really know how much it is possible +for a human creature to love a little bird. The creature was nearly +always with me, talking to me, whistling to me, or even doing mischief +in a small way, to amuse me; and to throw down my pen, straighten my +back, and have a romp with "Dick," was often the best relaxation I could +have had. + +The rearing of a nest of starlings is always a very difficult task, and +I found it peculiarly so. In fact, one young starling would require +half-a-dozen servants at least to attend it. I was not master of those +starlings, not a bit of it; they were masters of me. I had to get out +of bed and stuff them with food at three o'clock every morning. They +lived in a bandbox in a closet off my bedroom. I had to get up again at +four o'clock to feed them, again at five, and again at six; in fact, I +saw more sunrises during the infancy of that nest of starlings than ever +I did before or since. By day, and all day long, I stuffed them, and at +intervals the servant relieved me of that duty. In fact, it was pretty +near all stuffing; but even then they were not satisfied, and made +several ineffectual attempts to swallow my finger as well. At length-- +and how happy I felt!--they could both feed themselves and fly. This +last accomplishment, however, was anything but agreeable to me, for no +sooner did I open their door than out they would all come, one after the +other, and seat themselves on my head and shoulders, each one trying to +make more noise than all the rest and outdo his brothers in din. + +I got so tired of this sort of thing at last, that one day I determined +to set them all at liberty. I accordingly hung their cage outside the +window and opened their door, and out they all flew, but back they came +into the room again, and settled on me as usual. "Then," said I, "I'm +going gardening." By the way they clung to me it was evident their +answer was: "And so are we." And so they did. And as soon as I +commenced operations with the spade they commenced operations too, by +searching for and eating every worm I turned up, evidently thinking I +was merely working for their benefit and pleasure. I got tired of this. +"O bother you all!" I cried; "I'm sick of you." I threw down my spade +in disgust; and before they could divine my intention, I had leaped the +fence and disappeared in the plantation beyond. + +"Now," said I to myself, as I entered the garden that evening after my +return, and could see no signs of starlings, "I'm rid of you plagues at +last;" and I smiled with satisfaction. It was short-lived, for just at +that moment "Skraigh, skraigh, skraigh" sounded from the trees +adjoining; and before I could turn foot, my tormentors, seemingly mad +with joy, were all sitting on me as usual. Two of them died about a +week after this; and the others, being cock and hen, I resolved to keep. + +Both Dick and his wife soon grew to be very fine birds. I procured them +a large roomy cage, with plenty of sand and a layer of straw in the +bottom of it, a dish or two, a bath, a drinking fountain, and always a +supply of fresh green weeds on the roof of their domicile. Besides +their usual food of soaked bread, etc, they had slugs occasionally, and +flies, and earthworms. Once a day the cage-door was thrown open, and +out they both would fly with joyful "skraigh" to enjoy the luxury of a +bath on the kitchen floor. One would have imagined that, being only +two, they would not have stood on the order of their going; but they +did, at least Dick did, for he insisted upon using the bath first, and +his wife had to wait patiently until his lordship had finished. This +was part of Dick's domestic discipline. When they were both thoroughly +wet and draggled, and everything within a radius of two yards was in the +same condition, their next move was to hop on to the fender, and flatter +and gaze pensively into the fire; and two more melancholy-looking, +ragged wretches you never saw. When they began to dry, then they began +to dress, and in a few minutes "Richard was himself again," and so was +his wife. + +Starlings have their own natural song, and a strange noise they make +too. Their great faculty, however, is the gift of imitation, which they +have in a wonderful degree of perfection. The first thing that Dick +learned to imitate was the rumbling of carts and carriages on the +street, and very proud he was of the accomplishment. Then he learned to +pronounce his own name, with the prefix "Pretty," which he never +omitted, and to which he was justly entitled. Except when sitting on +their perch singing or piping, these two little pets were never tired +engineering about their cage, and everything was minutely examined. +They were perfect adepts at boring holes; by inserting the bill closed, +and opening it like a pair of scissors, lo! the thing was done. Dick's +rule of conduct was that he himself should have the first of everything, +and be allowed to examine first into everything, to have the highest +perch and all the tit-bits; in a word, to rule, king and priest, in his +own cage. I don't suppose he hated his wife, but he kept her in a state +of inglorious subjection to his royal will and pleasure. "Hezekiah" was +the name he gave his wife. I don't know why, but I am sure no one +taught him this, for he first used the name himself, and then I merely +corrected his pronunciation. + +Sometimes Dick would sit himself down to sing a song; and presently his +wife would join in with a few simple notes of melody; upon which Dick +would stop singing instantly, and look round at her with indignation. +"Hezekiah! Hezekiah!" he would say, which being interpreted, clearly +meant: "Hezekiah, my dear, how can you so far forget yourself as to +presume to interrupt your lord and master, with that cracked and +quavering voice of yours?" Then he would commence anew; and Hezekiah +being so good-natured, would soon forget her scolding and again join in. +This was too much for Dick's temper; and Hezekiah was accordingly +chased round and round the cage and soundly thrashed. His conduct +altogether as a husband, I am sorry to say, was very far from +satisfactory. I have said he always retained the highest perch for +himself; but sometimes he would turn one eye downwards, and seeing +Hezekiah sitting so cosily and contentedly on her humble perch, would at +once conclude that her seat was more comfortable than his; so down he +would hop and send her off at once. + +It was Dick's orders that Hezekiah should only eat at meal-times; that +meant at all times when he chose to feed, _after he was done_. But I +suppose his poor wife was often a little hungry in the interim, for she +would watch till she got Dick fairly into the middle of a song and quite +oblivions of surrounding circumstances, then she would hop down and +snatch a meal on the sly. But dire was the punishment far the deceit if +Dick found her out. Sometimes I think she used to long for a little +love and affection, and at such times she would jump up on the perch +beside her husband, and with a fond cry sidle close to him. + +"Hezekiah! Hezekiah!" he would exclaim; and if she didn't take that +hint, she was soon knocked to the bottom of the cage. In fact, Dick was +a domestic tyrant, but in all other respects a dear affectionate little +pet. + +One morning Dick got out of his cage by undoing the fastening, and flew +through the open window, determined to see what the world was like, +leaving Hezekiah to mourn. It was before five on a summer's morning +that he escaped; and I saw no more of him until, coming out of church +that day, the people were greatly astonished to see a bird fly down from +the steeple and alight upon my shoulder. He retained his perch all the +way home. He got so well up to opening the fastening of his cage-door +that I had to get a small spring padlock, which defied him, although he +studied it for months, and finally gave it up, as being one of those +things which no fellow could understand. + +Dick soon began to talk, and before long had quite a large vocabulary of +words, which he was never tired using. As he grew very tame, he was +allowed to live either out of his cage or in it all day long as he +pleased. Often he would be out in the garden all alone for hours +together, running about catching flies, or sitting up in a tree +repeating his lessons to himself, both verbal and musical. The cat and +her kittens were his especial favourites, although he used to play with +the dogs as well, and often go to sleep on their backs. He took his +lessons with great regularity, was an arduous student, and soon learned +to pipe "Duncan Grey" and "The Sprig of Shillelah" without a single +wrong note. I used to whistle these tunes over to him, and it was quite +amusing to mark his air of rapt attention as he crouched down to listen. +When I had finished, he did not at once begin to try the tune himself, +but sat quiet and still for some time, evidently thinking it over in his +own mind. In piping it, if he forgot a part of the air, he would cry: +"Doctor, doctor!" and repeat the last note once or twice, as much as to +say: "What comes after that?" and I would finish the tune for him. + +"Tse! tse! tse!" was a favourite exclamation of his, indicative of +surprise. When I played a tune on the fiddle to him, he would crouch +down with breathless attention. Sometimes when he saw me take up the +fiddle, he would go at once and peck at Hezekiah. I don't know why he +did so, unless to secure her keeping quiet. As soon as I had finished +he would say "Bravo!" with three distinct intonations of the word, thus: +"Bravo! doctor; br-r-ravo! bra-vo!" + +Dick was extremely inquisitive and must see into everything. He used to +annoy the cat very much by opening out her toes, or even her nostrils, +to examine; and at times pussy used to lose patience, and pat him on the +back. + +"Eh?" he would say. "What is it? You rascal!" If two people were +talking together underneath his cage, he would cock his head, lengthen +his neck, and looking down quizzingly, say: "Eh? _What_ is it? _What_ +do you say?" + +He frequently began a sentence with the verb, "Is," putting great +emphasis on it. "Is?" he would say musingly. + +"Is what, Dick?" I would ask. + +"Is," he would repeat--"Is the darling starling a pretty pet?" + +"No question about it," I would answer. + +He certainly made the best of his vocabulary, for he trotted out all his +nouns and all his adjectives time about in pairs, and formed a hundred +curious combinations. + +"_Is_," he asked one day, "the darling doctor a rascal?" + +"Just as you think," I replied. + +"Tse! tse! tse! Whew! whew! whew!" said Dick; and finished off with +"Duncan Grey" and the first half of "The Sprig of Shillelah." + +"Love is the soul of a nate Irishman," he had been taught to say; but it +was as frequently, "Love is the soul of a nate Irish starling;" or, +"_Is_ love the soul of a darling pretty Dick?" and so on. + +One curious thing is worth noting: he never pronounced my dog's name-- +Theodore Nero--once while awake; but he often startled us at night by +calling the dog in clear ringing tones--talking in his sleep. He used +to be chattering and singing without intermission all day long; and if +ever he was silent then I knew he was doing mischief; and if I went +quietly into the kitchen, I was sure to find him either tracing patterns +on a bar of soap, or examining and tearing to pieces a parcel of +newly-arrived groceries. He was very fond of wines and spirits, but +knew when he had enough. He was not permitted to come into the parlour +without his cage; but sometimes at dinner, if the door were left ajar, +he would silently enter like a little thief; when once fairly in, he +would fly on to the table, scream, and defy me. He was very fond of a +pretty child that used to come to see me. If Matty was lying on the +sofa reading, Dick would come and sing on her head; then he would go +through all the motions of washing and bathing on Matty's bonnie hair; +which was, I thought, paying her a very pretty compliment. + +When the sun shone in at my study window, I used to hang Dick's cage +there, as a treat to him. Dick would remain quiet for perhaps twenty +minutes, then the stillness would feel irksome to him, and presently he +would stretch his head down towards me in a confidential sort of way, +and begin to pester me with his silly questions. + +"Doctor," he would commence, "_is_ it, is it a nate Irish pet?" + +"Silence, and go asleep," I would make answer. "I want to write." + +"Eh?" he would say. "_What_ is it? _What_ d'ye say?" + +Then, if I didn't answer-- + +"_Is_ it sugar--snails--sugar, snails, and brandy?" Then, "Doctor, +doctor!" + +"Well, Dickie, what is it now?" I would answer. + +"Doctor--whew." That meant I was to whistle to him. + +"Shan't," I would say sulkily. + +"Tse! tse! tse!" Dickie would say, and continue, "Doctor, will you go +a-clinking?" I never could resist that. Going a-clinking meant going +fly-hawking. Dick always called a fly a clink; and this invitation I +would receive a dozen times a day, and seldom refused. I would open the +cage-door, and Dick would perch himself on my finger, and I would carry +him round the room, holding him up to the flies on the picture-frames. +And he never missed one. + +Once Dick fell into a bucket of water, and called lustily for the +"doctor;" and I was only just in time to save him from a watery grave. +When I got him out, he did not speak a word until he had gone to the +fire and opened his wings and feathers out to dry, then he said: "Bravo! +B-r-ravo" several times, and went forthwith and attacked Hezekiah. + +Dick had a little travelling cage, for he often had to go with me by +train; and no sooner did the train start than Dick used to commence to +talk and whistle, very much to the astonishment of the passengers, for +the bird was up in the umbrella rack. Everybody was at once made aware +of both my profession and character, for the jolting of the carriage not +pleasing him, he used always to prelude his performance with, "Doctor, +doctor, you r-r-rascal. What _is_ it, eh?" As Dick got older, I am +sorry, as his biographer, to be compelled to say he grew more and more +unkind to his wife--attacked her regularly every morning and the last +thing at night, and half-starred her besides. Poor Hezekiah! She could +do nothing in the world to please him. Sometimes, now, she used to peck +him back again; she was driven to it. I was sorry for Hezekiah, and +determined to play pretty Dick a little trick. So one day, when he had +been bullying her worse than ever, I took Hezekiah out of the cage, and +fastened a small pin to her bill, so as to protrude just a very little +way, and returned her. Dick walked up to her at once. "What," he +wanted to know, "did she mean by going on shore without leave?" +Hezekiah didn't answer, and accordingly received a dig in the back, then +another, then a third; and then Hezekiah turned, and let him have one +sharp attack. It was very amusing to see how Dick jumped, and his look +of astonishment as he said: "Eh? _What_ d'ye say? Hezekiah! +Hezekiah!" + +Hezekiah followed up her advantage. It was quite a new sensation for +her to have the upper hand, and so she courageously chased him round and +round the cage, until I opened the door and let Dick out. + +But Hezekiah could not live always with a pin tied to her bill; so, for +peace' sake, I gave her away to a friend, and Dick was left alone in his +glory. + +Poor Dickie! One day he was shelling peas to himself in the garden, +when some boys startled him, and he flew away. I suppose he lost +himself, and couldn't find his way back. At all events I only saw him +once again. I was going down through an avenue of trees about a mile +from the house, when a voice above in a tree hailed me: "Doctor! doctor! +What _is_ it?" That was Dick; but a rook flew past and scared him +again, and away he flew--for ever. + +That same evening, Ida, who had been absent for some little time, +returned, and shyly handed me a letter. + +"Whom is it from, I wonder, Ida," I said; "so late in the evening, too?" + +"Oh, it is from Maggie," Ida replied. + +"What!" I exclaimed; "from that impudent bird? Well, let us see what +she has to say;" and opening the note, I read as follows:-- + + "Dear Master,--I fully endorse all you have written about the + starling, especially as regards their treatment, and if you had added + that they are pert, perky things, you wouldn't have been far out. + Well, we magpies build our nests of sticks on the tops of tall trees, + lining it first with clay, then with grass; our eggs are five in + number, and if they weren't so like to a rook's they might be mistaken + for a blackbird's. The nests are so big that before the little boys + climb up the trees they think they have found a hawk's. In some parts + of the country we are looked upon with a kind of superstitious awe. + This is nonsense; there is nothing wrong about us; we may bring joy to + people, as I do to you, dear Doctor, by my gentle loving ways, but we + never bring grief. We like solitude, and keep ourselves in the wild + state to ourselves. Perhaps if we went in flocks, and had as much to + say for ourselves as those noisy brutes of rooks, we would be more + thought of. Even in the domestic state we like our liberty, and think + it terribly cruel to be obliged to mope all day long in a wicker cage. + It is crueller still to hang us in draughts, or in too strong a sun; + while to keep our cage damp and dirty cramps our legs and gives us + such twinges of rheumatism in our poor unused wings, that we often + long to die and be at rest. + + "The treatment, Doctor, you prescribe for starlings will do nicely for + us, and you know how easily we are taught to talk; and I'm sure I _do_ + love you, Doctor, and haven't I, all for your sake, made friends with + your black Persian cat and your big Newfoundland dog? + + "No, I'm not a thief; I deny the charge. Only if you do leave silver + spoons about, and gold pens, and shillings and sixpenny-bits--why--I-- + I borrow them, that is all, and you can always find them in Maggie's + cage. + + "We can eat all that starlings eat; yes, and a great many things they + would turn up their supercilious bills at. But, remember, we do like + a little larger allowance of animal food than starlings do. + + "No more at present, dear Doctor, but remains your loving and + affectionate Magpie, Maggie." + +N.b.--The grammatical error in the last sentence is Maggie's, not mine. + +CHAPTER TEN. + +THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ROOK TOBY. + + "A dewy freshness fills the silent air; + No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain + Breaks the serene of heaven: + In full-orbed glory, yonder moon divine + Rolls through the dark-blue depths. + Beneath her steady ray + The desert-circle spreads; + Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. + How beautiful is night?" + +"It most have been on just such another night as this, Frank, that +Southey penned these lines," I began. + +"How about the dewy freshness?" said my wife, who is usually more +practical than poetic. "Don't you think, dear, that Ida had better go +in?" + +"Oh! no, auntie," cried Ida; "I must stay and hear the story. It isn't +nine o'clock." + +"No," Frank remarked, "barely nine o'clock, and yet the stars are all +out; why, up in the north of Scotland people at this season of the year +can see to read all night." + +"How delightful!" cried Ida. + +The nodding lilacs and starry syringas were mingling their perfume in +the evening air. + +"Listen," said my wife; "yonder, close by us in the Portugal laurel, is +the nightingale." + +"Yes," I replied, "but to-morrow morning will find the bird just a +trifle farther afield, for some instinct tells him that our dark-haired +Persian pussy is an epicure in her way, and would prefer philomel to +fish for her matutinal meal." + +I am more convinced than ever that for the first two or three nights +after their arrival in this country the nightingales do not go to sleep +at all, but sing on all day as well as all night, the marvel being that +they do not get hoarse. But after a week the night-song is not nearly +so brilliant nor so prolonged, nor does it attain its pristine wild +joyfulness until spring once more gilds the fields with buttercups. By +day the song is not so noticeable, though ever and anon it sounds high +over the Babel of other birds' voices. But, of course, the thrush must +sing, the blackbird must pipe, and vulgar sparrows bicker and shriek, +and talk Billingsgate to each other, for sparrows having but little +music in their own nature, have just as little appreciation for the gift +in others. + +"Look!" cried Frank; "yonder goes a bat." + +"Yes," I said, "the bats are abroad every night now in full force. What +a wonderful power of flight is theirs; how quickly they can turn and +wheel, and how nimbly gyrate!" + +"I much prefer the martin-swallow," said Ida. + +"We have no more welcome summer, or rather spring visitor, Ida, than the +martin. + + "`He twitters on the apple-trees, + He hails me at the dawn of day, + Each morn the recollected proof + Of time, that swiftly fleets away. + Fond of sunshine, fond of shade, + Fond of skies serene and clear, + E'en transient storms his joys invade, + In fairest seasons of the year.'" + +"But I must be allowed to say that I object to the word `twitter,' so +usually applied to the song of the swallow. It is more than a +meaningless twitter. Although neither loud nor clear, it is--when heard +close at hand--inexpressibly sweet and soft and tender, more so than +even that of the linnet, and there are many joyous and happy notes in +it, which it is quite delightful to listen to. Indeed, hardly any one +could attentively observe the song of our domestic martin for any length +of time without feeling convinced that the dusky little minstrel was +happy--inexpressibly happy. Few, perhaps, know that there is a striking +similarity between the expressions by sound or, voice of the emotions of +all animals in the world, whether birds or beasts, and whether those +emotions be those of grief or pain, or joy itself. This is well worth +observing, and if you live in the country you will have a thousand +chances of doing so. Why does the swallow sing in so low a voice? At a +little distance you can hardly hear it at all. I have travelled a good +deal in forests and jungles and bush lands in Africa and the islands +about it, and, of course, I always went alone, that is, I never had any +visible companion--because only when alone can one enjoy Nature, and +study the ways and manners of birds and beasts, and I have been struck +by the silence of the birds, or, at all events, their absence of song in +many of them." + +"Why should that be so, I wonder?" said Ida. + +"Probably," said Frank, "because the woods where the birds dwell are so +full of danger that song would betray their presence, and the result be +death. And the same reason may cause the house martins to lower their +voices when they give vent to their little notes of tuneful joy." + +There was a moment's pause: Aileen came and put her head in my lap. + +"She is waiting for the story," said Frank. + +"Oh! yes," my wife remarked; "both the dogs are sure to be interested in +`Toby's' tale." + +"Why?" said Frank. + +"Because," my wife replied, "Toby was a sheep." + +Here Theodore Nero must join Aileen. The very name or mention of the +word "sheep," was sure to make that honest dog wag his tail. + +"Two heads are better than one," I once remarked in his presence. + +"Especially sheep's heads," said the dog. + +And now for the story. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +TOBY: THE STORY OF A SAILOR SHEEP. + +Now Toby was a sheep, a sheep of middling size, lightly built, finely +limbed, as agile as a deer, with dark intelligent gazelle-like eyes, and +a small pair of neatly curled horns, with the points protruding about an +inch from his forehead. And his colour was white except on the face, +which was slightly darker. + +It was the good brig _Reliance_ of Arbroath, and she was bound from Cork +to Galatz, on the banks of the blue Danube. All went well with the +little ship until she reached the Grecian Archipelago, and here she was +detained by adverse winds and contrary currents, making the passage +through among the islands both a dangerous and a difficult one. When +the mariners at length reached Tenedos, it was found that the current +from the Dardanelles was running out like a mill-stream, which made it +impossible to proceed; and accordingly the anchor was cast, the +jolly-boat was lowered, and the captain took the opportunity of going on +shore for fresh water, of which they were scarce. Having filled his +casks, it was only natural for a sailor to long to treat himself to a +mess of fresh meat as well as water. He accordingly strolled away +through the little town; but soon found that butchers were unknown +animals in Tenedos. Presently, however, a man came up with a sheep, +which the captain at once purchased for five shillings. This was Toby, +with whom, his casks of water, and a large basket of ripe fruit, the +skipper returned to his vessel. There happened to be on board this ship +a large and rather useless half-bred Newfoundland. This dog was the +very first to receive the attentions of Master Toby, for no sooner had +he placed foot on deck than he ran full tilt at the poor Newfoundland, +hitting him square on the ribs and banishing almost every bit of breath +from his body. "Only a sheep," thought the dog, and flew at Toby at +once. But Toby was too nimble to be caught, and he planted his blows +with such force and precision, that at last the poor dog was fain to +take to his heels, howling with pain, and closely pursued by Toby. The +dog only escaped by getting out on to the bowsprit, where of course Toby +could not follow, but quietly lay down between the knight-heads to wait +and watch for him. + +That same evening the captain was strolling on the quarter-deck eating +some grapes, when Toby came up to him, and standing on one end, planted +his feet on his shoulders, and looked into his face, as much as to say: +"I'll have some of those, please." + +And he was not disappointed, for the captain amicably went shares with +Toby. Toby appeared so grateful for even little favours, and so +attached to his new master, that Captain Brown had not the heart to kill +him. He would rather, he thought, go without fresh meat all his life. +So Toby was installed as ship's pet. Ill-fared it then with the poor +Newfoundland; he was so battered and so cowed, that for dear life's sake +he dared not leave his kennel even to take his food. It was determined, +therefore, to put an end to the poor fellow's misery, and he was +accordingly shot. This may seem cruel, but it was the kindest in the +main. + +Now, there was on board the _Reliance_ an old Irish cook. One morning +soon after the arrival of Toby, Paddy (who had a round bald pate, be it +remembered) was bending down over a wooden platter cleaning the +vegetables for dinner, when Toby took the liberty of insinuating his +woolly nose to help himself. The cook naturally enough struck Toby on +the snout with the flat of the knife and went on with his work. Toby +backed astern at once; a blow he never could and never did receive +without taking vengeance. Besides, he imagined, no doubt, that holding +down his bald head as he did, the cook was desirous of trying the +strength of their respective skulls. When he had backed astern +sufficiently for his purpose, Toby gave a spring; the two heads came +into violent collision, and down rolled poor Paddy on the deck. Then +Toby coolly finished all the vegetables, and walked off as if nothing +had happened out of the usual. + +Toby's hatred of the whole canine race was invincible. While the vessel +lay at Galatz she was kept in quarantine, and there was only one small +platform, about four hundred yards long by fifty wide, on which the +captain or crew of the _Reliance_ could land. This was surrounded by +high walls on three sides, one side being the Pe'latoria, at which all +business with the outside world was transacted through gratings. +Inside, however, there were a few fruit-stalls. Crowds used to +congregate here every morning to watch Toby's capers, and admire the +nimbleness with which he used to rob the fruit-stalls and levy blackmail +from the vegetable vendors. + +One day when the captain and his pet were taking their usual walk on +this promenade, there came on shore the skipper of a Falmouth ship, +accompanied by a large formidable-looking dog. And the dog only +resembled his master, as you observe dogs usually do. As soon as he saw +Toby he commenced to hunt his dog upon him; but Toby had seen him coming +and was quite _en garde_; so a long and fierce battle ensued, in which +Toby was slightly wounded and the dog's head was severely cut. Quite a +multitude had assembled to witness the fight, and the ships' riggings +were alive with sailors. At one time the brutal owner of the dog, +seeing his pet getting worsted, attempted to assist him; but the crowd +would have pitched him neck and crop into the river, had he not +desisted. At last both dog and sheep were exhausted and drew off, as if +by mutual consent. The dog seated himself close to the outer edge of +the platform, which was about three feet higher than the river's bank, +and Toby went, as he was wont to do, and stood between his master's +legs, resting his head fondly on the captain's clasped hands, but never +took his eyes off the foe. Just then a dog on board one of the ships +happened to bark, and the Falmouth dog looked round. This was Toby's +chance, and he did not miss it nor his enemy either. He was upon him +like a bolt from a catapult. One furious blow knocked the dog off the +platform, next moment Toby had leaped on top of him, and was chasing the +yelling animal towards his own ship. There is no doubt Toby would have +crossed the plank and followed him on board, had not his feet slipped +and precipitated him into the river. A few minutes afterwards, when +Toby, dripping with wet, returned to the platform to look for his +master, he was greeted with ringing cheers; and many was the plaster +spent in treating Toby to fruit. Toby was the hero of Galatz from that +hour; but the Falmouth dog never ventured on shore again, and his master +as seldom as possible. + +On her downward voyage, when the vessel reached Selina, at the mouth of +the river, it became necessary to lighten her in order to get her over +the bar. This took some time, and Toby's master frequently had to go on +shore; but Toby himself was not permitted to accompany him, on account +of the filth and muddiness of the place. When the captain wished to +return he came down to the river-side and hailed the ship to send a +boat. And poor Toby was always on the watch for his master if no one +else was. He used to place his fore-feet on the bulwarks and bleat +loudly towards the shore, as much as to say: "I see you, master, and +you'll have a boat in a brace of shakes." Then if no one was on deck, +Toby would at once proceed to rouse all hands fore and aft. If the +mate, Mr Gilbert, pretended to be asleep on a locker, he would fairly +roll him off on to the deck. + +Toby was revengeful to a degree, and if any one struck him, he would +wait his chance, even if for days, to pay him out with interest in his +own coin. He was at first very jealous of two little pigs which were +bought as companions to him; but latterly he grew very fond of them, and +as they soon got very fat, Toby used to roll them along the deck like a +couple of footballs. There were two parties on board that Toby did not +like, or rather that he liked to annoy whenever he got the chance, +namely, the cook and the cat. He used to cheat the former and chase the +latter on every possible occasion. If his master took pussy and sat +down with her on his knee, Toby would at once commence to strike her off +with his head. Finding that she was so soft and yielding that this did +not hurt her, he would then lift his fore-foot and attempt to strike her +down with that; failing in that, he would bite viciously at her; and if +the captain laughed at him, then all Toby's vengeance would be wreaked +on his master. But after a little scene like this, Toby would always +come and coax for forgiveness. Toby was taught a great many tricks, +among others to leap backward and forward through a life-buoy. When his +hay and fresh provisions went down, Toby would eat pea-soup, invariably +slobbering all his face in so doing, and even pick a bone like a dog. +He was likewise very fond of boiled rice, and his drink was water, +although he preferred porter and ale; but while allowing him a +reasonable quantity of beer, the captain never encouraged him in the +nasty habit the sailors had taught him of chewing tobacco. + +It is supposed that some animals have a prescience of coming storms. +Toby used to go regularly to the bulwarks every night, and placing his +feet against them sniff all around him. If content, he would go and lie +down and fall fast asleep; but it was a sure sign of bad weather coming +before morning, when Toby kept wandering among his master's feet and +would not go to rest. + +Pea-soup and pork-bones are scarcely to be considered the correct food +for a sheep, and so it is hardly to be wondered at that Toby got very +thin before the vessel reached Falmouth. + +Once Toby was in a hotel coffee-room with his master and a friend of the +latter's, when instead of calling for two glasses of beer, the captain +called for three. + +"Is the extra glass for yourself or for me?" asked his friend. + +The extra glass was for Toby, who soon became the subject of general +conversation. + +"I warrant noo," said a north-country skipper, "that thing would kick up +a bonnie shine if you were to gang oot and leave him." + +"Would you like to try him?" replied Captain Brown. + +"I would," said the Scot, "vera muckle." + +Accordingly Toby was imprisoned in one corner of the room, where he was +firmly held by the Scotch skipper; and Captain Brown, after giving Toby +a glance which meant a great deal, left the room. No sooner had he gone +than Toby struggled clear of the Scotchman, and took the nearest route +for the door. This necessitated his jumping on to the middle of the +table, and here Toby missed his footing and fell, kicking over glasses, +decanters, and pewter pots by the half-dozen. He next floored a +half-drunken fellow, over whose head he tried to spring, and so secured +his escape, and left the Scotch skipper to pay the bill. + +One day Captain Brown was going up the steps of the Custom-house, when +he found that not only Toby but Toby's two pigs were following close at +his heels. He turned round to drive them all back; but Toby never +thought for a moment that his master meant that _he_ should return. + +"It is these two awkward creatures of pigs," thought Toby, "that master +can't bear the sight of." + +So Toby went to work at once, and first rolled one piggie downstairs, +then went up and rolled the other piggie downstairs; but the one piggie +always got to the top of the stairs again by the time his brother piggie +was rolled down to the bottom. Thinking that as far as appearances +went, Toby had his work cut out for the next half-hour, his master +entered the Custom-house. But Toby and his friends soon found some more +congenial employment; and when Captain Brown returned, he found them all +together in an outer room, dancing about with the remains of a new mat +about their necks, which they had just succeeded in tearing to pieces. + +Their practical jokes cost the captain some money one way or another. + +One day the three friends made a combined attack on a woman who was +carrying a young pig in a sack; this little pig happened to squeak, when +Toby and his pigs went to the rescue. They tore the woman's dress to +atoms and delivered the little pig. Toby was very much addicted to +describing the arc of a circle; that was all very good when it was +merely a fence he was flying over, but when it happened that a window +was in the centre of the arc, then it came rather hard on the captain's +pocket. + +In order to enable him to pick up a little after his long voyage, Toby +was sent to country lodgings at a farmer's. But barely a week had +elapsed when the farmer sent him back again with his compliments, saying +that he would not keep him for his weight in gold. He led his, the +farmer's, sheep into all sorts of mischief that they had never dreamed +of before, and he defied the dogs, and half-killed one or two of them. + +Toby returned like himself, for when he saw his master in the distance +he baa-ed aloud for joy, and flew towards him like a wild thing, +dragging the poor boy in the mud behind him. + +Toby next took out emigrants to New York, and was constantly employed +all day in sending the steerage passengers off the quarter-deck. He +never hurt the children, however, but contented himself by tumbling them +along the deck and stealing their bread-and-butter. + +From New York Toby went to Saint Stephens. There a dog flew out and bit +Captain Brown in the leg. It was a dear bite, however, for the dog, for +Toby caught him in the act, and hardly left life enough in him to crawl +away. At Saint Stephens Toby was shorn, the weather being oppressively +hot. No greater insult could have been offered him. His anger and +chagrin were quite ludicrous to witness. He examined himself a dozen +times, and every time he looked round and saw his naked back he tried to +run away from himself. He must have thought with the wee "wifiekie +comin' frae the fair--This is no me surely, this is no me." But when +his master, highly amused at his antics, attempted to add insult to +injury by pointing his finger at him and laughing him to scorn, Toby's +wrath knew no bounds, and he attacked the captain on the spot. He +managed, however, to elude the blow, and Toby walked on shore in a pet. +Whether it was that he was ashamed of his ridiculous appearance, or of +attempting to strike his kind master in anger, cannot be known, but for +three days and nights Toby never appeared, and the captain was very +wretched indeed. But when he did return, he was so exceedingly penitent +and so loving and coaxing that he was forgiven on the spot. + +When Toby arrived with his vessel in Queen's Dock, Liverpool, on a rainy +morning, some nice fresh hay was brought on board. This was a great +treat for Toby, and after he had eaten his fill, he thought he could not +do better than sleep among it, which thought he immediately transmuted +to action, covering himself all up except the head. By-and-by the owner +of the ship came on board, and taking a survey of things in general, he +spied Toby's head. + +"Hollo!" he said, "what's that?" striking Toby's nose with his umbrella. +"Stuffed, isn't it?" + +Stuffed or not stuffed, there was a stuffed body behind it, as the owner +soon knew to his cost, and a spirit that never brooked a blow, for next +moment he found himself lying on his back with his legs waggling in the +air in the most expressive manner, while Toby stood triumphantly over +him waiting to repeat the dose if required. + +The following anecdote shows Toby's reasoning powers. He was standing +one day near the dockyard foreman's house, when the dinner bell rang, +and just at the same time a servant came out with a piece of bread for +Toby. Every day after this, as soon as the same bell rang--"That calls +me," said Toby to himself, and off he would trot to the foreman's door. +If the door was not at once opened he used to knock with his head; and +he would knock and knock again until the servant, for peace' sake, +presented him with a slice of bread. + +And now Toby's tale draws near its close. The owner never forgave that +blow, and one day coming by chance across the following entry in the +ship's books, "Tenedos--to one sheep, five shillings," he immediately +claimed Toby as his rightful property. It was all in vain that the +captain begged hard for his poor pet, and even offered ten times his +nominal value for him. The owner was deaf to all entreaties and +obdurate. So the two friends were parted. Toby was sent a long way +into the country to Carnoustie, to amuse some of the owner's children, +who were at school there. But the sequel shows how very deeply and +dearly even a sheep can love a kind-hearted master. After the captain +left him, poor Toby refused all food and _died of grief in one week's +time_. + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +A BIRD-HAUNTED LAWN IN JUNE--PETS OF MY EARLY YEARS. + + "Go, beautiful and gentle dove! + But whither wilt thou go? + For though the clouds tide high above. + How sad and waste is all below. + + "The dove flies on. + In lonely flight + She flies from dawn to dark; + And now, amidst the gloom of night, + Comes weary to the ark. + `Oh! let me in,' she seems to say, + `For long and lone has been my way; + Oh! once more, gentle mistress, let me rest + And dry my dripping plumage on thy breast.'" + + Rev W. Bowles. + +There is a kind of semi-wildness about our back lawn that a great many +people profess to admire. It stretches downwards from my indoor study, +from where the French windows open on to the trellised verandah, which +in this sweet month of June, as I write, is all a smother of roses. The +walk winds downwards well to one side, and not far from a massive hedge, +but this hedge is hidden from view for the most part by a ragged row of +trees. The Portuguese laurel, tasselled with charming white bloom at +present, but otherwise an immense globe of green (you might swing a +hammock inside it and no one know you were there), comes first; then +tall, dark-needled Austrian pines, their branches trailing on the grass, +with hazels, lilacs, and elders, the latter now in bloom. The lawn +proper has it pretty much to itself, with the exception of the +flower-beds, the rose-standards, and a sprinkling of youthful pines, and +it is bounded on the other side by a tall privet hedge--that, too, is +all bedecked in bloom. On the other ride of this hedge the view is shut +in to some extent by tapering cypress trees, elms, and oaks, but here +and there you catch glimpses of the hills and the lovely country beyond. +Along this hedge, at present, wallflowers, and scarlet and white and +pink-belled foxgloves are blooming. + +If you go along the winding pathway, past the bonnie nook--where is now +the grave of my dear old favourite Newfoundland [the well-known +champion, Theodore Nero]--and if you obstinately refuse to be coaxed by +a forward wee side-path into a cool, green grotto, canopied with ivy and +lilacs, you will land--nowhere you would imagine at first, but on +pushing boughs aside you find a gate, which, supposing you had the key, +would lead you out into open country, with the valley of the Thames, +stretching from west to east, about a mile distant, and the grand old +wooded hills, blue with the softening mist of distance, beyond that. +But the lower part of the lawn near that hidden gate is bounded by a +bank of glorious foliage--rhododendrons, syringas, trailing roses, and +hero-laurels in front, with ash, laburnum, and tall holly trees behind. +It may not be right to allow brambles to creep through this bank; nor +raspberries, with their drooping cane-work; nor blue-eyed, creeping +belladonna; but I like it. I dearly love to see things where you least +expect them; to find roses peeping through hedgerows, strawberries +building their nests at the foot of gooseberry clumps, and clusters of +yellow or red luscious raspberries peeping out from the midst of +rhododendron banks, as if fairy fingers were holding them up to view. + +I'm not sure that the grass on this pet lawn of mine, is always kept so +cleanly shaven as some folks might wish, but for my own part I like it +snowed over with daisies and white clover; and, what is more to the +point, the birds and the bees like it. Indeed, the lawn is little more +than a vast outdoor aviary--it is a bird-haunted lawn. There is a +rough, shallow bath under a tree at the end of it, and here the +blackbirds, thrushes, and starlings come to splash early in the morning, +and stare up at my window as I dress, as coolly as if they had not been +all up in the orchard trees breakfasting off the red-heart cherries. I +have come now, after a lapse of four years, to believe that those +cherries belong to the birds and not to me, just as a considerable +number of pounds of the greengages belong to the wasps. + +The nightingales hop around the lawn all day, but they do not bathe, and +they do not sing now; they devour terribly long earthworms instead. In +the sweet spring-time, in the days of their wooing, they did nothing but +sing, and they never slept. Now all is changed, and they do little else +save sleep and eat. + +There are wild pigeons build here, though it is close to two roads, and +I see turtle-doves on the lawn every day. + +"Did you commence the study of natural history at an early age, Gordon?" +said Frank to me one evening, as we all sat together on this lawn. + +"In a practical kind of a way, yes, Frank," I replied, "and if I live +for the next ten thousand years I may make some considerable progress in +this study. _Ars longa vita brevia est_, Frank." + +"True; and now," he continued, "spin us a yarn or two about some of the +pets you have had." + +"Well, Frank," I replied, "as you ask me in that off-hand way, you must +be content to take my reminiscences in an off-hand way, too." + +"We will," said Frank; "won't we, Ida?" + +Ida nodded. + +"Given a pen and put in a corner, Frank, I can tell a story as well as +my neighbours, but the _extempore_ business floors me. I'm shy, Frank, +shy. Another cup of tea, Dot--thank you--ahem!" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +PETS OF MY EARLY YEARS. + +There was no school within about three miles of a property my father +bought when I was a little over two years of age. With some help from +the neighbours my father built a school, which I believe is now endowed, +but at that time it was principally supported by voluntary +contributions. I was sent there as a first instalment. I was an +involuntary contribution. Nurse carried me there every morning, but I +always managed to walk coming back. By sending a child of tender years +to a day-school, negative rather than positive good was all that was +expected, for my mother frankly confessed that I was only sent to keep +me out of mischief. The first few days of my school life flew past +quickly enough, for my teacher, a little hunchback, be it remembered, +whom you may know by the name of Dominie W--, was very kind to me, +candied me and lollipopped me, and I thought it grand fun to sit all day +on my little stool, turning over the pages of picture-books, and looking +at the other boys getting thrashed. This latter part indeed was the +best to me, for the little fellows used to screw their miserable visages +so, and make such funny faces, that I laughed and crowed with delight. +But I didn't like it when it came to my own turn. And here is how that +occurred:--There was a large pictorial map that hung on the schoolroom +wall, covered with delineations of all sorts of wild beasts. These were +pointed out to the Bible-class one by one, and a short lecture given on +the habits of each, which the boys and girls were supposed to retain in +their memories, and retail again when asked to. One day, however, the +dromedary became a stumbling-block to all the class; not one of them +could remember the name of the beast. + +"Did ever I see such a parcel of numskulls?" said Dominie W--. "Why, I +believe that child there could tell you." + +I felt sure I could, and intimated as much. + +"What is it, then, my dear?" said my teacher encouragingly. "Speak out, +and shame the dunces." + +I did speak out, and with appalling effect. + +"It's a schoolmaster," I said. + +"A what?" roared the dominie. + +"A schoolmaster," I said, more emphatically; "it has a hump on its +back." + +I didn't mean to be rude, but I naturally imagined that the hump was the +badge of the scholastic calling, and that the dromedary was dominie +among the beasts. + +"Oh! indeed," said Dominie W--; "well, you just wait there a minute, and +I'll make a hump on your back." And he moved off towards the desk for +the strap. + +As I didn't want a hump on my back, instant flight suggested itself to +me, as the only way of meeting the difficulty; so I made tracks for the +door forthwith. + +"Hold him, catch him!" cried the dominie, and a big boy seized me by the +skirt of my dress. But I had the presence of mind to meet my teeth in +the fleshy part of the lad's hand; then I was free to flee. Down the +avenue I ran as fast as two diminutive shanks could carry me, but I had +still a hundred yards to run, and capture seemed inevitable, for the +dominie was gaining on me fast. But help was most unexpectedly at hand, +for, to my great joy, our pet bull-terrier, "Danger," suddenly put in an +appearance. The dog seemed to take in the whole situation at a glance, +and it was now the dominie's turn to shake in his shoes. And Danger +went for him in grand style, too. I don't know that he hurt him very +much, but to have to return to school with five-and-thirty pounds of +pure-bred bull-terrier hanging to one's hump, cannot be very grateful to +one's feelings. I was not sent to that seminary any more for a year, +but it dawned upon me even thus early that dogs have their uses. + +When I was a year or two older I had as a companion and pet a +black-and-tan terrier called "Tip," and a dear good-hearted game little +fellow he was; and he and I were always of the same mind, full of fan +and fond of mischief. Tip could fetch and carry almost anything; a +loose railway rug, for example, would be a deal heavier than he, but if +told he would drag one up three flights of stairs walking backwards. +Again, if you showed him anything, and then hid it, he would find it +wherever it was. He was not on friendly terms with the cat though; she +used him shamefully, and finding him one day in a room by himself she +whacked him through the open window, and Tip fell two storeys. Dead? +No. Tip fell on his feet. + +One day Tip was a long time absent, and when he came into the garden he +came up to me and placed a large round ball all covered with thorns at +my feet. + +"Whatever is it, Tip?" I asked. + +"That's a hoggie," said Tip, "and ain't my mouth sore just." + +I put down my hands to lift it up, and drew them back with pricked and +bleeding fingers. Then I shrieked, and nursie came running out, and +shook me, and whacked me on the back as if I had swallowed a bone. +That's how she generally served me. + +"What is it now?" she cried; "you're never out of mischief; did Tip bite +you?" + +"No, no," I whimpered, "the beastie bited me." + +Then I had three pets for many a day, Tip and the cat and the hedgehog, +who grew very tame indeed. + +Maggie Hay was nursie's name. I was usually packed off to bed early in +the evening, and got the cat with me, and in due time Maggie came. But +one night the cat and I quarrelled, so I slipped out of bed, and crept +quietly down to the back kitchen, and returned with my hoggie in the +front of my nightdress, and went back to my couch. I was just in that +blissful state of independence, between sleeping and waking, when Maggie +came upstairs to bed. The hoggie had crept out of my arms, and had gone +goodness knows whither, and I didn't care, but I know this much, that +Maggie had no sooner got in and laid down, than she gave vent to a loud +scream, and sprang on to the floor again, and stood shaking and +shivering like a ghost in the moonlight. I suppose she had laid herself +down right on top of my hoggie, and hoggie not being used to such +treatment had doubtless got its spines up at once. I leave you to guess +whether Maggie gave me a shaking or not. This pet lived for three long +happy months, and its food was porridge and milk, morsels of green food, +and beetles, which it caught on its own account. But I suppose it +longed for its old gipsy life in the green fields, and missed the tender +herbs and juicy slugs it had been wont to gather by the foot of the +hedgerows. I don't know, but one morning I found my poor hoggie rolled +up in a little ball with one leg sticking out; it was dead and stiff. + +Maggie took it solemnly up by that one leg as if it had been a handle +and carried it away and buried it; then she came back with her eyes wet +and kissed me, and gave me a large--very large--slice of bread with an +extra allowance of treacle on it. But there seemed to be a big lump in +my throat; I tried hard to eat, but failed miserably, only--I managed to +lick the treacle off. + +My little friend Tip was of a very inquiring turn of mind, and this +trait in his character led to his miserable end. + +One day some men were blasting stones in a neighbouring field, and Tip +seeing what he took to be a rat's tail sticking out of a stone, and a +thin wreath of blue smoke curling up out of it, went to investigate. + +He did not come back to tell tales; he was carried on high with the +hurtling stones and _debris_, and I never saw my poor Tip any more. + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +EARLY STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY. + + "Within a bush her covert nest + A little birdie fondly prest; + The dew sat chilly on her breast, + Sae early in the morning." + + Burns. + +Shortly after the melancholy death of Tip, some one presented me with a +puppy, and some one else presented me with a rook. My knowledge of +natural history was thus progressing. That unhappy pup took the +distemper and died. If treated for the dire complaint at all, it was no +doubt after the rough and harsh fashion, common, till very lately, of +battling with it. + +So my puppy died. As to the rook, a quicker fate was reserved for him. +The bird and I soon grew as thick as thieves. He was a very +affectionate old chap, and slept at night in a starling's cage in the +bedroom. He was likewise a somewhat noisy bird, and very +self-asserting, and would never allow us to sleep a wink after five in +the morning. Maggie tried putting his breakfast into the cage the night +before. This only made matters worse, for he got up at three o'clock to +eat it, and was quite prepared for another at five. Maggie said she +loved the bird, because he saved her so many scoldings by wakening her +so punctually every morning. I should think he did waken her, with a +vengeance too. He had a peculiar way of roaring "Caw! Caw!" that would +have wakened Rip Van Winkle himself. Like the great Highland bagpipe, +the voice of a healthy rook sounds very well about a mile off, but it +isn't exactly the thing for indoor delectation. But my uncle sat down +upon my poor rook one day, and the bird gave vent to one last "Caw!" and +was heard again--nevermore. My mother told him he ought to be more +careful. My uncle sat down on the same chair again next day, and, +somehow, a pin went into him further than was pleasant. Then I told him +he ought to be more careful, and he boxed my ears, and I bit him, and +nursie came and shook me and whacked me on the back as if I had been +choking; so, on the whole, I think I was rather roughly dealt with +between the two of them. However, I took it out of Maggie in another +way, and found her very necessary and handy in my study of natural +history, which, even at this early age, I had developed a taste for. I +had as a plaything a small wooden church, which I fondled all day, and +took to bed with me at night. One fine day I had an adventure with a +wasp which taught me a lesson. I had half-filled my little church with +flies to represent a congregation, but as they wouldn't sing unless I +shook them, and as Maggie told me nobody ever shook a real church to +make the congregation sing, I concluded it was a parson they lacked, and +went to catch a large yellow fly, which I saw on the window-ledge. _He_ +would make them sing I had no doubt. Well, he made me sing, anyhow. It +was long before I forgot the agony inflicted by that sting. Maggie came +flying towards me, and I hurled church, congregation, and all at her +head, and went off into a first-class fit. But this taught me a lesson, +and I never again interfered with any animal or insect, until I had +first discovered what their powers of retaliation were; beetles and +flies were old favourites, whose attendance at church I compelled. I +wasn't sure of the earthworm at first, nor of the hairy caterpillar, but +a happy thought struck me, and, managing to secure a specimen of each, +and holding them in a tea-cup, I watched my chance, and when nursie +wasn't looking emptied them both down her back. When the poor girl +wriggled and shrieked with horror, I looked calmly on like a young +stoic, and asked her did they bite. Finding they didn't, they became +especial favourites with me. I put every new specimen I found, +instantly or on the first chance, down poor Maggie's back or bosom, and +thus, day by day, while I increased in stature, day by day I grew in +knowledge. I wasn't quite successful once, however, with a centipede. +I had been prospecting, as the Yankees say, around the garden, searching +for specimens, and I found this chap under a stone. He was about as +long as a penholder, and had apparently as many legs as a legion of the +Black Watch. Under these circumstances, thinks I to myself what a +capital parson he'll make. So I dismissed all my congregation on the +spot, and placed the empty church at his disposal, with the door thereof +most invitingly open, but he wouldn't hear of going in. Perhaps, +thought I, he imagines the church isn't long enough to hold him, so I +determined, for his own comfort, to cut him in two with my egg-cup, then +I could capture first one end of him, and then the other, and empty them +down nursie's back, and await results. But, woe is me! I had no sooner +commenced operations than the ungrateful beast wheeled upwards round my +finger and bit it well. I went away to mourn. + +When nine years old my opportunities for studying birds and beasts were +greatly increased, for, luckily for me, the teacher of my father's +school nearly flogged the life out of me. It might have been more lucky +still had he finished the job. However, this man was a bit of a dandy +in his way, and was very proud of his school. And one fine day who +should walk in at the open doorway but "Davy," my pet lamb. As soon as +he spied me he gave vent to a joyful "Ba-a!" and as there was a table +between us, and he couldn't reach me, he commenced to dance in front of +it. + +"Good gracious!" cried the teacher, "a sheep of all things in my school, +and positively dancing." On rushing to save my pet, whom he began +belabouring with a cane, the man turned all his fury on me, with the +above gratifying result. + +I was sent to a far-off seminary after this. + +Three miles was a long distance for a child to walk to school over a +rough country. It was rough but beautiful, hill and dale, healthy +moorlands, and pine woods. It was glorious in summer, but when the +snows of winter fell and the roads were blocked, it was not quite so +agreeable. + +I commenced forthwith, however, to make acquaintance with every living +thing, whether it were a creepie-creepie living under a stone, or a bull +in the fields. + +My pets, by the way, were a bull, that I played with as a calf, and +could master when old and red-eyed and fierce, half a dozen dogs, and a +peacock belonging to a farmer. This bird used to meet me every morning, +not for crumbs--he never would eat--but for kind words and caresses. + +The wild birds were my especial favourites. I knew them all, and all +about them, their haunts, their nests, their plumage, and eggs and +habits of life. I lived as much in trees as on the ground, used to +study in trees, and often fell asleep aloft, to the great danger of my +neck. + +I do not think I was ever cruel--intentionally, at all events--to any +bird or creature under my care, but I confess to having sometimes taken +a young bird from the nest to make a pet of. + +I myself, when a little boy, have often sat for half an hour at a time +swinging on the topmost branches of a tall fir-tree, with my waistcoat +pocket filled with garden worms, watching the ways and motions of a nest +of young rooks, and probably I would have to repeat my aerial visit more +than once before I could quite make up my mind which to choose. I +always took the sauciest, noisiest young rascal of the lot, and I was +never mistaken in my choice. Is it not cruelty on my part, you may +inquire, to counsel the robbery of a rook's nest? Well, there are the +feelings of the parent birds to be considered, I grant you, but when you +take two from five you leave three, and I do not think the rooks mourn +many minutes for the missing ones. An attempt was made once upon a time +to prove that rooks can't count farther than three. Thus: an ambush was +erected in the midst of a potato field, where rooks were in the habit of +assembling in their dusky thousands. When into this ambush there +entered one man, or two men, or three men, the gentlemen in black +quietly waited until the last man came forth before commencing to dig +for potatoes, but when four men entered and _three_ came out, the rooks +were satisfied and went to dinner at once. But I feel sure this rule of +three does not hold good as far as their young ones are concerned. I +know for certain that either cats or dogs will miss an absentee from a +litter of even six or more. + +Books are very affectionate towards their owners, very tricky and highly +amusing. They are great thieves, but they steal in such a funny way +that you cannot be angry with them. + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +ALL ABOUT MY BIRD PETS. + + "Ye ken where yon wee burnie, love, + Runs roarin' to the sea, + And tumbles o'er its rocky bed + Like spirit wild and free. + The mellow mavis tunes his lay, + The blackbird swells his note, + And little robin sweetly sings + Above the woody grot." + + W. Cameron. + + "The gladsome lark o'er moor and fell, + The lintie in the bosky dell, + No blither than your bonnie sel', + My ain, my artless Mary." + + Idem. + +Scottish poets cannot keep birds out of their love-songs any more than +they can the gloaming star, the bloom of flowers, the scent of golden +gorse, or soft winds sighing through woods in summer. And well may the +lovely wee linnet be compared to a young and artless maiden, so good and +innocent, so gentle and unobtrusive is the bird, and yet withal so +blithe. Nor could a better pet be found for girls of a quiet, retiring +disposition than the linnet. Some call it a shy bird. This hardly +coincides with my own experience, and I dearly like to study the +characters of birds and animals of all kinds, and have often discovered +something to love and admire even in the wildest beasts that ever roamed +o'er prairie or roared in jungle. No, the linnet is not shy, but he is +unostentatious; he seems to have the tact to know when a little music +would be appreciated, and is by no means loath to trill his sweet song. +He is also most affectionate, and if his mistress be but moderately kind +to him, he may _like_ other people well enough, but he will _love_ but +her alone, and will often and often pipe forth a few bars, in so low a +key that she cannot but perceive they are meant for her ear only. + +Even in the wild state the rose-linnet courts retirement. Thinking +about this bird brings me back once more to the days of my boyhood. I +am a tiny, tiny lad trudging home from the distant day-school, over a +wide, wild moorland with about a stone of books--Greek and Latin +classics and lexicons--in a leather strap over my shoulder. I am--as I +ever wished to be--alone. That is, I have no human companionship. But +I have that of the wild birds, and the thousand and one wild creatures +that inhabit this great stretch of heathy wold, and I fancy they all +know me, from yonder hawk poised high in the air to the merlin that +sings on a branch of broom; from the wily fox or fierce polecat to the +wee mouse that nestles among the withered grass. I have about a score +of nests to pay a visit to--the great long-winged screaming whaup's +(curlew's) among the rushes; the mire-snipe's and wild duck's near the +marsh; the water-hen's, with her charming red eggs, near the streamlet; +the peewit's on the knoll; the stonechat's, with eggs of milky blue, in +the cairn; the laverock's, the woodlark's, and the wagtail's, and last, +but not least, the titlin's nest, with the cuckoo's egg in it. But I +linger but a short time at any of these to-day, for on my way to school +I saw a rose-linnet singing on a thorn, and have been thinking about it +all day. I have been three times thrashed for Cicero, and condemned to +detention for two hours after my schoolmates are gone. I have escaped +through the window, however. I shall be thrashed for this in the +morning, but I should be thrashed for something, at all events, so that +matters nothing. The sun is still high in the heavens, summer days are +long, I'll go and look for my linnet's nest; I haven't seen one this +year yet. The heather is green as yet, and here and there on the +moorland is a bush or patch of golden furze, not tall and straggling +like the bushes you find in woods, that seem to stretch out their necks +as if seeking in vain for the sunlight, but close, compact, hugging the +ground, and seeming to weigh down the warm summer air around it with the +sweetness of its perfume. + +Now, on one of those very bushes, and on the highest twig thereof, I +find my cock linnet. His head is held well up, and his little throat +swells and throbs with his sweet, melodious song. But I know this is +all tact on the bird's part, and that his heart beats quick with fear as +he sees me wandering searchingly from bush to bush. He is trying to +look unconcerned. He saw me coming, and enjoined his pretty mate to lie +close and not fly out, assuring her that if she did so all would be +well. + +He does not even fly away at my approach. + +"There is no nest of mine anywhere near," he seems to say. "Is it +likely I would be singing so blithely if there were?" + +"Ah! but," I reply, "I feel sure there is, else why are you dressed so +gaily? why have you cast aside your sombre hues and donned that crimson +vest?" + +Pop--I am at the right bush now, and out flies the modest wee female +linnet. She had forgotten all her mate told her, she was so frightened +she could not lie close. And now I lift a branch and keek in, and am +well rewarded. A prettier sight than that little nest affords, to any +one fond of birds, cannot easily be conceived. It is not a large one; +the outside of it is built of knitted grass and withered weeds, and on +the whole it is neat; but inside it is the perfection of beauty and +rotundity, and softly and warmly lined with hair of horse and cow, with +a few small feathers beneath, to give it extra cosiness. And the eggs-- +how beautiful! Books simply tell you they are white, dotted, and +speckled with red. They are more than this; the groundwork is white, to +be sure, but it looks as if the markings were traced by the Angers of +some artist fay. It looks as though the fairy artist had been trying to +sketch upon them the map of some strange land, for here are blood-red +lakes--square, or round, or oval--and rivers running into them and +rivers rolling out, so that having once seen a rose-linnet's egg, you +could never mistake it for any other. + +"I think," said Ida, "I should like a linnet, if I knew how to treat +it." + +"Well," I continued, "let me give you a little advice. I have +interested you in this bonnie bird, let me tell you then how you are to +treat him if you happen to get one, so as to make him perfectly happy, +with a happiness that will be reflected upon you, his mistress." + +I always counsel any one who has a pet of any kind to be in a manner +jealous of it, for one person is enough to feed and tend it, and that +person should be its owner. + +Of course, if you mean to have one as a companion you will procure a +male bird, and one as pretty as possible, but even those less bright in +colour sing well. Let his cage be a square or long one, and just as +roomy as you please; birds in confinement cannot have too much space to +move about in. Keep the cage exceedingly clean and free from damp, give +the bird fresh water every morning, and see that he has a due allowance +of clean dry seed. The food is principally canary-seed with some rape +in it, and a small portion of flax; but although you may now and then +give him a portion of bruised hemp seed, be careful and remember hemp is +both stimulating and over-fattening. Many a bird gets enlargement of +the liver, and heart disease and consequent asthma, from eating too +freely and often of hemp. In summer it should never be given, but in +cold weather it is less harmful. + +Green food should not be forgotten. The best is chic-weed--ripe--and +groundsel, with--when you can get it--a little watercress. There are +many seedling weeds which you may find in your walks by the wayside, +which you may bring home to your lintie. If you make a practice of +doing this, he will evince double the joy and pleasure at seeing you on +your return. + +Never leave any green food longer than a day either in or over the cage. +So shall your pet be healthy, and live for many years to give you +comfort with his sweet fond voice. I may just mention that the linnet +will learn the song of some other birds, notably that of the woodlark. +Sea-sand may be put in the bottom of the cage, and when the bird begins +to lose its feathers and moult, be extra kind and careful with it, +covering the cage partly over, and taking care to keep away draughts. +After the feathers begin to come you may put a rusty nail in the water. +This is a tonic, but I do not believe in giving it too soon. + +Let me now say a word about another of my boyhood's pets--the robin. + +But I hardly know where or how I am to begin, nor am I sure that my +theme will not run right away with me when I do commence. My winged +horse--my Pegasus--must be kept well in hand while speaking about my +little favourite, the robin. Happy thought, however! I will tell you +nothing I think you know already. + +The robin, then, like the domestic cat, is too well known to need +description. We who live in the country have him with us all the year +round, and we know his charming song wherever we hear it. He may seem +to desert our habitations for a few months in the early spring-time, for +he is then very busy, having all the care and responsibility of a family +on his head; but he is not far away. He is only in the neighbouring +grove or orchard, and if we pay him a visit there he will sing to us +very pleasantly, as if glad to see us. And one fine morning we find him +on the lawn-gate again, bobbing and becking to us, and looking as proud +as a pasha because he has his little wife and three of the family with +him. His wife is not a Jenny Wren, as some suppose, but a lovely wee +robin just like himself, only a trifle smaller, and not quite so red on +the breast nor so bold as her partner. And the young ones, what +charmingly innocent little things they look, with their broad beaks and +their apologies for tails! I have often known them taken for juvenile +thrushes, because their breasts are not red, but a kind of yellow with +speckles in it. + +"Tcheet, tcheet!" cries Robin, on the gate, bobbing at you again; "throw +out some crumbs. My wife is a bit shy; she has never been much in +society; but just see how the young ones can eat." + +Well, Robin is one of the earliest birds of a morning that I know. He +is up long before the bickering sparrows, and eke before the mavis. His +song mingles with your morning dreams, and finally wakes you to the joys +and duties of another day, and if you peep out at the window you will +probably see him on the lawn, hauling some unhappy worm out of its hole. +I have seen Robin get hold of too big a worm, and, after pulling a +piece of it out as long as a penholder, fly away with a frightened +"Tcheet, tcheet!" as much as to say, "Dear me! I didn't know there were +yards and yards of you. You must be a snake or something." + +Robin sings quite late at night too, long after the mavis is mute and +every other bird has retired. And all day long in autumn he sings. +During the winter months, especially if there be snow on the ground, he +comes boldly to the window-ledge, and doesn't ask, but demands his food, +as brazenly as a German bandsman. Sparrows usually come with him, but +if they dare to touch a bit of food that he has his eye on they catch +it. My robin insists upon coming into my study in winter. He likes the +window left open though, and I don't, and on this account we have little +petulancies, and if I turn him out he takes revenge by flying against +the French window, and mudding all the pane with his feet. + +Almost every country house has one or two robins that specially belong +to it, and very jealous they are of any strange birds that happen to +come nigh the dwelling. While bird-nesting one time in company with +another boy, we found a robin's nest in a bank at the foot of a great +ash tree. There were five eggs in it. On going to see it two days +after, we found the nest and eggs intact, but two other eggs had been +laid and deposited about a foot from the bank. We took the hint, and +carried away these two, but did not touch the others. The eggs are not +very pretty. + +While shooting in the wildest part of the Highlands, and a long way from +home, I have often preferred a bed with my dog on the heather to the +smoky hospitality of a hut; and I have found robins perched close by me +of a morning, singing ever so sweetly and low. They were only trying to +earn the right to pick up the crumbs my setter and I had left at supper, +but this shows you how fond these birds are of human society. + +In a cage the robin will live well and healthily for many years, if +kindly and carefully treated. He will get so tame that you needn't fear +to let him have his liberty about the room. + +Let the cage be large and roomy, and covered partly over with a cloth. +The robin loves the sunshine and a clean, dry cage, and, as to food, he +is not very particular. Give him German paste--with a little bruised +hemp and maw seed, with insects, beetles, grubs, garden and meal worms, +etc. Let him have clean gravel frequently, and fresh water every +morning. Now and then, when you think your pet is not particularly +lively, put a rusty nail in the water. + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +THE REDSTART, THE GOLDFINCH, THE MAVIS, AND MERLE. + + "They sang, as blithe as finches sing, + That flutter loose on golden wing, + And frolic where they list; + Strangers to liberty, 'tis true, + But that delight they never knew, + And therefore never miss'd." + + Cowper. + +I was creeping, crawling, and scrambling one afternoon in the days of my +boyhood, through tall furze at the foot of the Drummond Hill, which in +England would be called a mountain. It was the Saturday half-holiday, +and I was having a fine time of it among the birds. I was quite a mile +away from any human dwelling, and, I flattered myself, from any human +being either. I was speedily undeceived though. "Come out o' there, +youngster," cried a terrible voice, almost to my ear. "I thought ye +were a rabbit; I was just going to chuck a stone at your head." + +I crept forth in fear and trembling. + +A city rough of the lowest type--you could tell that from the texture of +the ragged, second-hand garments he wore; from his slipshod feet, his +horrid cap of greasy fur, and pale, unwholesome face. + +He proceeded to hoist a leafless branch, smeared with birdlime, in a +conspicuous place, and not far off he deposited a cage, with a bird in +it. Then he addressed me. + +"I'm goin' away for half an hour, and you'll stop here and watch. If +any birds get caught on the twigs, when I come back I'll mebbe gie you +something." + +When he came back he did "gie me something." He boxed my ears soundly, +because I lay beside the cage, and talked to the little bird all the +time instead of watching. + +You may guess how I loved that man. I have had the same amount of +affection for the whole bird-catching fraternity ever since, and I do a +deal every summer to spoil their sport. I look upon them as followers +of a most sinful calling, and just as cruel and merciless as the +slave-traders of Southern Africa. Many a little heart they break; they +separate parent birds, and tear the old from their young, who are left +to starve to death in the nest. + +The redstart was a great favourite with me in these joyous days. In +size and shape he is not unlike the robin; but the bill is black, the +forehead white, the rest of the upper part of the body a bluish grey. +The wings are brownish, the bird wears a bib of black, but on the upper +portion of the chest and all down the sides there is red, though not so +bright in colour as the robin's breast. That is the plumage of the +cock-bird, so these birds are easily known. They make charming cage +pets, being very affectionate, and as merry as a maiden on May morning, +always singing and gay, and so tame that you need not be afraid to let +them out of the cage. + +Another was the wren. Some would love the mite for pity sake. It is +very pretty and very gay, and possesses a sweet little voice of its own; +it needs care, however. It must not, on the one hand, be kept too near +a fire or in too warm a room, and on the other it should be well covered +up at night; a draught is fatal to such a bird. There is also the +golden-headed wren, the smallest of our British birds, but I do not +remember ever having seen one kept in a cage. There is no accounting +for tastes, however. I knew a young lady in Aberdeen who kept a golden +eagle in a cage of huge dimensions. He was the admiration of all +beholders, and the terror of inquisitive schoolboys, who, myself among +the number, fully believed he ate a whole horse every week, and ever so +many chickens. While gazing at the bird, you could not help feeling +thankful you were on the _outside_ of the cage. I admired, but I did +not love him much. He caught me by the arm one day, with true Masonic +grip--I loved him even less after that. + +Wrens are fed in the same way as robins or nightingales are. In the +wild state they build a large roundish nest, principally of green moss +outside, and with very little lining. There is just one tiny hole left +in the side capable of admitting two fingers. Eggs about ten in number, +very small, white, and delicately ticked with red. If I remember +rightly, the golden wren's are pure white. The nests I have found were +in bushes, holly, fir, or furze, or under the branches of large trees +close to the trunk. The back of the nest is nearly always towards the +north and east. + +The stonechat or stone-checker is a nice bird as to looks, but possesses +but little song. It would require the same treatment in cage or aviary +as the robin. So I believe would the whinchat, but I have no practical +knowledge of either as pets. + +With the exception of the kingfisher, I do not recollect any British +bird with brighter or more charming plumage, than our friend the +goldfinch. He is arrayed in crimson and gold, black, white, and brown, +but the colours are so beautifully placed and blended, that, rich and +gaudy though they be, they cannot but please the eye of the most +artistic. The song of the goldfinch is very sweet, he is with all a +most affectionate pet, and exceedingly clever, so much so that he may be +taught quite a number of so-called tricks. + +In the wild state the bird eats a variety of seeds of various weeds that +grow by the wayside, and at times in the garden of the sluggard. +Dandelion and groundsel seed are the chief of these, and later on in the +season thistle seed. So fond, indeed, is the goldfinch of the thistle +that the only wonder is that our neighbours beyond the Tweed do not +claim it as one of _the_ birds of Bonnie Scotland, as they do the curlew +and the golden eagle. But, on the other hand, they might on the same +plea claim a certain quadruped, whose length of ear exceeds its breadth +of intellect. + +"Won't you tell us something," said Ida, "about the blackbird and +thrush? Were they not pets of your boyhood?" + +"They were, dear, and if I once begin talking about them I will hardly +finish to-night." + +"But just a word or two about them." + +It is the poet Mortimer Collins that says so charmingly: + + "All through the sultry hours of June, + From morning blithe to golden noon, + And till the star of evening climbs + The grey-blue East, a world too soon, + There sings a thrush amid the limes." + +Whether in Scotland or England, the mavis, or thrush, is one of the +especial favourites of the pastoral poet and lyrist. And well the bird +deserves to be. No sweeter song than his awakes the echoes of woodland +or glen. It is shrill, piping, musical. Tannahill says he "gars +(makes) echo _ring_ frae tree to tree." That is precisely what the +charming songster does do. It is a bold, clear, ringing song that tells +of the love and joy at the birdie's heart. If that joy could not find +expression in song, the bird would pine and die, as it does when caught, +caged, and improperly treated. When singing he likes to perch himself +among the topmost branches; he likes to see well about him, and perhaps +the beauties he sees around him tend to make him sing all the more +blithely. But though seeing, he is not so easily seen. I often come to +the door of my garden study and say to myself, "Where can the bird be +to-night?" This, however, is when the foliage is on orchard and oaks. +But his voice sometimes sounds so close to my ear that I am quite +surprised when I find him singing among the boughs of a somewhat distant +tree. This is my mavis, my particular mavis. In summer he awakes me +with his wild lilts, long ere it is time to get up, and he continues his +song "till the star of evening climbs the grey-blue East," and sometimes +for an hour or more after that. I think, indeed, that he likes the +gloaming best, for by that witching time nearly all the other birds have +retired, and there is nothing to interrupt him. + +In winter my mavis sings whenever the weather is mild and the grass is +visible. But he does not think of turning up of a morning until the sun +does, and he retires much earlier. I have known my mavis now nearly two +years, and I think he knows me. But how, you may ask me, Frank, do I +know that it is the selfsame bird. I reply that not only do we, the +members of my own family, know this mavis, but those of some of my +neighbours as well, and in this way: all thrushes have certain +expressions of their own, which, having once made use of, they never +lose. So like are these to human words, that several people hearing +them at the same time construe them in precisely the same way. My mavis +has four of these in his vocabulary, with which he constantly interlards +his song, or rather songs. They form the choruses, as it were, of his +vocal performances. The chorus of one is, "Weeda, weeda, weeda;" of +another, "Piece o' cake, piece o' cake, piece o' cake;" of the third, +"Earwig, earwig, earwig;" and of the last, sung in a most plaintive key, +"Pretty deah, pretty deah, pretty deah." + +"That is so true," said Ida, laughing. + +On frosty days he does not sing, but he will hop suddenly down in front +of me while I am feeding the Newfoundlands. + +"You can spare a crumb," he says, speaking with his bright eye; "grubs +are scarce, and my poor toes are nearly frozen off." + +Says the great lyrist-- + + "May I not dream God sends thee there, + Thou mellow angel of the air, + Even to rebuke my earthlier rhymes + With music's soul, all praise and prayer? + Is that thy lesson in the limes?" + +I am lingering longer with the mavis than probably I ought, simply +because I want you all to love the bird as I love him. Well, then, I +have tried to depict him to you as he is in his native wilds; but see +him now at some bud-seller's door in town. Look at his drooping wings +and his sadly neglected cage. His eyes seem to plead with each +passer-by. + +"Won't _you_ take me out of here?" he seems to say, "nor you, nor you? +Oh! if you would, and were kind to me, I should sing songs to you that +would make the green woods rise up before you like scenery in a +beautiful dream." + +The male thrush is the songster, the female remains mute. She listens. +The plumage is less different than in most birds. The male looks more +pert and saucy, if that is any guide. + +The mavis is imitative of the songs of other birds. In Scotland they +say he _mocks_ them. I do not think that is the case, but I know that +about a week after the nightingales arrive here my mavis begins to adopt +many of their notes, which he loses again when Philomel becomes mute. +And I shouldn't think that even my mavis would dare to mock the +nightingale. + +I have found the nest of the mavis principally in young spruce-trees or +tall furze in Scotland, and in England in thick hedges and close-leaved +bushes; it is built, of moss, grass, and twigs, and clay-lined. Eggs, +four or five, a bluish-green colour with black spots. The +missel-thrush, or Highland magpie, builds far beyond any one's reach, +high up in the fork of a tree; the eggs are very lovely--whitish, +speckled with brown and red. I do not recommend this bird as a pet. He +is too wild. + +The merle, or blackbird, frequents the same localities as the mavis +does, and is by no means a shy bird even in the wild state, though I +imagine he is of a quieter and more affectionate disposition. It is my +impression that he does not go so far away from the nest of his pretty +mate as the mavis, but then, perhaps, if he did he would not be heard. +The song is even sweeter to the ear than that of the thrush, although it +has far fewer notes. It is quieter, more rich and full, more mellow and +melodious. The blackbird has been talked of as "fluting in the grove." +The notes are certainly not like those of the flute. They are cut or +"tongued" notes like those of the clarionet. + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +A BIRD-HAUNTED CHURCHYARD. + + "Adieu, sweet bird! thou erst hast been + Companion of each summer scene, + Loved inmate of our meadows green, + And rural home; + The music of thy cheerful song + We loved to hear; and all day long + Saw thee on pinion fleet and strong + About us roam." + +It is usual in the far north of Scotland, where the writer was reared, +to have, as in England, the graveyard surrounding the parish church. +The custom is a very ancient and a very beautiful one; life's fitful +fever past and gone, to rest under the soft sward, and under the shadow +of the church where one gleaned spiritual guidance. There is something +in the very idea of this which tends to dispel much of the gloom of +death, and cast a halo round the tomb itself. + +But at the very door of the old church of N--a tragedy had, years before +I had opened my eyes in life, been enacted, and since that day service +had never again been conducted within its walls. The new church was +built on an open site quite a mile from the old, which latter stands all +by itself--crumbling ivy-clad ruins, in the midst of the greenery of an +acre of ancient graves. There is a high wall around it, and giant ash +and plane trees in summer almost hide it from view. It is a solitary +spot, and on moonlit nights in winter, although the highway skirts it, +few there be who care to pass that way. The parish school or academy is +situated some quarter of a mile from the auld kirkyard, and in the days +of my boyhood even bird-nesting boys seldom, if ever, visited the place. +It was not considered "canny." For me, however, the spot had a +peculiar charm. It was so quiet, so retired, and haunted, not with +ghosts, but with birds, and many a long sunny forenoon did I spend +wandering about in it, or reclining on the grass with my Virgil or +Horace in hand--poets, by the way, who can only be thoroughly enjoyed +out of doors in the country. + +A pair of owls built in this auld kirkyard for years. I used to think +they were always the same old pair, who, year after year, stuck to the +same old spot, sending their young ones away to the neighbouring woods +to begin life on their own account as soon as they were able to fly. +They were lazy birds; for two whole years they never built a nest of +their own, but took possession of a magpie's old one. But at last the +lady owl said to her lord-- + +"My lord, this nest is getting quite disreputable--we _must_ have a new +one this spring." + +"Very well," said his lordship, looking terribly learned, "but you'll +have to build it, my lady, for I've got to think, and think, you know." + +"To be sure, my lord," said she. "The world would never go on unless +you thought, and thought." + +She chose an old window embrasure, and, half hid in ivy, there she built +the new nest with weeds and sticks and stubble, while he did nothing but +sit and talk Greek and natural philosophy at her. + +There were tree sparrows built in the ivy of those crumbling walls, each +nest about as big as the bottom of an armchair, and containing as many +feathers as would stuff a small pillow-case, to say nothing of threads +of all colours, hair, and pieces of printed paper. Seven, eight, and +ten eggs would be in some of those, white as to ground, and beautifully +speckled with brown and grey. + +I have heard the tree sparrow called a nasty, common, dowdy thing. It +really is not at all dowdy, and although it may be called the country +cousin of the busy, chattering little morsel of feathers and fluff that +hops nimbly but noisily about our roof-tops, and is constantly +quarrelling with its neighbours, the tree sparrow is far more pretty. +Nor is it quite plebeian. It is the _Passer montanus_ of some +naturalists, the _becfin friquet_ of the French; it belongs to the Greek +family, the _Fringillidae_, and does not the linnet belong to that +family too? Yes, and the beautiful bullfinch and the gaudy goldfinch as +well, to say nothing of the siskin and canary, so it cannot be plebeian. +The tree sparrow makes a nice wee pet, very loving and gentle, and not +at all particular as to food. It likes canary-seed, but insects and +worms as well, and it is not shy at picking a morsel of sugar, nor a +tiny bit of bread and butter. + +There were more birds of the same family that haunted this auld +kirkyard. The greenfinch or green-grosbeak used to flit hither and +thither among the ivy like a tiny streak of lightning, and the pretty +wee redpole was also there. + +There was one bird in particular that used to build in the trees that +grew inside the graveyard wall. I refer to my old friend and favourite +the chaffinch, called in Scotland the boldie. He is most brilliant in +plumage, being richly clad in russet red and brown, picked out with +blue, yellow, and white. The chaffinch is lovely whether sitting or +flying, whether trilling his song with head erect and throat puffed out, +or keeking down from the branch of a tree with one saucy eye, to see if +any one is going near his nest. His song in the wild state is more +celebrated for brilliancy and boldness than for sweetness or variation, +but in confinement it may be improved. + +But this same nest is something to look at and admire for minutes at a +time. I used to think my chaffinch--the chaffinch that built in my +churchyard--was particularly proud of his nest. + +"Pink, pink, pink," he used to say to me; "I see you looking up at my +nest. You may go up, if you like, and have a look in. _She_ is from +home just now, and there are four eggs in at present. There will be +five by-and-by. Now, did you ever see such beautiful eggs?" + +"Never," I would reply; "they are most lovely." + +"Well, then," he would continue, "pink, pink, pink! look at the nest +itself. What do you think of that for architecture? It is built, you +see, some twelve feet from the ground, against the stem, but held in its +place by a little branch. It is out of the reach of cats; if it were +higher up the wind would shake it, or the hawks would see it. It is not +much bigger than your two hands; and just look at the artistic way in +which the lichens are mingled with the moss on the outside, to blend +with the colour of the tree!" + +"Yes, but," I would remark, "there are bits of paper there, as well as +lichens." + +"Yes, yes, yes," the bird would reply; "bits of paper do almost as well +as lichens. Pink, pink, pink! There is the whole of Lord Palmerston's +speech there; Palmerston is a clever man, but he couldn't build a nest +like that." + +I mentioned the redpole. It is, as far as beauty goes, one of the best +cage-birds we have; a modest, wee, affectionate, unassuming pet, but +deficient in song. + +"Cheet, cheet, cheet, cheet, cheet, cheet, chee-ee!" What sweet little +voice is that repeating the same soft song over and over again, and +dwelling on the last syllable with long-drawn cadence? The music--for +music it is, although a song without variations--is coming from yonder +bonnie bush of golden-blossomed broom, that grows in the angle between +the two walls in a remote corner of the auld kirkyard. I throw Horace +down, and get up from the grass and walk towards it. + +"Chick, chick, chick, chick, chee-ee!" + +"Oh, yes! I daresay you haven't a nest anywhere near; but I know +better." This is my reply. + +I walk across the unhallowed ground, as this patch is called, for-- +whisper it!--suicides lie here, and the graves have not been raised, nor +do stones mark the spot where they lie. + +Here is the nest, in under a bit of weedy bank, and yonder is the bird +himself--the yellow-hammer, skite, or yellow bunting--looking as gay as +a hornet, for well he knows that I will not disturb his treasures. The +eggs are shapely, white in ground, and beautifully streaked and +speckled, and splashed with reddish brown. But there are no eggs; only +four morsels of yellow fluff, apparently, surrounded by four gaping +orange-red mouths. But they are cosy. I catch a tiny slug, and break +it up between them, and the cock-bird goes on singing among the broom, +while the hen perches a little way off, twittering nervously and +peevishly. + +"Chick, chick, che-ee!" says the bird. "I don't pretend to build such a +pretty nest as the chaffinch; besides, such a flimsy thing as his would +not do on the ground; mine has a solid foundation of hay, don't you see? +That keeps out the damp, and that lining of hair is warmer than +anything else in the world." + +A poor, persecuted little bird is this same yellow bunting; and +schoolboys often, when they find the nest, scatter it and its precious +contents to the four winds of heaven. + +All the more reason why we should be kind to the pet if we happen to +have it in confinement. It is true the wild song is not very +interesting; but when a young one is got, it will improve itself if it +can listen to the song of another bird, for nearly all our feathered +songsters possess the gift of imitation. + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +A FRIEND OF MY STUDENT DAYS. + + "He was a gash and faithfu' tyke + As over lap a sheugh or dyke." + + Burns. + +I had cured friend Frank's dog of some trifling ailment, and she seemed +fonder of me than ever. "Poor Meg," I said, patting her. + +Dogs are never ungrateful for kindnesses, but I have seen many noted +instances of revenge, and so doubtless have many of my readers. Here is +a case. At one time of day my father possessed a breed of beautiful +black game-cocks. One of these had a great aversion to dogs, and a +bull-terrier, who was tied up in a stall in the stable, came in for a +considerable share of blows and abuse from a certain brave bird of the +King Jock strain. I myself was a witness to the assault, but I dared +not interfere, for to tell you the truth, that game-cock was one too +many for me then, and I wouldn't care to be attacked by a bird of the +same kind even now. King Jock had come into the stable to pick a bit by +himself, for he was far too cavalierly to eat much before the hens. +"Give everything to the ladies and go without yourself" is game-cock +etiquette. Presently he spied "Danger" lying in the stall with his head +on his two fore-paws. + +"Oh! you're there, are you?" said King Jock, holding his head to the +ground, and keening up with one eye at the poor dog. "Didn't notice ye +before. It ain't so light as it might be." + +Danger gave one apologetic wag of his tail. "Pretty fellow you are, +ain't ye?" continued the cock, edging a bit nearer. + +"Eh? Why don't you speak?" + +"Ho! ho! it's chained ye are, is it? I've a good mind to let you have +it on that ugly patched face of yours. And, by my halidom, I will too. +Who ran through the yard yesterday and scared the senses out of half my +harem? Take that, and that, and that. Try to bite, would you? Then +you'll have another; there! and there!" + +Poor Danger's head was covered with round lumps as big as half marbles, +and each lump had a spur-hole. Cock Jock had made good practice, which +he had much reason to repent, for one day Master Danger broke loose, and +went straight away to look for his enemy. Jock possessed a tail that +any cock might have been proud of, but after his encounter with Danger +his pride had a fall, for in his speedy flight he got stuck in a hedge, +and the dog tore every feather out, and would have eaten his way into, +and probably through, King Jock himself, if the twig hadn't snapped, and +the bird escaped. After that King Jock was content to treat +bull-terriers with quiet disdain. + +Dogs know much of what is said to them, especially if you do not speak +too fast, for, if you do, they get nervous, and forget their English. +It is, in my opinion, better not to alter your form of speech, nor the +tone of your voice, when talking to a dog. My old friend Tyro, a +half-bred collie, but most beautiful animal, understood and was in the +habit of being talked to in three languages, to say nothing of broad +Scotch, namely, English, Gaelic, and Latin--no, not dog Latin, by your +leave, sir, but the real Simon Pure and Ciceronic. I don't mean to +assert that he could appreciate the beauties of the Bucolics, nor +Horatian love lays if read to him; but he would listen respectfully, and +he would obey ordinary orders when couched in the Roman tongue. Every +animal that had hair and ran was, to Tyro, a cat; every animal that had +feathers was a crow, and these he qualified by size. In a flock of +sheep, for instance, if you asked him to chase out the _big_ "cat," it +was a ram, who got no peace till he came your way; if, in a flock of +fowls, you had asked him to chase out the _big_ "crow," it was the cock +who had to fly; if you said the wee crow, a bantam or hen would be the +victim. An ordinary cat was simply a cat, and if you asked him to go +and find one, it would be about the barn-yards or stables he would +search. But if you told him to go and find a "grub-cat," it was off to +the hills he would be, and if you listened you would presently hear him +in chase, and he would seldom return without a grub-cat, that meant a +cat that could be eaten--i.e., a hare or rabbit. He knew when told to +go and take a drink of water; but, at sea, the ocean all around him was +pointed out to him as the big drink of water. In course of time he grew +fond of the sea, though the commotion in the water and the breakers must +have been strange and puzzling to him; but if at any time he was told to +go and take a look at the big drink of water, he would put his two +fore-paws on the bulwarks and watch the waves for many minutes at a +time. + +"I have often heard you speak of your dog Tyro, Gordon," said Frank; +"can't you tell us his history?" + +"I will, with pleasure," I replied. "He was _the_ dog of my student +days. I never loved a dog more, I never loved one so much, with the +exception perhaps of Theodore Nero--or you, Aileen, for I see you +glancing up at me. No, you needn't sigh so." + +But about Tyro. Here is his story:--He was bred from a pure Scottish +collie, the father a powerful retriever (Irish). "Bah!" some one may +here say, "only a mongrel," a class of dogs whose praises few care to +sing, and whose virtues are written in water. A watch-dog of the right +sort was Tyro; and from the day when his brown eyes first rested on me, +for twelve long years, by sea and land, I never had a more loving +companion or trusty friend. He was a large and very strong dog, +feathered like a Newfoundland, but with hair so soft and long and +glossy, as to gain for him in his native village the epithet of "silken +dog." In colour he was black-and-tan, with snow-white gauntlets and +shirt-front. His face was very remarkable, his eyes bright and tender, +giving him, with his long, silky ears, almost the expression of a +beautiful girl. Being good-mannered, kind, and always properly groomed, +he was universally admired, and respected by high and low. He was, +indeed, patted by peers and petted by peasants, never objected to in +first-class railway cars or steamer saloons, and the most fastidious of +hotel waiters did not hesitate to admit him, while he lounged daintily +on sofa or ottoman, with the _sang froid_ of one who had a right. Tyro +came into my possession a round-pawed fun-and-mischief-loving puppy. +His first playmate was a barn-door fowl, of the male persuasion, who had +gained free access to the kitchen on the plea of being a young female in +delicate health; which little piece of deceit, on being discovered by +his one day having forgot himself so far as to crow, cost "Maggie," the +name he impudently went by, his head. Very dull indeed was poor Tyro on +the following day, but when the same evening he found Maggie's head and +neck heartlessly exposed on the dunghill, his grief knew no bounds. +Slowly he brought it to the kitchen, and with a heavy sigh deposited it +on the hearthstone-corner, and all the night and part of next day it was +"waked," the pup refusing all food, and flashing his teeth meaningly at +whosoever attempted to remove it, until sleep at last soothed his +sorrow. I took to the dog after that, and never repented it, for he +saved my life, of which anon. Shortly after his "childish sorrow," Tyro +had a difference of opinion with a cat, and got rather severely handled, +and this I think it was that led him, when a grown dog, to a confusion +of ideas regarding these animals, _plus_ hares and rabbits; "when taken +to be well shaken," was his motto, adding "wherever seen," so he slew +them indiscriminately. This cat-killing propensity was exceedingly +reprehensible, but the habit once formed never could be cured; although +I, stimulated by the loss of guinea after guinea, whipped him for it, +and many an old crone--deprived of her pet--has scolded him in English, +Irish, and Scotch, all with the same effect. + +Talking of cats, however, there was _one_ to whom Tyro condescendingly +forgave the sin of existing. It so fell out that, in a fight with a +staghound, he was wounded in a large artery, and was fast bleeding to +death, because no one dared to go near him, until a certain sturdy +eccentric woman, very fond of our family, came upon the scene. She +quickly enveloped her arms with towels, to save herself from bites, and +thus armed, thumbed the artery for two hours; then dressing it with +cobwebs, saved the dog's life. Tyro became, when well, a constant +visitor at the woman's cottage; he actually came to love her, often +brought her the hares he killed, and, best favour of all to the old +maid, considerately permitted her cat to live during his royal pleasure; +but, if he met the cat abroad, he changed his direction, and inside he +never let his eyes rest upon her. + +When Tyro came of age, twenty-one (months), he thought it was high time +to select a profession, for hitherto he had led a rather roving life. +One thing determined him. My father's shepherd's toothless old collie +died, and having duly mourned for her loss, he--the shepherd--one day +brought home another to fill up the death-vacancy. She was black, and +very shaggy, had youth and beauty on her side, pearly teeth, hair that +shone like burnished silver, and, in short, was quite a charming +shepherdess--so, at least, thought Tyro; and what more natural than that +he should fall in love with her? So he did. In her idle hours they +gambolled together on the gowny braes, brushed the bells from the purple +heather and the dewdrops from the grass, chased the hares, bullied the +cat, barked and larked, and, in short, behaved entirely like a pair of +engaged lovers of the canine class; and then said Tyro to himself, "My +mother was a shepherdess, _I_ will be a shepherd, and thus enjoy the +company of my beloved `Phillis' for ever, and perhaps a day or two +longer." And no young gentleman ever gave himself with more energy to a +chosen profession than did Tyro. He was up with the lark--the bird that +picks up the worm--and away to the hill and the moor. To his faults the +shepherd was most indulgent for a few days; but when Tyro, in his +over-zeal, attempted to play the wolf, he was, very properly, punished. +"What an indignity! Before one's Phillis too!" Tyro turned tail and +trotted sulkily home. "Bother the sheep!" he must have thought; at any +rate, he took a dire revenge--not on the shepherd, _his_ acquaintance he +merely cut, and he even continued to share the crib with his little +ensnarer--but on the sheep-fold. + +A neighbouring farmer's dog, of no particular breed, was in the habit of +meeting Tyro at summer gloaming, in a wood equidistant from their +respective homes. They then shook tails, and trotted off side by side. +Being a very early riser, I used often to see Tyro coming home in the +mornings, jaded, worn, and muddy, avoiding the roads, and creeping along +by ditches and hedgerows. When I went to meet him, he threw himself at +my feet, as much as to say, "Thrash away, and be quick about it." This +went on for weeks, though I did not know then what mischief "the twa +dogs" had been brewing, although ugly rumours began to be heard in all +the countryside about murdered sheep and bleeding lambs; but my eyes +were opened, and opened with a vengeance, when nineteen of the sheep on +my father's hill-side were made bleeding lumps of clay in one short +"simmer nicht"; and had Tyro been tried for his life, he could scarcely +have proved an _alibi_, and, moreover, his pretty breast was like unto a +robin's, and his gauntlets steeped in gore. Dire was the punishment +that fell on Tyro's back for thus forsaking the path of virtue for a +sheep-walk; and for two or three years, until, like the "Rose o' +Anandale," he-- + + "Left his Highland home + And wandered forth with me," + +he was condemned to the chain. + +He now became really a watch-dog, and a right good one he proved. + +The chain was of course slipped at night when his real duties were +supposed to commence. Gipsies--tinklers we call them--were just then an +epidemic in our part of the country; and our hen-roosts were in an +especial manner laid under blackmail. One or two of those same +long-legged gentry got a lesson from Tyro they did not speedily forget. +I have seldom seen a dog that could knock down a man with less +unnecessary violence. So surely as any one laid a hand on his master, +even in mimic assault, he was laid prone on his back, and that, too, in +a thoroughly business-like fashion; and violence was only offered if the +lowly-laid made an attempt to get up till out of arrest. + +I never had a dog of a more affectionate disposition than my +dead-and-gone friend Tyro. By sea and land, of course _I_ was his +especial charge; but that did not prevent him from joyously recognising +"friends he had not seen for years." Like his human shipmates, he too +used to look out for land, and he was generally the first to make known +the welcome news, by jumping on the bulwarks, snuffing the air, and +giving one long loud bark, which was slightly hysterical, as if there +were a big lump in his throat somewhere. + +I should go on the principle of _de mortuis nil nisi bonum_; but I am +bound to speak of Tyro's faults as well as his virtues. Reader, he had +a temper--never once shown to woman or child, but often, when he fancied +his _casus belli_ just, to man, and once or twice to his master. Why, +one night, in my absence, he turned my servant out, and took forcible +possession of my bed. It _was_ hard, although I _had_ stayed out rather +late; but only by killing him could I have dislodged him, so for several +reasons I preferred a night on the sofa, and next morning I reasoned the +matter with him. + +During our country life, Tyro took good care I should move as little as +possible without him, and consequently dubbed himself knight-companion +of my rambles over green field and heathy mountain, and these were not +few. We often extended our excursions until the stars shone over us, +then we made our lodging on the cold ground, Tyro's duties being those +of watch and pillow. Often though, on awakening in the morning, I found +my head among the heather, and my pillow sitting comfortably by my side +panting, generally with a fine hare between its paws, for it had been +"up in the morning airly" and "o'er the hills and far awa'," long before +I knew myself from a stone. + +Tyro's country life ended when his master went to study medicine. One +day I was surprised to find him sitting on the seat beside me. The +attendant was about to remove him. + +"Let alone the poor dog," said Professor L. "I am certain he will +listen more quietly than any one here." Then after the lecture, "Thank +you, doggie; you have taught my students a lesson." That naughty chain +prevented a repetition of the offence; but how exuberant he was to meet +me at evening any one may guess. Till next morning he was my second +shadow. More than once, too, he has been a rather too faithful ally in +the many silly escapades into which youth and spirits lead the medical +student. His use was to cover a retreat, and only once did he floor a +too-obtrusive Bobby; and once he _saved me from an ugly death_. + +It was Hogmanay--the last night of the year--and we had been merry. We, +a jolly party of students, had elected to sing in the New Year. We did +so, and had been very happy, while, as Burns hath it, Tyro-- + + "For vera joy had barkit wi' us." + +Ringing out from every corner of the city, like cocks with troubled +minds, came the musical voices of night-watchmen, bawling "half-past +one," as we left the streets, and proceeded towards our home in the +suburbs. It was a goodly night, moon and stars, and all that sort of +thing, which tempted me to set out on a journey of ten miles into the +country, in order to be "first foot" to some relations that lived there. +The road was crisp with frost, and walking pleasant enough, so that we +were in one hour nearly half-way. About here was a bridge crossing a +little rocky ravine, with a babbling stream some sixty feet below. On +the low stone parapet of this bridge, like the reckless fool I was, I +stretched myself at full length, and, unintentionally, fell fast asleep. +How nearly that sleep had been my last! Two hours afterwards I awoke, +and naturally my eyes sought the last thing they had dwelt upon, the +moon; she had declined westward, and in turning round I was just +toppling over when I was sharply pulled backwards toward the road. Here +was Tyro with his two paws pressed firmly against the parapet, and part +of my coat in his mouth, while with flashing teeth he growled as I never +before had heard him. His anger, however, was changed into the most +exuberant joy, when I alighted safely on the road, shuddering at the +narrow escape I had just made. At the suggestion of Tyro, we danced +round each other, for five minutes at least, in mutual joy, by which +time we were warm enough to finish our journey, and be "first foot" to +our friends in the morning. + +When Tyro left home with me to begin a seafaring life, he put his whole +heart and soul into the business. There was more than one dog in the +ship, but his drawing-room manners and knowledge of "sentry-go" made him +saloon dog _par excellence_. + +His first voyage was to the Polar regions, and his duty the protection +by night of the cabin stores, including the spirit room. This duty he +zealously performed; in fact, Master Tyro would have cheerfully +undertaken to take charge of the whole ship, and done his best to repel +boarders, if the occasion had demanded it. + +A sailor's life was now for a time the lot of Tyro. I cannot, however, +say he was perfectly happy; no dog on board ship is. He missed the wide +moors and the heathy hills, and I'm sure, like his master, he was always +glad to go on shore again. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Poor Tyro got old; and so I had to go to sea without him. Then this dog +attached himself to my dear mother. When I returned home again, she was +gone... + +Strange to say, Tyro, who during my poor mother's illness had never left +her room, refused food for days after her death. + +He got thin, and dropsy set in. + +With my _own_ hand, I tapped him no less than fifteen times, removing +never less than one gallon and three quarters of water. The first +operation was a terrible undertaking, owing to the dog making such +fierce resistance; but afterwards, when he began to understand the +immense relief it afforded him, he used to submit without even a sigh, +allowing himself to be strapped down without a murmur, and when the +operation (excepting the stab of the trocar, there is little or no pain) +was over, he would give himself a shake, then lick the hands of all the +assistants--generally four--and present a grateful paw to each; then he +had his dinner, and next day was actually fit to run down a rabbit or +hare. + +Thinner and weaker, weaker and thinner, month by month, and still I +could not, as some advised, "put him out of pain;" he had once saved my +life, and I did not feel up to the mark in Red Indianism. And so the +end drew nigh. + +The saddest thing about it was this: the dog had the idea (knowing +little of the mystery of death) that I could make him well; and at last, +when he could no longer walk, he used to crawl to meet me on my morning +visit, and gaze in my face with his poor imploring eyes, and my answer +(_well_ he knew what I said) was always, "Tyro, doggie, you'll be better +the morn (to-morrow), boy." And when one day I could stand it no +longer, and rained tears on my old friend's head, he crept back to his +bed, and that same forenoon he was dead. + +Poor old friend Tyro. Though many long years have fled since then, I +can still afford a sigh to his memory. + +On a "dewy simmer's gloaming" my Tyro's coffin was laid beneath the sod, +within the walls of a noble old Highland ruin. There is no stone to +mark where he lies, but I know the spot, and I always think the _gowan +blinks_ bonniest and the grass grows greenest there. + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +THE DAYS WHEN WE WENT CRUISING. + + "O'er the glad waters of the dark-blue sea, + Our thoughts as boundless and ourselves as free." + + Byron. + +When cruising round Africa some years ago in a saucy wee gunboat, that +shall be nameless, I was not only junior assistant surgeon, but I was +likewise head surgeon, and chief of the whole medical department, and +the whole of that department consisted of--never a soul but myself. As +we had only ninety men all told, the Admiralty couldn't afford a medical +officer of higher standing than myself. I was ably assisted, however, +in my arduous duties, which, by the way, occupied me very nearly half an +hour every morning, after, not before, breakfast, by the loblolly boy +"Sugar o' Lead." I don't suppose he was baptised Sugar o' Lead. I +don't think it is likely ever he was baptised at all. This young +gentleman used to make my poultices, oatmeal they were made of, of +course--I'm a Scot. But Sugar o' Lead always put salt in them, ate one +half and singed the rest. He had also to keep the dispensary clean, +which he never did, but he used to rub the labels off the bottles, three +at a time, and stick them on again, but usually on the wrong bottles. +This kept me well up in my pharmacy; but when one day I gave a man a +dose of powder of jalap, instead of Gregory, Sugar o' Lead having +changed the labels, the man said "it were a kinder rough on him." Sugar +o' Lead thought he knew as much as I, perhaps; but Epsom salts and +sulphate of zinc, although alike in colour, are very different in their +effects when given internally. Sugar o' Lead had a different opinion. +Another of the duties which devolved upon Sugar o' Lead was to clean up +after the dogs. At this he was quite at home. At night he slept with +the monkeys. Although the old cockatoo couldn't stand him, Sugar o' +Lead and the monkeys were on very friendly terms; they lived together on +that great and broad principle which binds the whole of this mighty +world of ours together, the principle of "You favour me to-day and I'll +favour you to-morrow." Sugar o' Lead and the monkeys acted upon it in +quite the literal sense. + +At Symon's Town, I was in the habit of constantly going on shore to +prospect, gun in hand, over the mountains. Grand old hills these are, +too, here and there covered with bush, with bold rocky bluffs abutting +from their summits, their breasts bedecked with the most gorgeous +geraniums, and those rare and beautiful heaths, which at home you can +only find in hot-houses. + +My almost constant attendant was a midshipman, a gallant young +Scotchman, whom you may know by the name of Donald McPhee, though I knew +him by another. + +The very first day of our many excursions "in the pursuit of game," we +were wading through some scrub, about three or four miles from the +shore, when suddenly my companion hailed me thus: "Look-out, doctor, +there's a panther yonder, and he's nearest you." + +So he was; but then he wasn't a panther at all, but a very large +Pointer. I shouldn't like to say that he was good enough for the show +bench; he was, however, good enough for work. Poor Panther, doubtless +he now rests with his fathers, rests under the shadow of some of the +mighty mountains, the tartaned hills, over which he and I used to wander +in pursuit of game. On his grave green lizards bask, and wild +cinerarias bloom, while over it glides the shimmering snake; but the +poor, faithful fellow blooms fresh in my memory still. I think I became +his special favourite. Perhaps he was wise enough to admire the +Highland dress I often wore. Perhaps he thought, as I did, that of all +costumes, that was the best one for hill work. But the interest he took +in everything I did was remarkable. He seemed rejoiced to see me when I +landed, as betokened by the wagging tail, the lowered ears, slightly +elevated chin, and sparkling eye--a canine smile. + +"Doctor," he seemed to say, "I was beginning to think you weren't +coming. But won't we have a day of it, just?" + +And away we would go, through the busy town and along the sea beach, +where the lisping wavelets broke melodiously on sands of silvery sheen, +where many a monster medusa lay stranded, looking like huge umbrellas +made of jelly, and on, and on, until we came to a tiny stream, up whose +rocky banks we would scramble, skirting the bush, and arriving at last +at the great heath land. We followed no beaten track, we went here, +there, and everywhere. The scenery was enchantingly wild and beautiful, +and there was health and its concomitant happiness in every breeze. +Sometimes we would sit dreamily on a rock top, Panther and I, for an +hour at a time, vainly trying to drink in all the beauties of the scene. +How bright was the blue of the distant sea! How fleecy the cloudlets! +How romantic and lovely that far-off mountain range, its rugged outline +softened by the purple mists of distance! These everlasting mountains +we could people with people of our own imagination. I peopled them with +foreign fairies. Panther, I think, peopled them with rock rabbits. +Weary at last with gazing on the grandeur everywhere around us, we would +rivet our attention for a spell upon things less romantic--bloater paste +and sea biscuit. I shared my lunch with Panther. + +Panther was most civil and obliging; he not only did duty as a pointer +and guide, but he would retrieve as well, rock rabbits and rats, and +such; and as he saw me bag them, he would look up in my face as much as +to say-- + +"Now aren't you pleased? Don't you feel all over joyful? Wouldn't you +wag a tail if you had one? I should think so." + +Panther wouldn't retrieve black snakes. + +"No," said Panther, "I draw the line at black snakes, doctor." + +I would fain have taken him to sea with me, as he belonged to no one; +but Panther said, "No, I cannot go." + +"Then good-bye, dear friend," I said. + +"Farewell," said Panther. + +And so we parted. + +He looked wistfully after the boat as it receded from the shore. I +believe, poor fellow, he knew he would never see me again. + +Conceive, if you can, of the lonesomeness, the dreariness of going to +sea without a dog. But as Panther wouldn't come with me, I had to sail +without him. As the purple mountains grew less and less distinct, and +shades of evening gathered around us, and twinkling lights from rocky +points glinted over the waters, I could only lean over the taffrail and +sing-- + + "Happy land! happy land! + Who would leave the glorious land?" + +Who indeed? but sailor-men must. And now darkness covers the ocean, and +hides the distant land, and next we were out in the midst of just as +rough a sea as any one need care to be in. My only companion at this +doleful period of my chequered career was a beautiful white pigeon. +Here is how I came by him. Out at the Cape, in many a little rocky +nook, and by many a rippling stream, grow sweet flowerets that come +beautifully out in feather work. Feather-flower making then was one of +my chief delights and amusements; the art had been taught me by a young +friend of mine, whose father grew wine and kept hunters +(jackal-hunting), and had kindly given me "the run" of the house. +Before leaving, on the present cruise, I had secured some particularly +beautiful specimens of flowers, too delicate to be imitated by anything, +save the feathers of a pigeon; so I had bought a pure white one, which I +had ordered to be killed and sent off. + +"Steward," I cried, as we were just under weigh, "did a boy bring a +white pigeon for me?" + +"He did, sir; and I put it in your cabin in its basket, which I had to +give him sixpence extra for." + +"But why," said I, "didn't you tell him to put his nasty old basket on +his back and take it off with him?" + +"Because," said the steward, "the bird would have flown away." + +"Flown away!" I cried. "Is the bird alive then?" + +"To be sure, sir," said the steward. + +"To be sure, you blockhead," said I; "how can I make feather-flowers +from a live pigeon?" + +The man was looking at me pityingly, I thought. + +"Can't you kill it, sir? Give him to me, sir; I'll Wring his neck in a +brace of shakes." + +"You'd never wring another neck, steward," I said; "you'd lose the +number of your mess as sure as a gun." + +When I opened the basket, knowing what rogues nigger-boys are, I fully +expected to find a bird with neither grace nor beauty, and about the +colour of an old white clucking hen. The boy had not deceived me, +however. The pigeon was a beauty, and as white as a Spitzbergen +snow-bird. Out he flew, and perched on a clothes-peg in my bulkhead, +and said-- + +"Troubled wi' you. Tr-rooubled with you." + +"You'll need," said I, "to put up with the trouble for six months to +come, for we're messmates. Steward," I continued, "your fingers ain't +itching, are they, to kill that lovely creature?" + +"Not they," said the fellow; "I wouldn't do it any harm for the world." + +"There's my rum bottle," I said; "it always stands in that corner, and +it is always at your service while you tend upon the pigeon." + +The cruise before, we had a black cat on board, that the sailors looked +upon as a bird of evil omen, for we got no luck, caught no slavers, ran +three times on shore, and were once on fire. This cruise, we had lots +of prize-money, and never a single mishap, and the men put it all down +to "the surgeon's pet," as they called my bird. He was a pet, too. I +made him a nest in a leathern hat-box, where he went when the weather +was rough. He was tame, loving, and winning in all his ways, and always +scrupulously white and clean. + +The first place we ran into was Delagoa Bay. How sweetly pretty, how +English-like, is the scenery all around! The gently undulating hills, +clothed in clouds of green; the trees growing down almost to the water's +edge; the white houses nestling among the foliage, the fruit, the +flowers, the blue marbled sky, and the wavelets breaking musically on +the silvery sands--what a watering-place it would make, and what a pity +we can't import it body bulk! The houses are all built on the sand, so +that the beach is the only carpet. In the Portuguese governor's house, +where we spent such a jolly evening, it was just the same; the +chair-legs sank in the soft white sand, the table was off the plane, and +the piano all awry; and a dog belonging to one of the officers, a +monster boarhound, with eyes like needles, and tusks that would have +made umbrella handles, scraped a hole at one end of the room, and nearly +buried himself. That dog, his owner told me, would kill a jackal with +one blow of his paw; but he likewise caught mice like winking, and +killed a cockroach wherever he saw one. His owner wrote this down for +me, and I afterwards translated it. + +Next morning, at eleven, the governor and his officers came off, arrayed +in scarlet, blue, and burnished gold, cocked-hats and swords, all so +gay, and we had tiffin in the captain's cabin; Carlo, the dog, came too, +of course, and seated himself thoughtfully at one end, abaft the mess +table. There we were, then, just six of us--the captain, a fiery +looking, wee, red man, but not half a bad fellow; the governor, bald in +pate, round-faced, jolly, but incapable of getting very close to the +table because of the rotundity of his body; his _aide-de-camp_, a little +thin man, as bright and as merry as moonshine; his lieutenant, a jolly +old fellow, with eyes like an Ulmer hound, and nose like a kidney +potato; myself, and Carlo. + +Our conversation during tiffin was probably not very edifying, but it +was very spirited. You see, our captain couldn't speak a word of +Portuguese, and the poor Portuguese hadn't a word of English. I myself +possessed a smattering of Spanish, and a little French, and I soon +discovered that by mixing the two together, throwing in an occasional +English word and a sprinkling of Latin, I could manufacture very decent +Portuguese. At least, the foreigners themselves seemed to understand +me, or pretended to for politeness sake. To be sure they didn't always +give me the answer I expected, but that was all the funnier, and kept +the laugh up. I really believe each one of us knew exactly what he +himself meant, but I'm sure couldn't for the life of him have told what +his neighbour was driving at. And so we got a little mixed somehow, but +everybody knew the road to his mouth, and that was something. We got +into an argument upon a very interesting topic indeed, and kept it up +for nearly an hour, and were getting quite excited over it, when somehow +or other it came out, that the Portuguese had all the while been +argle-bargling about the rights of the Pope, while we Englishmen had +been deep in the mystery of the prices of yams and sucking pig, in the +different villages of the coast. Then we all laughed and shook hands, +and shrugged our shoulders, and turned up our palms, and laughed again. + +Presently I observed the captain trying to draw my attention unobserved: +he was squinting down towards the cruet stand, and I soon perceived the +cause. An immense cockroach had got into a bottle of cayenne, and +feeling uncomfortably warm, was standing on his hind-legs and +frantically waving his long feelers as a signal of distress. I was just +wondering how I could get the bottle away without letting the governor +see me, when some one else spotted that unhappy cockroach, and that was +Carlo. + +Now Carlo was a dog who acted on the spur of the moment, so as soon as +he saw the beast in the bottle he flew straight at it. That spring +would have taken him over a six-barred gate. And, woe is me for the +result! Down rolled the table, crockery and all; down rolled the +governor, with his bald pate and rotundity of body; down went the merry +little thin man; over rolled the fellow with the nose like a kidney +potato. The captain fell, and I fell, and there was an end to the whole +feast. + +When we all got up, Carlo was intent upon his cockroach, and looking as +unconcerned as if nothing out of the common had occurred. + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +BLUE-JACKETS' PETS. + + "Hard is the heart that loveth nought." + + Shelley. + + "All love is sweet, + Given or returned. + Common as light is love, + And its familiar voice wearies not ever." + + Idem. + +Blue-jackets, as Her Majesty's sailors are sometimes styled, are +passionately fond of pets. They must have something to love, if it be +but a woolly-headed nigger-boy or a cockroach in a 'baccy-box. Little +nigger-boys, indeed, may often be found on board a man-o'-war, the +reigning pets. Young niggers are very precocious. You can teach them +all they will ever learn in the short space of six months. Of this kind +was one I remember, little Freezing-powders, as black as midnight, and +shining all over like a billiard ball, with his round curly head and +pleasant dimply face. Freezing-powders soon became a general favourite +both fore and aft. His master, our marine officer, picked him up +somewhere on the West coast; and although only nine years of age, before +he was four months in the ship, he could speak good English, was a +perfect little gymnast, and knew as many tricks and capers as the cook +and the monkey. Snowball was another I knew; but Snowball grew bad at +an early age, lost caste, became dissipated, and a gambler, and finally +fled to his native jungle. + +Jock of ours was a seal of tender years, who for many months retained +the affection of all hands, until washed overboard in a gale of wind. +This creature's time on board was fully occupied in a daily round of +duty, pleasure, and labour. His duty consisted in eating seven meals a +day, and bathing in a tub after each; his pleasure, to lie on his side +on the quarter-deck and be scratched and petted; while his labour +consisted of earnestly endeavouring to enlarge a large scupper-hole +sufficiently to permit his escape to his native ocean. How +indefatigably he used to work day by day, and hour after hour, scraping +on the iron first with one flipper, then with another, then poking his +nose in to measure the result with his whiskered face! He kept the hole +bright and clear, but did not sensibly enlarge it, at least to human +ken. Jock's successor on that ship was a youthful bear of Arctic +nativity. He wasn't a nice pet. He took all you gave him, and wanted +to eat your hand as well, but he never said "Thank you," and permitted +no familiarity. When he took his walks abroad, which he did every +morning, although he never went out of his road for a row, he walked +straight ahead with his nose downwards growling, and gnawed and tore +everything that touched him--not at all a pet worth being troubled with. + +Did the reader ever hear of the sailor who tamed a cockroach? Well, +this man I was "shipmates" with. He built a little cage, with a little +kennel in the corner of it, expressly for his unsavoury pet, and he +called the creature "Idzky"--"which he named himself, sir," he explained +to me. Idzky was a giant of his race. His length was fully four +inches, his breadth one inch, while each of his waving feelers measured +six. This monster knew his name and his master's voice, hurrying out +from his kennel when called upon, and emitting the strange sound which +gained for him the cognomen Idzky. The boatswain, his master, was as +proud of him as he might have been of a prize pug, and never tired of +exhibiting his eccentricities. + +I met the boatswain the other day at the Cape, and inquired for his pet. + +"Oh, sir," he said, with genuine feeling, "he's gone, sir. Shortly +after you left the ship, poor Idzky took to taking rather much liquor, +and that don't do for any of us, you know, sir; I think it was that, for +I never had the heart to pat him on allowance; and he went raving mad, +had regular fits of delirium, and did nothing at all but run round his +cage and bark, and wouldn't look at anything in the way of food. Well, +one day I was coming off the forenoon watch, when, what should I see but +a double line of them `P' ants working in and out of the little place: +twenty or so were carrying a wing, and a dozen a leg, and half a score +running off with a feeler, just like men carrying a stowed mainsail; and +that, says I, is poor Idzky's funeral; and so it was, and I didn't +disturb them. Poor Idzky!" + +Peter was a pet mongoose of mine, a kindly, cosy little fellow, who +slept around my neck at night, and kept me clear of cockroaches, as well +as my implacable enemies, the rats. I was good to Peter, and fed him +well, and used to take him on shore at the Cape, among the snakes. The +snakes were for Peter to fight; and the way my wary wee friend dodged +and closed with, and finally throttled and killed a cobra was a caution +to that subtlest of all the beasts of the field. The presiding Malay +used to clap his brown hands with joy as he exclaimed--"Ah! sauve good +mongoose, sar, proper mongoose to kill de snake." + +"You don't object, do you," I modestly asked my captain one day, while +strolling on the quarter-deck after tiffin--"you don't object, I hope, +to the somewhat curious pets I at times bring on board?" + +"Object?" he replied. "Well, no; not as a rule. Of course you know I +don't like your snakes to get gliding all over the ship, as they were +the other day. But, doctor, what's the good of my objecting? If any +one were to let that awful beast in the box yonder loose--" + +"Don't think of it, captain," I interrupted; "he'd be the death of +somebody, to a dead certainty." + +"No; I'm not such a fool," he continued. "But if I shot him, why, in a +few days you'd be billeting a boar-constrictor or an alligator on me, +and telling me it was for the good of science and the service." + +The awful beast in the box was the most splendid and graceful specimen +of the monitor lizard I have ever seen. Fully five feet long from tip +to tail, he swelled and tapered in the most perfect lines of beauty. +Smooth, though scaly, and inky black, tartaned all over with transverse +rows of bright yellow spots, with eyes that shone like wildfire, and +teeth like quartz, with his forked tongue continually flashing out from +his bright-red mouth, he had a wild, weird loveliness that was most +uncanny. Mephistopheles, as the captain not inaptly called him, knew +me, however, and took his cockroaches from my hand, although perfectly +frantic when any one else went near him. If a piece of wood, however +hard, were dropped into his cage, it was instantly torn in pieces; and +if he seized the end of a rope, he might quit partnership with his head +or teeth, but never with the rope. + +One day, greatly to my horror, the steward entered the wardroom, pale +with fear, and reported: "Mephistopheles escaped, sir, and yaffling +[rending] the men." I rushed on deck. The animal had indeed escaped. +He had torn his cage into splinters, and declared war against all hands. +Making for the fore hatchway, he had seized a man by the jacket skirts, +going down the ladder. The man got out of the garment without delay, +and fled faster than any British sailor ought to have done. On the +lower deck he chased the cook from the coppers, and the carpenter from +his bench. A circle of Kroomen were sitting mending a foresail; +Mephistopheles suddenly appeared in their midst. The niggers +unanimously threw up their toes, individually turned somersaults +backwards, and sought the four winds of heaven. These routed, my pet +turned his attention to Peepie. Peepie was a little Arab slave-lass. +She was squatting by a calabash, singing low to herself, and eating +rice. He seized her cummerbund, or waist garment. But Peepie wriggled +clear--natural--and ran on deck, the innocent, like the "funny little +maiden" in Hans Breitmann. On the cummerbund Mephistopheles spent the +remainder of his fury, and the rest of his life; for not knowing what +might happen next, I sent for a fowling-piece, and the plucky fellow +succumbed to the force of circumstances and a pipeful of buck-shot. I +have him yonder on the sideboard, in body and in spirit (gin), +bottle-mates with a sandsnake, three centipedes, and a tarantula. + +With monkeys, baboons, apes, and all of that ilk, navy ships, when +homeward bound, are ofttimes crowded. Of our little crew of seventy, I +think nearly every man had one, and some two, such pets, although fully +one-half died of chest-disease as soon as the ship came into colder +latitudes. These monkeys made the little craft very lively indeed, and +were a never-ending source of amusement and merriment to all hands. I +don't like monkeys, however. They "are so near, and yet so far," as +respects humanity. I went shooting them once--a cruel sport, and more +cowardly even than elephant-hunting in Ceylon--and when I broke the +wrist of one, instead of hobbling off, as it ought to have done, it came +howling piteously towards me, shaking and showing me the bleeding limb. +The little wretch preached me a sermon anent cruelty to animals that I +shall not forget till the day I die. + +We had a sweet-faced, delicate, wee marmoset, not taller, when on end, +than a quart bottle--Bobie the sailors called him; and we had also a +larger ape, Hunks by name, of what our Scotch engineer called the +"ill-gettit breed"; and that was a mild way of putting it. This brute +was never out of mischief. He stole the men's tobacco, smashed their +pipes, spilled their soup, and ran aloft with their caps, which he +minutely inspected and threw overboard afterwards. He was always on the +black list; in fact, when rubbing his back after one thrashing, he was +wondering all the time what mischief he could do next. Bobie was +arrayed in a neatly fitting sailor-costume, cap and all complete; and so +attired, of course could not escape the persecutions of the ape. Hunks, +after contenting himself with cockroaches, would fill his mouth; then +holding out his hand with one to Bobie, "Hae, hae, hae," he would cry, +then seize the little innocent, and escape into the rigging with him. +Taking his seat in the maintop, Hunks first and foremost emptied his +mouth, cramming the contents down his captive's throat. He next got out +on to the stays for exercise, and used Bobie as a species of dumb-bell, +swinging him by the tail, hanging him by a foot, by an ear, by the nose, +etc, and threatening to throw him overboard if any sailor attempted a +rescue. Last of all, he threw him at the nearest sailor. + +On board the _Orestes_ was a large ape as big as a man. He was a most +unhappy ape. There wasn't a bit of humour in his whole corporation. +"He had a silent sorrow" somewhere, "a grief he'd ne'er impart." +Whenever you spoke to him, he seized and wrung your hand in the most +pathetic manner, and drew you towards him. His other arm was thrown +across his chest, while he shook his head, and gazed in your face with +such a woe-begone countenance, that the very smile froze on your lips; +and as you couldn't laugh out of politeness, you felt very awkward. For +anything I know, this melancholy ape may be still alive. + +Deer are common pets in some ships. We had a fine large buck in the old +_Semiramie_. A romping, rollicking rascal, in truth a very satyr, who +never wanted a quid of tobacco in his mouth, nor refused rum and milk. +Whenever the steward came up to announce dinner, he bolted below at +once; and we were generally down just in time to find him dancing among +the dishes, after eating all the potatoes. + +I once went into my cabin and found two Liliputian deer in my bed. It +was our engineer who had placed them there. We were lying off Lamoo, +and he had brought them from shore. + +"Ye'll just be a faither to the lammies, doctor," he said, "for I'm no +on vera guid terms wi' the skipper." + +They were exactly the size of an Italian greyhound, perfectly formed, +and exceedingly graceful. They were too tender, poor things, for life +on shipboard, and did not live long. + +In the stormy latitudes of the Cape, the sailors used to amuse +themselves by catching Cape pigeons, thus: a little bit of wood floated +astern attached by a string, a few pieces of fat thrown into the water, +and the birds, flying tack and half-tack towards them, came athwart the +line, by a dexterous movement of which they entangled their wings, and +landed them on board. They caught albatrosses in the same fashion, and +nothing untoward occurred. + +I had for many months a gentle, loving pet in the shape of a snow-white +dove. I had bought him that I might make feather-flowers from his +plumage; but the boy brought him off alive, and I never had the heart to +kill him. So he lived in a leathern hat-box, and daily took his perch +on my shoulder at meal-times [see page 178]. + +It was my lot once upon a time to be down with fever in India. The room +in which I lay was the upper flat of an antiquated building, in a rather +lonely part of the suburbs of a town. It had three windows, close to +which grew a large banyan-tree, beneath the shade of whose branches the +crew of a line-of-battle ship might have hung their hammocks with +comfort. The tree was inhabited by a colony of crows; we stood--the +crows and I--in the relation of over-the-way to each other. Now, of all +birds that fly, the Indian crow most bear the palm for audacity. Living +by his wits, he is ever on the best of terms with himself, and his +impudence leads him to dare anything. Whenever, by any chance, Pandoo, +my attendant, left the room, these black gentry paid me a visit. +Hopping in by the score, and regarding me no more than the bed-post, +they commenced a minute inspection of everything in the room, trying to +destroy everything that could not be eaten or carried away. They rent +the towels, drilled holes in my uniform, stole the buttons from my coat, +and smashed my bottles. One used to sit on a screen close by my bed +every day, and scan my face with his evil eye, saying as plainly as +could be--"You're getting thinner and beautifully less; in a day or two, +you won't be able to lift a hand; then I'll have the pleasure of picking +out your two eyes." + +Amid such doings, my servant would generally come to my relief, perhaps +to find such a scene as this: Two or three pairs of hostile crows with +their feathers standing up around their necks, engaged in deadly combat +on the floor over a silver spoon or a tooth-brush; half a dozen perched +upon every available chair; an unfortunate lizard with a crow at each +end of it, getting whirled wildly round the room, each crow thinking he +had the best right to it; crows everywhere, hopping about on the table, +and drinking from the bath; crows perched on the window-sill, and more +crows about to come, and each crow doing all in his power to make the +greatest possible noise. The faithful Pandoo would take all this in at +a glance; then would ensue a helter-skelter retreat, and the windows be +darkened by the black wings of the flying crows, then silence for a +moment, only broken by some apologetic remark from Pandoo. + +When at length happy days of convalescence came round, and I was able to +get up and even eat my meals at table, I found my friends the crows a +little more civil and respectful. The thought occurred to me to make +friends with them; I consequently began a regular system of feeding them +after every meal-time. One old crow I caught, and chained to a chair +with a fiddle-string. He was a funny old fellow, with one club-foot. +He never refused his food from the very day of his captivity, and I soon +taught him a few tricks. One was to lie on his back when so placed for +any length of time till set on his legs again. This was called turning +the turtle. But one day this bird of freedom hopped away, fiddle-string +and all, and a whole fortnight elapsed before I saw him again. I was +just beginning to put faith in a belief common in India--namely, that a +crow or any other bird, that has been for any time living with human +beings, is put to instant death the moment he returns to the bosom of +his family; when one day, while engaged breakfasting some forty crows, +my club-footed pet reappeared, and actually picked the bit from my hand, +and ever after, until I left, he came regularly thrice a day to be fed. +The other crows came with surprising exactness at meal-times; first one +would alight on the shutter outside the window, and peep in, as if to +ascertain how nearly done I happened to be, then fly away for five or +ten minutes, when he would return, and have another keek. As soon, +however, as I approached the window, and raised my arm, I was saluted +with a chorus of cawing from the banyan-tree; then down they swooped in +dozens; and it was no very easy task to fill so many mouths, although +the loaves were Government ones. + +These pets had a deadly enemy in a brown raven--the Brahma kite; swifter +than arrow from bow he descended, describing the arc of a great circle, +and carrying off in his flight the largest lamp of bread he could spy. +He, for one, never stopped to bless the hand of the giver; but the +crows, I know, were not ungrateful. Club-foot used to perch beside me +on a chair, and pick his morsels from the floor, always premising that +two windows at least must be open. As to the others, their persecutions +ended; they never appeared except when called upon. The last act of +their aggression was to devour a very fine specimen of praying mantis I +had confined in a quinine bottle. The first day the paper cover had +been torn off, and the mantis had only escaped by keeping close at the +bottom; next day, the cover was again broken, and the bottle itself +capsized; the poor mantis had prayed in vain for once. Club-foot, I +think, must have stopped all day in the banyan-tree, for I never went to +the window to call him without his appearing at once with a joyful caw; +this feat I used often to exhibit to my shipmates who came to visit me +during my illness. + +One thing about talking-birds I don't remember ever to have seen +noticed--namely, the habit some birds have of talking in their sleep. +And, just as a human being will often converse in his dream in a +long-forgotten language, so birds will often at night be heard repeating +words or phrases they never could remember in their waking moments. A +starling of mine often roused me at night by calling out my dog's name +in loud, distinct tones, although by day his attempts to do so were +quite ineffectual. So with a venerable parrot we had on board the saucy +_Skipjack_. Polly was a quiet bird in daylight, and much given to +serious thought; but at times, in the stillness of the middle watch at +sea, would startle the sailors from their slumbers by crying out: "Deen, +deen--kill, kill, kill!" in quite an alarming manner. Polly had been +all through the Indian mutiny, and was shut up in Delhi during the sad +siege, so her dreams were not very enviable. + +Do parrots know what they say? At times I think they do. Our parson on +board the old _Rumbler_ had no more attentive listener to the Sabbath +morning service than wardroom Polly; but there were times when Polly +made responses when silence would have been more judicious. There was +an amount of humour which it is impossible to describe, in the sly way +she one day looked the parson in the face, as he had just finished a +burst of eloquence both impassioned and impressive, and uttered one of +her impertinent remarks. For some months, she was denied access to +church because she had once forgotten herself so far as to draw corks +during the sermon--this being considered "highly mutinous and +insubordinate conduct." But she regained her privilege. Poor Poll! +I'll never forget the solemn manner in which she shut her eyes one day +at the close of the service, as if still musing on the words of the +sermon, on the mutability of all things created, and remarked: "Vanity, +vanity, all is vanity, says--says:" she could say no more--the rest +stuck in her throat, and we were left to ponder on her unfortunate loss +of memory in uttering the admonitory sentiment. + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +MY CABIN MATES AND BEDFELLOWS: A SKETCH OF LIFE ON THE COAST OF AFRICA. + + "Whaur are gaun crawlin' ferlie, + Your impudence protects ye sairly." + + Burns. + +I was idly sauntering along the only street in Simon's Town one fine day +in June, when I met my little, fat, good-humoured friend, Paymaster +Pumpkin. He was walking at an enormous pace for the length of his legs, +and his round face was redder than ever. He would hardly stop to tell +me that H.M.S. _Vesuvius_ was ordered off in two hours--provisions for a +thousand men--the Kaffirs (scoundrels) had crossed some river (name +unpronounceable) with an army of one hundred thousand men, and were on +their way to Cape Town, with the murderous intention of breaking every +human bone in that fair town, and probably picking them leisurely +afterwards. The upshot of all this, as far as I was concerned, was my +being appointed to as pretty a model, and as dirty a little craft, as +there was in the service, namely, H.M.S. _Pen-gun_. Our armament +consisted of four pea-shooters and one Mons Meg; and our orders were to +repair to the east coast of Africa, and there pillage, burn, and destroy +every floating thing that dared to carry a slave, without permission +from Britannia's queen. Of our adventures there, and how we ruled the +waves, I am at present going to say nothing. I took up my commission as +surgeon of this interesting craft, and we soon after sailed. + +On first stepping on board the _Pen-gun_, a task which was by no means +difficult to a person with legs of even moderate length, my nose--yes, +my nose--that interesting portion of my physiognomy, which for months +before had inhaled nothing more nauseous than the perfume of a thousand +heaths, or the odour of a thousand roses--my nose was assailed by a +smell which burst upon my astonished senses, like a compound of +asafoetida, turpentine, and Stilton cheese. As I gasped for breath, the +lieutenant in command endeavoured to console me by saying--"Oh, it's +only the cockroaches: you'll get used to it by-and-by." + +"_Only_ the cockroaches!" repeated I to myself, as I went below to look +after my cabin. This last I found to be of the following dimensions-- +namely, five feet high (I am five feet ten), six feet long, and six feet +broad at the top; but, owing to the curve of the vessel's side, only two +feet broad at the deck. A cot hung fore and aft along the ship's side, +and the remaining furniture consisted of a doll's chest of drawers, +beautifully fitted up on top with a contrivance to hold utensils of +lavation, and a Liliputian writing-table on the other; thus diminishing +my available space to two square feet, and this in a break-neck +position. My cot, too, was very conveniently placed for receiving the +water which trickled freely from my scuttle when the wind blew, and more +slowly when the wind didn't; so that every night, very much against my +will, I was put under the operations of practical hydropathy. And this +was my _sanctum, sanctorum_; but had it been clean, or capable of +cleaning, I am a philosopher, and would have rejoiced in it; but it was +neither; and ugh! it was inhabited. + +Being what is termed in medical parlance, of the nervo-sanguineous +temperament, my horror of the loathsome things about me for the first +week almost drove me into a fever. I could not sleep at night, or if I +fell into an uneasy slumber, I was awakened from fearful dreams, to find +some horrid thing creeping or running over my hands or face. When a +little boy, I used to be fond of turning up stones in green meadows, to +feast my eyes upon the many creeping things beneath. I felt now as if I +myself were living _under_ a stone. However, after a year's +slaver-hunting, I got so used to all these creatures, that I did not +mind them a bit. I could crack scorpions, bruise the heads of +centipedes, laugh at earwigs, be delighted with ants, eat weevils, +admire tarantulas, encourage spiders. As for mosquitoes, flies, and all +the smaller genera, I had long since been thoroughly inoculated; and +they could now bleed me as much as they thought proper, without my being +aware of it. It is of the habits of some of these familiar friends I +purpose giving a short sketch in this chapter and next. + +Of the "gentlemen of England who live at home at ease," very few, I +suspect, would know a cockroach, although they found the animal in their +soap--as I have done more than once. Cockroaches are of two principal +kinds--the small, nearly an inch long; and the large, nearly two and a +half inches. Let the reader fancy to himself a common horsefly of our +own country, half an inch in breadth, and of the length just stated, the +body, ending in two forks, which project beyond the wings, the head, +furnished with powerful mandibles, and two feelers, nearly four inches +long, and the whole body of a dark-brown or gun-barrel colour, and he +will have as good an idea as possible of the gigantic cockroach. The +legs are of enormous size and strength, taking from fifteen to twenty +ants to carry one away, and furnished with bristles, which pierce the +skin in their passage over one's face; and this sensation, together with +the horrid smell they emit, is generally sufficient to awaken a sleeper +of moderate depth. On these legs the animal squats, walking with his +elbows spread out, like a practical agriculturist writing an amatory +epistle to his lady-love, except when he raises the fore part of his +body, which he does at times, in order the more conveniently to stare +you in the face. He prefers walking at a slow and respectable pace; but +if you threaten him by shaking your finger at him, it is very funny to +see how quickly he takes the hint, and hurries off with all his might. +What makes him seem more ridiculous is, that he does not appear to take +into consideration the comparative length of your legs; he seems +impressed with the idea that he can easily run away from you; indeed, I +have no doubt he would do so from a greyhound. The creature is +possessed of large eyes; and there is a funny expression of conscious +guilt and impudence about his angular face which is very amusing; he +knows very well that he lives under a ban--that, in fact, existence is a +thing he has no business or lawful right with, and consequently he can +never look you straight in the face, like an honest fly or moth. The +eggs, which are nearly half an inch long, and about one-eighth in +breadth, are rounded at the upper edge, and the two sides approach, +wedge-like, to form the lower edge, which is sharp and serrated, for +attachment to the substance on which they may chance to be deposited. +These eggs are attached by one end to the body of the cockroach; and +when fully formed, they are placed upon any material which the wisdom of +the mother deems fit food for the youthful inmates. This may be either +a dress-coat, a cocked-hat, a cork, a biscuit, or a book--in fact, +anything softer than stone; and the egg is no sooner laid, than it +begins to sink through the substance below it, by an eating or +dissolving process, which is probably due to the agency of some free +acid; thus, sailors very often (I may say invariably) have their finest +uniform-coats and dress-pants ornamented by numerous little holes, +better adapted for purposes of ventilation than embellishment. The +interior of the egg is transversely divided into numerous cells, each +containing the larvae of I know not how many infant cockroaches. The +egg gives birth in a few weeks to a whole brood of triangular little +insects, which gradually increase till they attain the size of huge oval +beetles, striped transversely black and brown, but as yet minus wings. +These are usually considered a different species, and called the +beetle-cockroach; but having a suspicion of the truth, I one day +imprisoned one of these in a crystal tumbler, and by-and-by had the +satisfaction of seeing, first the beetle break his own back, and +secondly, a large-winged cockroach scramble, with a little difficulty, +through the wound, looking rather out of breath from the exertion. On +first escaping, he was perfectly white, but in a few hours got +photographed down to his own humble brown colour. So much for the +appearance of these gentry. Now for their character, which may easily +be summed up: they are cunning as the fox; greedy as the glutton; +impudent as sin; cruel, treacherous, cowardly scoundrels; addicted to +drinking; arrant thieves; and not only eat each other, but even devour +with avidity their own legs, when they undergo accidental amputation. +They are very fond of eating the toe-nails--so fond, indeed, as to +render the nail-scissors of no value, and they also profess a penchant +for the epidermis--if I may be allowed a professional expression--of the +feet and legs; not that they object to the skin of any other part of the +body, by no means; they attack the legs merely on a principle of easy +come-at-ability. + +In no way is their cunning better exhibited than in the cautious and +wary manner in which they conduct their attack upon a sleeper. We will +suppose you have turned in to your swinging cot, tucked in your toes, +and left one arm uncovered, to guard your face. By-and-by, first a few +spies creep slowly up the bulkhead, and have a look at you: if your eyes +are open, they slowly retire, trying to look as much at their ease as +possible; but if you look round, they run off with such ridiculous haste +and awkward length of steps, as to warrant the assurance that they were +up to no good. Pretend, however, to close your eyes, and soon after, +one, bolder than the rest, walks down the pillow, and stations himself +at your cheek, in an attitude of silent and listening meditation. Here +he stands for a few seconds, then cautiously lowering one feeler, he +tickles your face: if you remain quiescent, the experiment is soon +repeated; if you are still quiet, then you are supposed to be asleep, +and the work of the night begins. The spy walks off in great haste, and +soon returns with the working-party. The hair is now searched for drops +of oil; the ear is examined for wax; in sound sleepers, even the mouth +undergoes scrutiny; and every exposed part is put under the operation of +gentle skinning. Now is the time to start up, and batter the bulkheads +with your slipper; you are sure of half an hour's good sport; but what +then? The noise made by the brutes running off brings out the rest, and +before you are aware, every crevice or corner vomits forth its +thousands, and the bulkheads all around are covered with racing, +chasing, fighting, squabbling cockroaches. So numerous, indeed, they +are at times, that it would be no exaggeration to say that every square +foot contains its dozen. If you are wise, you will let them alone, and +go quietly and philosophically to bed, for you may kill hundreds, and +hundreds more will come to the funeral-feast. Cockroaches are +cannibals, practically and by profession. This can be proved in many +ways. They eat the dead bodies of their slain comrades; and if any one +of them gets sick or wounded, his companions, with a kindness and +consideration which cannot be too highly appreciated, speedily put him +out of pain, and, by way of reward for their own trouble, devour him. + +These creatures seem to suffer from a state of chronic thirst; they are +continually going and returning from the wash-hand basin, and very +careful they are, too, not to tumble in. + +They watch, sailor-like, the motion of the vessel; when the water flows +towards them, they take a few sips, and then wait cautiously while it +recedes and returns. Yet, for all this caution, accidents do happen, +and every morning you are certain to find a large number drowned in the +basin. This forms one of the many methods of catching them. I will +only mention two other methods in common use. A pickle-bottle, +containing a little sugar and water, is placed in the cabin; the animals +crawl in, but are unable to get out until the bottle is nearly full, +when a few manage to escape, after the manner of the fox in the fable of +the "Fox and Goat in the Well;" and if those who thus escape have +previously promised to pull their friends out by the long feelers, they +very unfeelingly decline, and walk away as quickly as possible, sadder +and wiser 'roaches. When the bottle is at length filled, it finds its +way overboard. Another method is adopted in some ships--the boys have +to muster every morning with a certain number of cockroaches; if they +have more, they are rewarded; if less, punished. I have heard of +vessels being fumigated, or sunk in harbour; but in these cases the +number of dead cockroaches, fast decaying in tropical weather, generally +causes fever to break out in the ship; so that, if a vessel once gets +overrun with them, nothing short of dry-docking and taking to pieces +does any good. + +They are decided drunkards. I think they prefer brandy; but they are +not difficult to please, and generally prefer whatever they can get. +When a cockroach gets drunk, he becomes very lively indeed, runs about, +flaps his wings, and tries to fly--a mode of progression which, except +in very hot weather, they are unable to perform. Again and again he +returns to the liquor, till at last he falls asleep, and by-and-by +awakes, and, no doubt filled with remorse at having fallen a victim to +so human a weakness, rushes frantically away, and in trying to drink, +usually drowns himself. + +But although the cockroach is, in general, the bloodthirsty and +vindictive being that I have described, still he is by no means +unsociable, and _has_ his times and seasons of merriment and recreation. +On these occasions, the 'roaches emerge from their hiding-places in +thousands at some preconcerted signal, perform a reel, or rather an +acute-angled, spherically-trigonometrical quadrille, to the music of +their own buzz, and evidently to their own intense satisfaction. This +queer dance occupies two or three minutes, after which the patter of +their little feet is heard no more, the buzz and the bum-m-m are hushed; +they have gone to their respective places of abode, and are seen no more +for that time. This usually takes place on the evening of a very hot +day--a day when pitch has boiled on deck, and the thermometer below has +stood persistently above ninety degrees. When the lamps are lit in the +wardroom, and the officers have gathered round the table for a quiet +rubber at whist, then is heard all about and around you a noise like the +rushing of many waters, or the wind among the forest-trees; and on +looking up, you find the bulkheads black, or rather brown, with the +rustling wretches, while dozens go whirring past you, alight on your +head, or fly right in your face. + +This is a cockroaches' ball, which, if not so brilliant as the butterfly +ball of my early recollections, I have no doubt is considered by +themselves as very amusing and highly respectable. + +The reader will readily admit that the character of "greedy as gluttons" +has not been misapplied when I state that it would be an easier task to +tell what they did _not_ eat, than what they _did_. + +While they partake largely of the common articles of diet in the ship's +stores, they also rather like books, clothes, boots, soap, and corks. +They are also partial to lucifer-matches, and consider the edges of +razors and amputating-knives delicate eating. [Note 1.] As to drink, +these animals exhibit the same impartiality. Probably they _do_ prefer +wines and spirits, but they can nevertheless drink beer with relish, and +even suit themselves to circumstances, and imbibe water, either pure or +mixed with soap; and if they cannot obtain wine, they find in ink a very +good substitute. Cockroaches, I should think, are by no means exempt +from the numerous ills that flesh is heir to, and must at times, like +human epicures and gourmands, suffer dreadfully from rheums and +dyspepsia; for to what else can I attribute their extreme partiality for +medicine? "Every man his own doctor," seems to be _their_ motto; and +they appear to attach no other meaning to the word "surgeon" than simply +something to eat: I speak by experience. As to physic, nothing seems to +come wrong to them. If patients on shore were only half as fond of +pills and draughts, I, for one, should never go to sea. As to powders, +they invariably roll themselves bodily in them; and tinctures they sip +all day long. Blistering-plaster seems a patent nostrum, which they +take internally, for they managed to use up two ounces of mine in as +many weeks, and I have no doubt it warmed their insides. I one night +left a dozen blue pills carelessly exposed on my little table; soon +after I had turned in, I observed the box surrounded by them, and being +too lazy to get up, I had to submit to see my pills walked off with in a +very few minutes by a dozen 'roaches, each one carrying a pill. I +politely informed them that there was more than a dose for an adult +cockroach in each of these pills; but I rather think they did not heed +the caution, for next morning, the deck of my little cabin was strewed +with the dead and dying, some exhibiting all the symptoms of an advanced +stage of mercurial salivation, and some still swallowing little morsels +of pill, no doubt on the principle of _similia similibus curantur_, from +which I argue that cockroaches are homoeopathists. + +That cockroaches are cowards, no one, I suppose, will think of +disputing. + +I have seen a gigantic cockroach run away from an ant, under the +impression, I suppose, that the little creature meant to swallow him +alive. + +The smaller-sized cockroach differs merely in size and some unimportant +particulars from that just described, and possesses in a less degree all +the vices of his big brother. They, too, are cannibals; but they prefer +to prey upon the large one, which they kill and eat when they find +wounded. For example, one very hot day, I was enjoying the luxury of a +bath at noon, when a large cockroach alighted in great hurry on the edge +of my bath, and began to drink, without saying "By your leave," or +"Good-morning to you." + +Now, being by nature of a kind disposition, I certainly should never +have refused to allow the creature to quench his thirst in my bath-- +although I would undoubtedly have killed him afterwards--had he not, in +his hurried flight over me, touched my shoulder with his nasty wings, +and left thereon his peculiar perfume. + +This very naturally incensed me, so seizing a book, with an +interjectional remark on his impudence, I struck him to the deck, when +he lay to all appearance, dead; so, at least, thought a wily little +'roach of the small genus, that had been watching the whole affair at +the mouth of his hole, and determined to seize his gigantic relative, +and have a feast at his expense; so, with this praiseworthy intention, +the imp marched boldly up to him, pausing just one second, as if to make +sure that life was extinct; then, seeing no movement or sign of life +evinced by the giant, he very pompously seized him by the fore-leg, and, +turning round, commenced dragging his burden towards a hole, no doubt +inwardly chuckling at the anticipation of so glorious a supper. + +Unfortunately for the dwarfs hopes, however, the giant now began to +revive from the effects of concussion of the brain, into which state my +rough treatment had sent him; and his ideas of his whereabouts being +rather confused, at the same time feeling himself moving, he very +naturally and instinctively began to help himself to follow, by means of +his disengaged extremities. Being as yet unaware of what had happened +behind, the heart of the little gentleman in front swelled big with +conscious pride and dignity, at the thought of what a strong little +'roach he was, and how easily he could drag away his big relative. + +But this new and sudden access of strength began presently to astonish +the little creature itself, for, aided by the giant's movements, it +could now almost run with its burden, and guessing, I suppose, that +everything was not as it ought to be, it peeped over its shoulder to +see. Fancy, if you can, the terror and affright of the pigmy on seeing +the monster creeping stealthily after it. "What had it been doing? How +madly it had been acting!" Dropping its relative's leg, it turned, and +fairly _ran_, helping itself along with its wings, like a barn-door fowl +whose wits have been scared away by fright, and never looked once back +till fairly free from its terrible adventure; and I have no doubt it was +very glad at having discovered its mistake in time, since otherwise the +tables might have been turned, and the supper business reversed. + +So much for cockroaches, and I ought probably to apologise for my +description of these gentry being so realistic and graphic. If I ought +to, I do. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. It is probable that the edges of razors, etc, are destroyed by +a sort of acid deposited there by the cockroaches, similar to that which +exudes from the egg; however, there is no gainsaying the fact. + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +MY CABIN MATES--CONCLUDED. + + "The spider spreads her web, whether she be + In poet's towers, cellar or barn or tree." + + Shelley. + +The spider, however, is the great enemy of the small genus of +cockroaches. These spiders are queer little fellows. They do not build +a web for a fly-trap, but merely for a house. For the capture of their +prey, they have a much more ingenious method than any I have ever seen, +a process which displays a marvellous degree of ingenuity and cleverness +on the part of the spider, and proves that they are not unacquainted +with some of the laws of mechanics. Having determined to treat himself +to fresh meat, the wary little thing (I forgot to say that the creature, +although very small in proportion to the generality of tropical spiders, +is rather bigger than our domestic spider, and much stronger) emerges +from his house, in a corner of the cabin roof, and, having attached one +end of a thread to a beam in the roof, about six inches from the +bulkhead, he crawls more than half-way down the bulkhead, and attaching +the thread here again, goes a little further down, and waits. +By-and-by, some unwary 'roach crawls along, between the second +attachment of the thread and the spider; instantly the latter rushes +from his station, describes half a circle round his victim, lets go the +second attachment of the thread--which has now become entangled about +the legs of the 'roach--and, by some peculiar movement, which I do not +profess to understand, the cockroach is swung off the bulkhead, and +hangs suspended by the feet in mid-air; and very foolish he looks; so at +least must think the spider, as he coolly stands on the bulkhead quietly +watching the unavailing struggles of the animal which he has so nimbly +done for; for Marwood himself could not have done the thing half so +neatly. The spider now regains the beam to which the thread is +attached, and, sailor-like, slides down the little rope, and approaches +his victim; and first, as its kicking might interfere with the further +domestic arrangements of its body, the 'roach is killed, by having a +hole eaten out of its head between the eyes. This being accomplished, +the next thing is to bring home the butcher-meat; and the manner in +which this difficult task is performed is nothing less than wonderful. +A thread is attached to the lower part of the body of the 'roach; the +spider then "shins" up its rope with this thread, and attaches it so +high that the body is turned upside down; it then hauls on the other +thread, _turns_ the body once more, and again attaches the thread; and +this process is repeated till the dead cockroach is by degrees hoisted +up to the beam, and deposited in a corner near the door of its domicile. +But the wisdom of the spider is still further shown in what is done +next. It knows very well--so, at least, it would appear--that its +supply of food will soon decay; and being unacquainted with the +properties of salt, it proceeds to enclose the body of the 'roach in a +glutinous substance of the form of a chrysalis or air-tight case. It +is, in fact, hermetically sealed, and in this way serves the spider as +food for more than a week. There is at one end a little hole, which is, +no doubt, closed up after every meal. + +In my cabin, besides the common earwigs, which were not numerous, and +were seldom seen, I found there were a goodly number of scorpions, none +of which, however, were longer than two inches. I am not aware that +they did me any particular damage, further than inspiring me with horror +and disgust. It _was_ very unpleasant to put down your hand for a book, +and to find a scorpion beneath your fingers--a hard, scaly scorpion--and +then to hear him crack below your boot, and to be sensible of the horrid +odour emitted from the body: these things were _not_ pleasant. Those +scorpions which live in ships are of a brown colour, and not dangerous; +it is the large green scorpion, so common in the islands of East Africa, +which you must be cautious in handling, for children, it is said, +frequently die from the effects of this scorpion's sting. But a much +more loathsome and a really dangerous creature is the large green +centipede of the tropics. Of these things, the natives themselves have +more horror than of any serpent whatever, not excepting the common +cobra, and many a tale they have to tell you of people who have been +bitten, and have soon after gone raving mad, and so died. They are from +six to twelve inches in length, and just below the neck are armed with a +powerful pair of sharp claws, like the nails of a cat, with which they +hold on to their victim while they bite; and if once fairly fastened +into the flesh, they require to be cut out. While lying at the mouth of +the Revooma River, we had taken on board some green wood, and with it +many centipedes of a similar colour. One night, about a week +afterwards, I had turned in, and had nearly fallen asleep, when I +observed a thing on my curtain--luckily on the outside--which very +quickly made me wide awake. It was a horrid centipede, about nine +inches long. It appeared to be asleep, and had bent itself in the form +of the letter S. I could see its golden-green skin by the light of my +lamp, and its wee shiny eyes, that, I suppose, never close, and for the +moment I was almost terror-struck. I knew if I moved he would be off, +and I might get bitten another time--indeed, I never could have slept +again in my cabin, had he not been taken. The steward came at my call; +and that functionary, by dint of caution and the aid of a pair of +forceps, deposited the creature in a bottle of spirits of wine, which +stood at hand always ready to receive such specimens. I have it now +beside me; and my Scotch landlady, who seemed firmly impressed with the +idea that all my diabolical-looking specimens of lizards and various +other creeping things are the productions of sundry unhappy patients, +remarked concerning my centipede: "He maun hae been a sick and a sore +man ye took that ane oot o', doctor." + +But a worse adventure befell an engineer of ours. He was doing duty in +the stokehole, when one of these loathsome creatures actually crept up +under his pantaloons. He was an old sailor, and a cool one, and he knew +that if he attempted to kill or knock it off, the claws would be +inserted on the instant. Cautiously he rolled down his dress, and +spread a handkerchief on his leg a short distance before the centipede, +which was moving slowly and hesitatingly upwards. It was a moment of +intense excitement, both for those around him as well as for the man +himself. Slowly it advanced, once it stopped, then moved on again, and +crossed on to the handkerchief, and the engineer was saved; on which he +immediately got sick, and I was sent for, heard the story, and received +the animal, which I placed beside the other. + +More pleasant and amusing companions and cabin mates were the little +ants, a whole colony of which lived in almost every available corner of +my sanctum. Wonderfully wise they are too, and very strong, and very +proud and "clannish." Their prey is the large cockroach. If you kill +one of these, and place it in the centre of the cabin, parties of ants +troop in from every direction--I might say, a regiment from each clan; +and consequently there is a great deal of fighting and squabbling, and +not much is done, except that the cockroach is usually devoured on the +spot. If, however, the dead 'roach be placed near some corner where an +army of ants are encamped, they soon emerge from the camp in hundreds, +down they march in a stream, and proceed forthwith to carry it away. +Slowly up the bulkhead moves the huge brute, impelled by the united +force of half a thousand, and soon he is conveyed to the top. Here, +generally, there is a beam to be crossed, where the whole weight of the +giant 'roach has to be sustained by these Liliputians, with their heads +downward; and more difficult still is the rounding of the corner. Very +often, the ants here make a most egregious mistake; while hundreds are +hauling away at each leg, probably a large number get on top of the +'roach, and begin tugging away with all their might, and consequently +their burden tumbles to the deck; but the second time he is taken up, +this mistake is not made. These creatures send out regular spies, which +return to report when they have found anything worth taking to +headquarters; then the foraging-party goes out, and it is quite a sight +to see the long serpentine line, three or four deep, streaming down the +bulkhead and over the deck, and apparently having no end. They never +march straight before them; their course is always wavy; and it is all +the more strange that those coming up behind should take exactly the +same course, so that the real shape of the line of march never changes. +Perhaps this is effected by the officer-ants, which you may see, one +here, one there, all along the line. By the officer-ants I mean a +large-sized ant (nearly double), that walks along by the side of the +marching army, like ants in authority. They are black (the common ant +being brown), and very important, too, they look, and are no doubt +deeply impressed by the responsibility of their situation and duties, +running hither and thither--first back, then to the side, and sometimes +stopping for an instant with another officer, as if to give or receive +orders, and then hurrying away again. These are the ants, I have no +doubt, that are in command, and also act as engineers and scouts, for +you can always see one or two of them running about, just before the +main body comes on--probably placing signal-staffs, and otherwise +determining the line of march. They seem very energetic officers too, +and allow no obstacle to come in their way, for I have often known the +line of march to lie up one side of my white pants, over my knees, and +down the other. I sat thus once till a whole army passed over me--a +very large army it was too, and mightily tried my patience. When the +rear-guard had passed over, I got up and walked away, which must have +considerably damaged the calculations of the engineers on their march +back. + +Of the many species of flies found in my cabin, I shall merely mention +two--namely, the silly fly--which is about the size of a pin-head, and +furnished with two high wings like the sails of a Chinese junk; they +come on board with the bananas, and merit the appellation of _silly_ +from the curious habit they have of running about with their noses down, +as if earnestly looking for something which they cannot find; they run a +little way, stop, change their direction, and run a little further, stop +again, and so on, _ad infinitum_, in a manner quite amusing to any one +who has time to look at and observe them--and the hammer-legged fly (the +_Foenus_ of naturalists), which possesses two long hammer-like legs, +that stick out behind, and have a very curious appearance. This fly has +been accused of biting, but I have never found him guilty. He seems to +be continually suffering from a chronic stage of shaking-palsy. +Wherever he alights--which is as often on your nose as anywhere else--he +stands for a few seconds shaking in a manner which is quite distressing +to behold, then flies away, with his two hammers behind him, to alight +and shake on some other place--most likely your neighbour's nose. It +seems to me, indeed, that flies have a penchant for one's nose. +Nothing, too, is more annoying than those same house-flies in warm +countries. Suppose one alights on the extreme end of your nasal +apparatus, you of course drive him off; he describes two circles in the +air, and alights again on the same spot; and this you may do fifty +times, and at the fifty-first time, back he comes with a saucy hum-m, +and takes his seat again, just as if your nose was made for him to go to +roost upon, and for no other purpose at all; so that you are either +obliged to sit and smile complacently with a fly on the end of your +proboscis, or, if you are clever and supple-jointed, follow him all +round the room till you have killed him; then, probably, back you come +with a face beaming with gratification, and sit down to your book again, +when bum-m-m! there is your friend once more, and you have killed the +wrong fly. + +In an hospital, nothing is more annoying than these flies; sleep by day +is sometimes entirely out of the question, unless the patient covers his +face, which is by no means agreeable on a hot day. Mosquitoes, too, are +troublesome customers to a stranger, for they seem to prefer the blood +of a stranger to that of any one else. The mosquito is a beautiful, +feathery-horned midge, with long airy legs, and a body and wings that +tremble with their very fineness and grace. The head and shoulders are +bent downward at almost a right angle, as if the creature had fallen on +its head and broken its back; but, for all its beauty, the mosquito is a +hypocritical little scoundrel, who comes singing around you, apparently +so much at his ease, and looking so innocent and gentle, that one would +imagine butter would hardly melt in his naughty little mouth. He +alights upon your skin with such a light and fairy tread, inserts his +tube, and sucks your blood so cleverly, that the mischief is done long +before you are aware, and he is off again singing as merrily as ever. +Probably, if you look about the curtain, you may presently find him +gorged with your blood, and hardly able to fly--an unhappy little midge +now, very sick, and with all his pride fallen; so you catch and kill +him; and serve him right too! + +I should deem this chapter incomplete if I omitted to say a word about +another little member of the company in my crowded cabin--a real friend, +too, and a decided enemy to all the rest of the creeping genera about +him. I refer to a chameleon I caught in the woods and tamed. His +principal food consisted in cockroaches, which he caught very cleverly, +and which, before eating, he used to beat against the deck to soften. +He lived in a little stone-jar, which made a very cool house for him, +and to which he periodically retired to rest; and very indignant he was, +too, if any impudent cockroach, in passing, raised itself on its +fore-legs to look in. Instant pursuit was the consequence, and his +colour came and went in a dozen different hues as he seized and beat to +death the intruder on his privacy. He seemed to know me, and crawled +about me. My buttons were his chief attraction; he appeared to think +they were made for him to hang on to by the tail; and he would stand for +five minutes at a time on my shoulder, darting his tongue in every +direction at the unwary flies which came within his reach; and, upon the +whole, I found him a very useful little animal indeed. These lizards +are very common as pets among the sailors on the coast of Africa, who +keep them in queer places sometimes, as the following conversation, +which I heard between two sailors at Cape Town, will show. + +"Look here, Jack, what I've got in my 'bacca-box." + +"What is it?" said Jack--"an evil spirit?" + +"No," said the other, as unconcernedly as if it might have been an evil +spirit, but wasn't--"no! a chameleon;" which he pronounced kammy-lion. + +"Queer lion that 'ere, too," replied Jack. + +But, indeed, there are few creatures which a sailor will not attempt to +tame. + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +CONTAINING A TALE TO BANISH THE CREEPIES. + + "The noblest mind the best contentment has." + + Spenser. + +"Now," said Frank, next night (we are all assembled drinking tea on the +lawn), "after all those tales about your foreign favourites, and your +pet creepie-creepies, I think the best thing you can do is to come +nearer home and change your tactics." + +"I was dreaming about cockroaches last night," said my wife; "and you +know, dear, they are my pet aversion." + +"Yes," cried Ida; "do tell us a story to banish the creepies." + +"Well then, here goes. I'll tell you a story about a pet donkey and +Nero's son, `Hurricane Bob.' Will that do? And we'll call it--" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +JEANNIE'S BOARDING-HOUSE: A SEASIDE STORY. + +"Jeannie was an ass. I do not make this remark in any disparaging way, +for a more interesting member of the genus donkey never, I believe, +stood upon four legs. Indeed, I do not think I would be going too far +if I said that I have known many individuals not half so wise who stood +upon two. Now, although I mention Jeannie in the past tense, it is +because she is not present with me, but she is still, I believe, alive +and well, and is at this moment, I have little doubt, quietly cropping +the grass on her own green field, or gazing pensively at the ocean from +the Worthing sands. + +"I must tell you who was my travelling companion when I first made the +acquaintance of the heroine of this little sketch. He was a very large +jet-black Newfoundland dog. Such a fellow! And with such a coat too, +not one curly hair in all his jacket, all as straight as quills, and as +sheeny as the finest satin. Hurricane Bob can play in the sea, toying +with the waves for hours, and still not be wet quite to the skin, and +when he comes on shore again he just gives himself a shake or two, +buckets of water fly in all directions, for the time being he looks like +an animated mop, then away he feathers across the sands, and in a few +minutes he is dry enough for the drawing-room. Bob is quite an +aristocrat in his own way, and every inch a gentleman--one glance at his +beautiful face and his wide, thoughtful eyes would convince you of +this--nor, on being introduced to him, would you be surprised to be told +that not only is he a winner of many prizes himself, but that his father +is a champion dog, and his grandfather before him as well. I do not +think that Hurricane Bob--or Master Robert, as we call him on high days +and holidays--has a single fault, unless probably the habit he has of +going tearing along the streets and roads, when out for a walk, at the +rate of twenty miles an hour. It is this habit which has gained for him +the sobriquet of Hurricane; it is sometimes a little awkward for the +lieges, but to his credit be it said that whenever he runs down a little +boy or girl he never fails to stop and apologise on the spot, licking +the hands of the prostrate one, and saying, as plainly as a dog can +speak, `There, there, I didn't really mean to hurt you, and you'll be +all right again in a minute.' + +"We called the place where Jeannie lived, at Worthing, Jeannie's +boarding-house. It was a nice roomy stable, with a coach-house, a yard +for exercise, and a loose-box. The door of the stable was always left +open at Jeannie's request, so that she could go out and in as she +pleased. The loose-box was told off to Hurricane Bob; he had a dish of +nice clean water, a box to hold his dog-biscuits, and plenty of dry +straw, so he was as happy as a king. + +"When his landlady, Jeannie, first saw him she sniffed him all over, +while Bob looked up in her face. + +"`Just you be careful, old lady,' said Bob, `for I might be tempted to +catch you by the nose.' + +"But Jeannie was satisfied. + +"`You'll do, doggie,' she said; `there doesn't seem to be an ounce of +real harm in your whole composition.' + +"The other members of Jeannie's boarding establishment were about twenty +hens, old and young, more useful perhaps than ornamental. Now, any +other landlady in the world would have had a bad time of it with this +ill-bred feathered squad, for they were far from polite to her, and +constantly grumbling about their food; they said they hadn't enough of +it, and that it was not good what they did get. Then they were +continually squabbling or fighting with each other; the little fowls +always stole all the big pieces, and the big fowls chased and pecked the +little ones all round the yard in consequence, till their backs, under +their feathers, must have been black and blue, and they hadn't peace to +eat the portion they had stolen. `Tick, tuck,' the big fowl would say; +`tick, tuck, take that, and that; tick, tuck, that's what greed gets.' + +"But Jeannie was a philosopher, she simply looked at them with those +quiet brown eyes of hers, shook one ear, and said-- + +"`Grumble away, grumble away, I'm too well known to be afraid of ye; ye +can't bring disgrace on my hotel. Hee, haw! Haw, hee! There!' + +"Hurricane Bob paid his bill _every_ morning and every night with a +dog-biscuit. The first morning I offered Jeannie the biscuit she looked +at me. + +"`Do you take me for a dog?' she asked. Then she sniffed it. `It do +smell uncommonly nice,' she said; `I'll try it, anyhow.' So she took +the cake in her mouth, and marched into the yard; but returned almost +immediately, still holding it between her teeth. + +"`What's the correct way to eat it?' she inquired. + +"`That's what I want you to find out,' I said. + +"Poor Jeannie! she tried to break it against the door, then against the +wall, and finally against the paving stone, but it resisted all her +efforts. Then, `Oh! I know,' she cried. `You puts it on the ground, +and holes it like a turnip.' N.B.--I'm not accountable for Jeannie's +bad grammar. + +"Every morning, when I came to see Master Robert, Jeannie ran to meet +me, and put her great head under my arm for a cuddle. She called me +Arthur, but that isn't my name. She pronounced the first syllable in a +double bass key, and the second in a shrill treble. Ar--thur! Haw, +hee! Haw, hee! + +"She was funny, was Jeannie. Some mornings, as soon as she caught sight +of me, she used to go off into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, then +she would apologise. + +"`I can't help it, Arthur,' she seemed to say. `It does seem rude, I +daresay, but I really can't help it. It's the sight of you that does +it. Hee, haw! Hee, haw!' + +"One day, and one day only, Bob and his landlady nearly had a quarrel. +Jeannie, having eaten her own biscuit, burst into the loose-box, to help +the dog with his. `Ho, ho!' said Hurricane Robert, `you've come to +raise the rent, have ye? Just look at this, old lady.' As he spoke, +the dog lifted one lip, and showed such a display of alabaster teeth, +that Jeannie was glad to retire without raising the rent. + +"What was Jeannie like, did you ask? Why, straight in back and strong +in limb, with beautiful long ears to switch away the flies in summer, +with mild, intelligent eyes of hazel brown, and always a soft, smooth +patch on the top of her nose for any one to kiss who was so minded. In +winter Jeannie was rough in coat. She preferred it, she said, because +it kept out the cold, and made an excellent saddle for her three little +playmates to ride upon. Of these she was exceedingly fond, and never +more pleased and proud than when the whole three of them were on her +back at one time--wee, brown-eyed, laughing Lovat S--; young Ernie, bold +and bright and free; and little winsome Winnie C--. + +"To be sure they often fell off, but there was where the fun and the +glee lay, especially when Jeannie sometimes bent her nose to the ground +and let them all tumble on the sand in a heap. And that, you know, was +Jeannie's joke, and one that she was never tired of repeating. + +"In summer Jeannie shone, positively shone, all over like a race-horse +or a boatman beetle, and then I can tell you it was no easy matter for +her playmates to stick on her back at all. She was particularly +partial, as you have seen, to the society of human beings, and +brightened up wonderfully as soon as a friend appeared on the scene, but +I think when alone she was rather of a contemplative turn of mind. +There was a rookery not far from Jeannie's abode, and at this she never +tired gazing. + +"`Well,' said Jeannie to me one day, `they do be funny creatures, those +rooks. I don't think I should like to live up there, Ar--thur. And +they're always a-fighting too, just like my boarders be, and never a +thing do they say from morning till night but caw, caw, caw. Now if +they could only make a few remarks like this, Haw, hee! Haw, hee! Haw +hee!' + +"`Oh! don't, pray don't, Jeannie,' I cried, with my fingers in my ears. + +"And now, then, what do you think made Jeannie such a bright, loving, +and intelligent animal? Why, kindness and good treatment. + +"Dear old Jeannie, I may never gaze upon her classic countenance again, +but I shall not forget her. In my mind's eye I see her even now, as I +last beheld her. The sun had just gone down, behind a calm and silent +sea; scarcely do the waves speak as they break in ripples on the sand, +they do but whisper. And the clouds are tipped with gold and crimson, +and far away in the offing is a ship, a single ship, and these are all +the signs of life there are about, save Jeannie on the beach. Alone. + +"I wonder what she was thinking about." + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +AN EVENING SPENT AT OUR OWN FIRESIDE. + + "Well, puss," says Man, "and what can you + To benefit the public do?" + + Gay. + +"Draw round your chair," said I to Frank; "and now for a comfortable, +quiet evening." + +Frank and I had been away all the afternoon, on one of our long rambles. +Very pleasantly shone the morning sun, that had wooed us away; the +ground was frozen hard as iron, there wasn't a cloud in himmel's blue, +nor a breath of wind from one direction or another. But towards evening +a change had come suddenly over the spirit of the day's dream, which +found my friend and I still a goodly two hours' stride from home. Heavy +grey clouds had come trooping up from the north-east, borne along on the +fierce fleet wings of a ten-knot breeze; then the snow had come on, such +snow as seldom falls in "bonnie Berks;" and soon we were surrounded by +one of the wildest wintry nights ever I remember. Talking was +impossible; we could but clutch our sticks and boldly hurry onwards, +while the wind sighed and roared through the telegraph-wires, and the +snow sifted angrily through the leafless hedgerows. It was a night that +none save a healthy man could have faced. + +Ah! but didn't the light from the cosy, red-curtained window, streaming +over our own snow-silvered lawn, amply reward us at last; while the nice +dinner quite put the climax on our happiness. + +"Now for your story," said Frank. "Now for my story," I replied; "I +will call it--" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE FIRESIDE FAVOURITE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. + +"The lines of some cats fall in pleasant places. Mine have. I'm the +fireside favourite, I'm the parlour pet. I'm the _beau ideal_, so my +mistress says, of what every decent, respectable, well-trained cat ought +to be--and I looked in the glass and found it so. But pray don't think +that I am vain because I happen to know the usages of polite society, +and the uses and abuses of the looking-glass. No cat, in my opinion, +with any claim to the dignity of lady-puss, would think of washing her +face unless in front of a plate-glass mirror. But I will not soon +forget the day I first knew what a looking-glass meant. I was then only +a silly little mite of a kitten, of a highly inquiring turn of mind. +Well, one evening my young mistress was going to a ball, and before she +went she spent about three hours in her dressing-room, doing something, +and then she came down to the parlour, looking more like an angel than +ever I had seen her. Oh, how she was dressed, to be sure. And she had +little bunches of flowers stuck on all over her dress, and I wanted to +play at `mousies' with them; but she wouldn't wait, she just kissed me +and bade me be a good kitten and not run up the curtains, and then off +she went. Yes; I meant to be an awfully good little kitten--but first +and foremost I meant to see the interior of that mysterious room. By +good luck the door was ajar, so in I popped at once, and made direct for +the table. Such a display of beautiful things I had never seen before. +I didn't know what they all meant then, but I do now, for, mind you, I +will soon be twenty years of age. But I got great fun on that table. I +tried the gold rings on my nose, and the earrings on my toes, and I +knocked off the lid of a powder-box, and scattered the crimson contents +all abroad. Then I had a fearful battle with a puff which I unearthed +from another box. During the fight a bottle of ylang-ylang went down. +I didn't care a bit. Crash went a bottle of flower-water next. I +regarded it not. I fought the puff till it took refuge on the floor. +Then I paused, wondering what I should do next, when behold! right in +front of me and looking through a square of glass, and apparently +wondering what _it_ should do next, was the ugliest little wretch of a +kitten ever you saw in your life--I marched up to it as brave as a +button, and it had the audacity to come and meet me. + +"`You ugly, deformed little thing,' I cried, `what do you want in my +lady's room?' + +"`The same to you,' it seemed to say, `and many of them.' + +"`For two pins,' I continued, `I would scratch your nasty little eyes +out--yah--fuss-s!' + +"`Yah--fuss-s!' replied the foe, lifting its left paw as I lifted my +right. + +"This was too much. I crept round the corner to give her a cuff. She +wasn't there! I came back, and there she was as brazen as ever. I +tried this game on several times, but couldn't catch her. `Then,' says +I, `you'll catch it where you stand, in spite of the pane of glass!' + +"I struck straight from the shoulder, and with a will too. Down went +the glass, and I found I had been fighting all the time with my own +reflection. Funny, wasn't it? + +"When mistress came home there was such a row. But she was sensible, +and didn't beat me. She took me upstairs, and showed me what I had +done, and looked so vexed that I was sorry too. `It is my own fault, +though,' she said; `I ought to have shut the door.' + +"She presented me with a looking-glass soon after this, and it is quite +surprising how my opinion of that strange kitten in the mirror altered +after that. I thought now I had never seen such a lovely thing, and I +was never tired looking at it. No more I had. But first impressions +_are_ so erroneous, you know. + +"My dear mother is dead and gone years ago--of course, considering my +age, you won't marvel at that; and my young mistress is married long, +long ago, and has a grown family, who are all as kind as kind can be to +old Tom, as they facetiously call me. And so they were to my mother, +who, I may tell you, was only three days in her last illness, and gave +up the ghost on a file of old newspapers (than which nothing makes a +better bed), and is buried under the old pear-tree. + +"Dear me, how often I have wondered how other poor cats who have neither +kind master nor mistress manage to live. But, the poor creatures, they +are so ignorant--badly-bred, you know. Why, only the other day the +young master brought home a poor little cat he had found starving in the +street. Well, I never in all my life saw such an ill-mannered, rude +little wretch, for no sooner had it got itself stuffed with the best +fare in the house, than it made a deliberate attempt to steal the +canary. There was gratitude for you! Now, mind, I don't say that _I_ +shouldn't like to eat the canary, but I never have taken our own birds-- +no--always the neighbours'. I did, just once, fly at our own canary's +cage when I was quite a wee cat, but I didn't know any better. And what +do you think my mistress did? Why, she took the bird out of the cage +and popped me in; and there I was, all day long, a prisoner, with +nothing for dinner but seeds and water, and the canary flying about the +room and doing what it liked, even helping itself to my milk. I never +forgot that. + +"Some cats, you know, are arrant thieves, and I don't wonder at it, the +way they are kicked and cuffed about, put out all night, and never +offered food or water. I would steal myself if I were used like that, +wouldn't you, madam? But I have my two meals a day, regularly; and I +have a nice double saucer, which stands beside my mirror, and one end +contains nice milk and the other clean water, and I don't know which I +like the best. When I am downright thirsty, the water is so nice; but +at times I am hungry and thirsty both, if you can understand me--then I +drink the milk. At times I am allowed to sit on the table when my +mistress is at breakfast, and I often put out my paw, ever so gently, +and help myself to a morsel from her plate; but I wouldn't do it when +she isn't looking. The other day I took a fancy to a nice smelt, and I +just went and told my mistress and led her to the kitchen, and I got +what I wanted at once. + +"I am never put out at night. I have always the softest and warmest of +beds, and in winter, towards morning, when the fire goes out, I go +upstairs and creep (singing loudly to let her know it is I) into my +mistress's arms. + +"If I want to go on the tiles any night, I have only to ask. A fellow +does want to go on the tiles now and then, doesn't he? Oh, it is a +jolly thing, is a night on the tiles! One of these days I may give you +my experience of life on the tiles, and then you'll know all about it-- +in the meantime, madam, you may try it yourself. Let it be moonlight, +and be cautious, you know, for, as you have only two feet, you will feel +rather awkward at first. + +"Did I ever know what it was to be hungry? Yes, indeed, once I did; and +I'm now going to tell you of the saddest experience in all my long life. +You see it happened like this. It was autumn; I was then about five +years of age, and a finer-looking Tom, I could see by my mirror, never +trod on four legs. For some days I had observed an unusual bustle both +upstairs and downstairs. The servants, especially, seemed all off their +heads, and did nothing but open doors and shut them, and nail up things +in large boxes, and drink beer and eat cold meat whenever they stood on +end. What was up, I wondered? Went and asked my mistress. `Off to the +seaside, pussy Tom,' said she; `and you're going too, if you're good.' +I determined to be good, and not make faces at the canary. But one +night I had been out rather late at a cat-concert, and, as usual, came +home with the milk in the morning. In order to make sure of a good +sleep I went upstairs to an unused attic, as was my wont, and fell +asleep on an old pillow. How long I slept I shall never know, but it +must have been far on in the day when I awoke, feeling hungry enough to +eat a hunter. As I trotted downstairs the first thing that alarmed me +was the unusual stillness. I mewed, and a thousand echoes seemed to +mock me. The ticking of the old clock on the stairs had never sounded +to me so loud and clear before. I went, one by one, into every room. +Nothing in any of them but the stillness, apparently, of death and +desolation. The blinds were all down, and I could even hear the mice +nibbling behind the wainscot. + +"My heart felt like a great cold lump of lead, as the sad truth flashed +upon my mind--my kind mistress had gone, with all the family, and I was +left, forgotten, deserted! My first endeavour was to find my way out. +Had I succeeded, even then I would have found my mistress, for cats have +an instinct you little wot of. But every door and window was fastened, +and there wasn't a hole left which a rat could have crept through. + +"What nights and days of misery followed!--it makes me shudder to think +of them even now. + +"For the first few days I did not suffer much from hunger. There were +crumbs left by the servants, and occasionally a mouse crept out from the +kitchen fender, and I had that. But by the fifth day the crumbs had all +gone, and with them the mice, too, had disappeared. They nibbled no +more in the cupboard nor behind the wainscot; and as the clock had run +down there wasn't a sound in the old house by night or by day. I now +began to suffer both from hunger and thirst. I spent my time either +mewing piteously at the hall-door, or roaming purposelessly through the +empty house, or watching, watching, faint and wearily, for the mice that +never came. Perhaps the most bitter part of my sufferings just then was +the thought that would keep obtruding itself on my mind, that for all +the love with which I had loved my mistress, and the faithfulness with +which I had served her, she had gone away, and left, me to die all alone +in the deserted house. Me, too, who would have laid down my life to +please her had she only stayed near me. + +"How slowly the time dragged on--how long and dreary the days, how +terrible the nights! Perhaps it was when I was at my very worst, that I +happened to be standing close by my empty saucer, and in front of my +mirror. At that time I was almost too weak to walk; I tottered on my +feet, and my head swam and moved from side to side when I tried to look +at anything. Suddenly I started. Could that wild, attenuated image in +the mirror be my reflection? How it glared upon me from its glassy +eyes! And now I knew it could not be mine, but some dreadful thing sent +to torture me. For as I gazed it uttered a yell--mournful, prolonged, +unearthly--and dashed at me through and out from the mirror. For some +time we seemed to writhe together in agony on the carpet. Then up again +we started, the mirror-fiend and I. `Follow me fast!' it seemed to cry, +and I was impelled to follow. Wherever it was, there was I. How it +tore up and down the house, yelling as it went and tearing everything in +its way! How it rushed half up the chimney, and was dashed back again +by invisible hands! How it flung itself, half blind and bleeding, at +the Venetian blinds, and how madly it tried again to escape into the +mirror and shivered the glass! Then mills began in my head--mills and +machinery--and the roar of running waters. Then I found myself walking +all alone in a green and beautiful meadow, with a blue sky overhead and +birds and butterflies all about, a cool breeze fanning my brow, and, +better than all, _water_, pure, and clear, and cool, meandering over +brown smooth pebbles, beside which the minnows chased the sunbeams. And +I drank--and slept. + +"When I awoke, I found myself lying on the mat in the hall, and the +sunlight shimmering in through the stained glass, and falling in patches +of green and crimson on the floor. Very cold now, but quiet and +sensible. There was a large hole in my side, and blood was all about, +so I must have, in my delirium, _torn the flesh from my own ribs and +devoured it_. [Note 1.] + +"I knew now that death was come, and would set me free at last. + +"Then the noise of wheels in my ears, and the sound of human voices; +then a blank; and then some one pouring something down my throat; and I +opened my eyes and beheld my dear young mistress. How she was weeping! +The sight of her sorrow would have melted your heart. `Oh, pussy, +pussy, do not die!' she was crying. + +"Pussy didn't die; but till this day I believe it was only to please my +dear mistress I crept back again to life and love. + +"I'm very old now, and my thoughts dwell mostly in the past, and I like +a cheery fire and a drop of warm milk better than ever. But I have all +my faculties and all my comforts. We have other cats in the house, but +I never feel jealous, for my mistress, look you, loves me better than +all the cats in the kingdom--fact--she told me so." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Not overdrawn. A case of the kind actually occurred some years +ago in the new town of Edinburgh.--The Author. + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +"GREYFRIARS' BOBBY"--"PEPPER"--THE BLIND FIDDLER'S DOG. + + "Alas! for love if this were all, + And nought beyond on earth." + +"A good story cannot be too often told," said Frank one evening. + +"Well, I doubt that very much," said my wife; "there is a probability of +a good story being spoiled by over-recital." + +"I'm of the same opinion," I assented; "but as I intend the story of +`Greyfriars' Bobby' to be printed in my next book, I will just read it +over to you as I have written it." + +I had fain hoped, I began, to find out something of Bobby's antecedents, +and something about the private history of the poor man Grey, who died +long before Bobby became a hero in the eyes of the world, and attracted +the kindly notice of the good and noble William Chambers, then Lord +Provost of Edinburgh. I have been unable to do so, however; even an +advertisement in a local paper failed to elicit the information I so +much desired. + +What Mr Grey was, or who he was, no one can tell me. Some years ago, +runs an account of this loving, faithful dog, a stranger arrived in +Edinburgh bringing with him a little rough-haired dog, that slept in the +same room with him, and followed him in his walks, but no one knew who +the stranger was, or whence he came. + +The following account of Bobby is culled from the _Animal World_ of the +second of May, 1870:-- + +"It is reported that Bobby is a small rough Scotch terrier, grizzled +black, with tan feet and nose; and his story runs thus:--More than +eleven years ago, a poor man named Grey died, and was buried in the old +Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh. His grave is now levelled by time, +and nothing marks it. But the spot had not been forgotten by his +faithful dog. James Brown, the old curator, remembers the funeral well, +and that Bobby was one of the most conspicuous of the mourners. James +found the dog lying on the grave the next morning; and as dogs are not +admitted he turned him out. The second morning the same; the third +morning, though cold and wet, there he was, shivering. The did man took +pity on him and fed him. This convinced the dog that he had a right +there. Sergeant Scott, R.E., allowed him his board for a length of +time, but for more than nine years he had been regularly fed by Mr +Trail, who keeps a restaurant close by. Bobby is regular in his calls, +being guided by the mid-day gun. On the occasion of the new dog-tax +being raised, many persons, the writer amongst the number, wrote to be +allowed to pay for Bobby, but the Lord Provost of Edinburgh exempted +him, and, to mark his admiration of fidelity, presented him with a +handsome collar, with brass nails, and an inscription:--`Greyfriars' +Bobby, presented to him by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 1867.' He has +long been an object of curiosity, and his constant appearance in the +graveyard has led to numberless inquiries about him. Many efforts have +been made to entice him away, but unsuccessfully, and he still clings to +the consecrated spot, and from 1861 to the present time he has kept +watch thereon. Upon his melancholy couch Bobby hears the bells toll the +approach of new inmates to the sepulchres around and about him; and as +the procession solemnly passes, who shall say that the ceremony enacted +over his dead master does not reappear before him? He sees the sobs and +tears of the bereaved, and do not these remind him of the day when he +stood with other mourners over the coffin which contained everything he +loved on earth? In that clerical voice he rehears those slow and +impressive tones which consigned his master's body to ashes and dust. +All these reminiscences are surely felt more or less; and yet Bobby, +trustful, patient, enduring, continues to wait on the spot sacred to the +memory of poor Grey. Poor Grey, did we say? Why, hundreds of the +wealthiest amongst us would give a fortune to have placed upon their +tombs a living monument of honour like this!--testifying through long +years and the bitterest winters (with a blessed moral for mankind) that +death cannot dissolve that love which love alone can evoke. When our +eye runs over the gravestone records of departed goodness, we are +sometimes sceptical whether there is not much mockery in many of the +inscriptions, though the friends of the deceased have charitably erected +an outward mark of their esteem. But here we have a monument that knows +neither hypocrisy nor conventional respect, which appeals to us not in +marble (the work of men's hands), but in the flesh and blood of _a +living creature that cannot be tempted to desert his trust_--in the +devotion of a friend whose short wanderings to and fro prove how truly +he gravitates to one yard of earth only--in the determination of a +sentinel _who means to die at his post_. + + "I hear they say 'tis very lung + That years hae come and gane, + Sin' first they put my maister here, + An' grat an' left him lane. + I could na, an' I did na gang, + For a' they vexed me sair, + An' said sae bauld that they nor + Should ever see him mair. + + "I ken he's near me a' the while, + An' I will see him yet; + For a' my life he tended me. + An' noo he'll not forget. + Some blithesome day I'll hear his step; + There'll be nae kindred near; + For a' they grat, they gaed awa',-- + But he shall find _me_ here. + + "Is time sae lang?--I dinna mind; + Is't cauld?--I canna feel; + He's near me, and he'll come to me, + An' sae 'tis very weel. + I thank ye a' that are sae kind, + As feed an' mak me braw; + Ye're unco gude, but ye're no _him_-- + Ye'll no wile me awa'. + + "I'll bide an' hope!--Do ye the same; + For ance I heard that ye + Had ay a Master that ye loo'd, + An' yet ye might na see; + A Master, too, that car'd for ye, + (O, sure ye winna flee!) + That's wearying to see ye noo--. + Ye'll no be waur than me?" + +In the above account the words which I have italicised should be noted, +viz, "a living creature that cannot be tempted to desert his trust, who +means to die at his post." These words were in a sense prophetic, for +Bobby never did desert the graveyard where his master's remains lie +buried, until death stepped in to relieve his sorrows. + +The following interesting letter is from Bobby's guardian, Mr Trail, of +Greyfriars Place, Edinburgh, who will, I feel sure, pardon the liberty I +take in publishing it _in extenso_:-- + +"In answer to your note in reference to Greyfriars Bobby, I send the +following extracts which state correctly the dates and other particulars +concerning the little dog:--" + +_Scotsman_, January 17th, 1872:--Many will be sorry to hear that the +poor but interesting dog, Greyfriars Bobby, died on Sunday evening, +January 14th, 1872. Every kind attention was paid to him in his last +days by his guardian Mr Trail, who has had him buried in a flower plot +near the Greyfriars Church. His collar, a gift from Lord Provost +Chambers, has been deposited in the office at the church gate. Mr +Brodie has successfully modelled the figure of Greyfriars Bobby, which +is to surmount the very handsome memorial to be erected by the +munificence of Baroness Burdett-Coutts. + + "`Edinburgh Veterinary College, _March_, 1872. + + "`To those who may feel interested in the history of the late + Greyfriars Bobby, I may state that he suffered from disease of a + cancerous nature affecting the whole of the lower jaw. + + "`Thomas Wallet. + + "`Professor of Animal Pathology.' + +"There are several notices of an interesting nature in the following +numbers of the _Animal World_ concerning Greyfriars Bobby:--November +1st, 1869; May 2nd, 1870; February 1st, 1872; March 2nd, 1874. + +"The fountain is erected at the end of George the Fourth Bridge, near +the entrance to the Greyfriars churchyard. It is of Westmoreland +granite, and bears the following inscription:--`A tribute to the +affectionate fidelity of Greyfriars Bobby.' + +"In 1858, this faithful dog followed the remains of his master to +Greyfriars churchyard, and lingered near the spot until his death in +1872. Old James Brown died in the autumn of 1868. There is no +tombstone on the grave of Bobby's master. Greyfriars Bobby was buried +in the flower plot near the stained-glass window of the church, and +opposite the gate." + +Poor Bobby, then, passed away on a Sunday evening, after watching near +the grave for fourteen long years. He died of a cancerous affection of +the lower jaw, brought on, doubtless, from the constant resting of his +chin on the cold earth. I trust he did not suffer much. I feel +convinced that Bobby is happy now; but no stone marks the humble grave +where Bobby's master lies. I wish it were otherwise, for surely there +must have been good in the breast of that man whom a dog loved so +dearly, and to whose memory he was faithful to the end. + +The picture of Greyfriars Bobby here given is said to be a very good +one, see page 239. You can hardly look at that wistful, pitiful little +countenance, all rough and unkempt as it is, without _feeling_ the whole +truth of the story of Bobby's faithfulness and love. + +"Ah!" said Frank, when I had finished, "dogs are wonderful creatures." + +"No one knows how wonderful, Frank," I said. "By the way, did ever you +hear of, or read the account of, poor young Gough and his dog? The +dog's master perished while attempting to climb the mountain of +Helvellyn. There had been a fall of snow, which partly hid the path and +made the ascent dangerous. It was never known whether he was killed by +a fall or died of hunger. Three months went by before his body was +found, during which time it was watched over by a faithful dog which Mr +Gough had with him at the time of the accident. The fidelity of the dog +was the subject of a poem which Wordsworth wrote, beginning:-- + + "`A barking sound the shepherd hears,' etc. + +"And now, Ida, I'll change the tone of my chapter into a less doleful +ditty, and tell you about another Scotch, or rather Skye-terrier, who +was the means, in the hands of Providence, of saving life in a somewhat +remarkable manner. Though I give the story partly in my own words, it +was communicated to me by a lady of rank, who is willing to vouch for +the authenticity of the incident." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"PEPPER." + +Pepper was our hero's name. And Pepper was a dog; but I am unable to +tell you anything about his birth or pedigree. I do not even know who +Pepper's father was, and I don't think Pepper knew himself or cared much +either; but had you seen him you would have had no hesitation in +pronouncing him one of the handsomest little Skye-terriers ever you had +beheld. + +Pepper was presented to his mistress, the Hon. Mrs C--, by her +mother-in-law, the late Lady Dun D--, and soon became a great favourite +both with her and all the family. He was so cleanly in his habits, so +brave and knightly, so very polite, and had a happy mixture of drollery +and decorum about him which was quite charming! Every one liked Pepper. +But "liked" is really not the proper word to express the strong +affection which the lady portion of the household felt for him. They +loved Pepper. That's better. He was to them the "dearest and best +fellow" in the world. + +But woe is me that the best of friends must part. And so it came to +pass that Pepper's loving mistress had to go to town on business, or +pleasure, or perhaps a mixture of both. + +Now, everybody knows that the great wondrous world of London isn't the +place to keep dogs in, that is, if one wishes to see them truly happy +and comfortable. For as they don't wear shoes, as human beings do, they +find the hard, stony streets very punishing to their poor little soft +feet. Then they miss the green fields in which they used to romp, the +hawthorn fences near which they used to find the hedgehog and mole, the +crystal streams at which they were wont to quench their thirst, and the +ponds in which they bathed or swam. Besides, there is danger for dogs +in London. The danger of losing their way, the danger of being stolen, +and the still greater danger of being run over by carts or carriages. +But that isn't all, for in the country you can keep even a long-haired +Skye clean--clean enough, indeed, to sleep on the hearthrug, or even +curl himself up on ottoman or couch, without his leaving any more mark +or trace than my lady's muff or the Persian pussy does; but a +Skye-terrier in London is quite a different piece of furniture. London +mud is proverbially black and sticky, and when a Skye gets thoroughly +soused in it, why, not to put too fine a point on it, he isn't just the +sort of pet one would care to put under his head as a pillow. + +Taking Pepper to London, therefore, would have involved endless washings +of him, the risk of his catching cold, and, dreadful thought! the risk +of offending the servants. True, he might be kept to the kitchen, but +banished from the society of his dear mistress, and compelled to +associate with servants and the kitchen cat; why, poor little Pepper +would simply have broken his heart. + +So the question came to be asked-- + +"Maggie, dear, what _shall_ we do with Pepsy?" + +"Oh! I have it," said Maggie; "send him down to Brighton on a visit to +dear Mrs W--y; she is such a kind creature, knows all the ways of +animals so well; and, moreover, Pepper is on the best of terms with her +already." + +So the proposal was agreed to, and a few days afterwards Mrs W--y +received her little visitor very graciously indeed, and Pepper was +pleased to express his approval of the welcome accorded him, and soon +settled down, and became very happy in his Brighton home. His greatest +delight was going out with his temporary mistress for a ramble; there +was so much to be seen and inquired into, so many pretty children who +petted him, so many ladies who admired him, and so many little doggies +to see and talk to and exchange opinions on canine politics. But Pepper +used to express his delight at going for a walk in a way which his new +mistress deemed anything but dignified. People don't generally care +about having all eyes directed towards them on a public thoroughfare +like the Brighton esplanade, or King's Road. But Pepper didn't care a +bark who looked at him. He was intoxicated with joy, and didn't mind +who knew it; consequently, he used, when taken out, to go through a +series of the most wonderful acrobatic evolutions ever seen at a seaside +watering-place, or anywhere else. He jumped and barked, and chased his +tail, rolled and tumbled, leapt clean over his own head and back again, +and even made insane attempts to jump down his own throat. Inside, +Pepper was content to romp and roll on the floor with a pet guinea-pig, +and chase it or be chased by it round and round the room, or tenderly +play with some white mice; but no sooner was his nose outside the garden +gate, than Pepper felt himself in duty bound to take leave of his senses +without giving a moment's warning, and conduct himself in every +particular just like a daft doggie, and had there been a lunatic asylum +at Brighton for caninity, I haven't a doubt that Pepper would have soon +found himself an inmate of it. + +One day when out walking, Pepper met a little long-haired dog about his +own size and shape, but whereas Pepper was dressed like a gentleman +Skye, in coat of hodden-grey, this little fellow was more like a merry +man at a country fair, or a clown at a circus. He had been originally +white, pure white, but his master had dyed him, and now he appeared in a +blue body, a magenta tail, and ears of brightest green. + +"I say, mistress," said Pepper, looking up and addressing the lady who +had charge of him, "did you--ever--in--all--your--born--days--see such a +fright as that?" + +"Hullo!" he continued, talking to the little dog himself, "who let you +out like that?" + +"Well," replied the new-comer, "I dare say I do look a little odd, but +you'll get used to me by-and-by." + +"Used to you?" cried Pepper--"never! You are a disgrace to canine +society." + +"The fact is," said the other, looking somewhat ashamed "my master is a +dyer, and he does me up like this just by way of advertising, you know." + +"Your master a dyer," cried Pepper, "then you, too, shall die. Can you +fight? I'm full of it. Come, we must have it out." + +"Come back, Pepper, come back, sir!" cried his mistress. But for once +Pepper disobeyed; he flew at that funny dog, and in a few minutes the +air was filled with the blue and magenta fluff, that the Skye tore out +of his antagonist. The combat ended in a complete victory for Pepper. +He routed his assailant, and finally chased him off the esplanade. + +Pepper's life at the seaside was a very happy one, or would have been +except for the dyed dog, that he made a point of giving instant chase +to, whenever he saw him. + +Pepper next turned up in Wales. Sir B. N--had taken a lovely old +mansion between C--n and Ll--o, far removed from any other houses, and +quite amongst the hills, and after seeing his wife and sister settled in +the new abode, he went off to Scotland. A week after his departure, the +two ladies got up a small picnic to Dolbadran Castle, whose ruins stand +upon a steep rock overhanging the lake. Pepper of course accompanied +the tourists, and the whole party returned at night rather fatigued. +Mrs C--went to bed, and soon fell into a sound sleep, from which she +was aroused by Pepper; he was barking at the bedside. She got up, gave +him some water, and returned to bed, but Pepper continued to bark and +run about the room in a very strange way; he seized the bedclothes, and +pulled at them violently. So she put him outside the door in a long +passage, which was closed at the other end by a thick green-baize +covered door. + +Poor Mrs C--was fated to have no rest. Pepper barked louder than ever, +he tore at the door, and scratched as if he wished to pull it down; so +his mistress again left her couch, and taking up a small riding-whip, +proceeded to administer what she thought to be well-merited correction. + +Pepper did not appear to care for the whip at all; he only barked the +louder, and jumped up wilder; he even caught Mrs C--'s nightdress in +his mouth, and attempted to drag her on towards the end of the passage. + +You must be going mad, she thought. I'll put you out of the house, for +you will alarm the whole establishment; and thus thinking, she returned, +followed by Pepper, who continued to clutch at her garments, into her +room, put on her dressing-gown, and proceeded to carry her intention +into effect. + +Directly she opened the door at the end of the passage, she saw a bright +light streaming from a sort of ante-room at the top of the staircase, on +the opposite side of the corridor, and at the same moment became +sensible of a strange smell of burning wood. + +She flew across, and was nearly blinded by the smoke that burst forth +immediately the ante-room door was opened. The whole house was on fire, +and it was with considerable difficulty that Mrs C--, Lady N--, and the +domestics, escaped from the burning mass. + +Had Mrs C--been five minutes later before discovering the flames all +must have perished; for there was a great quantity of wood-work in the +house, and it burnt rapidly. + +It matters little how the fire in this case originated, the fact remains +that this Skye-terrier, Pepper, was the first to discover it, and his +wonderful sagacity and determination, combined to save his friends from +a fearful death. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Ida," said Frank, refilling his pipe, "you are beginning to wink." + +"It is time you were in bed, Ida," said my wife. + +"Oh! but I do want to hear you read what you wrote yesterday about the +poor blind fiddler's dog," cried Ida. + +"Well, then," I said, "we will bring the little dog on the boards, and +make him speak a piece himself, and this will be positively the last +story or anecdote to-night." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE BLIND FIDDLER'S DOG. + +The blind man's dog commences in doggerel verse:-- + + "It really is amusing to hear how some dogs brag, + And walk about and swagger, with tails and ears a-wag,-- + How they boast about their prizes and the shows they have been at, + And their coats so crisp and curly, or bodies sleek and fat, + Crying, There's no mistake about it, for judges all agree, + We're the champion dogs of England, by points and pedigree." + +Heigho! I wonder what I am, then. Let me consider, I am a poor blind +fiddler's dog, to begin with; but of course that is only a trade. I +asked "Bit-o'-Fun" the other day what breed I was. Bit-o'-Fun, I should +tell you, is a champion greyhound, and not at all an unkind dog, only +just a little haughty and proud, as becomes her exalted station in life. +She was talking about the large number of prizes she had won for her +master at the various shows she had been at. + +"What breed do you think I am?" I asked her. Bit-o'-Fun laughed. + +"Well, little Fiddler," she replied, looking down at me with one eye, "I +should say you were what we gentry call a mongrel." + +"Is that something very nice?" I inquired. "Do I come of a high +family, now?" + +Bit-o'-Fun laughed now till the tears came into her eyes. + +"Family!" she cried. "Yes, Fiddler, you have a deal of family in your +blood--all families, in fact. You are partly Skye and partly bulldog, +and partly collie and partly pug." + +"Oh, stop!" I cried; "you will make me too proud." + +But Bit-o'-Fun went on-- + +"Your head, Fiddler, is decidedly Scotch; your legs are Irish--awfully +Irish; you are tulip-eared, ring-tailed, and your feather--" + +"My feather!" I cried, looking round at my back. "You never mean to +say I have got feathers." + +"Your hair, then, goosie; feather is the technical term. Your feather +is flat, decidedly flat. And, in fact, you're a most wonderful specimen +altogether. That's your breed." + +I never felt so proud in all my life before. + +"And you're a great beauty, Bit-o'-Fun," I said; "but aren't your legs +rather long for your body?" + +"Oh, no!" replied Bit-o'-Fun; "there isn't a morsel too much daylight +under me." + +"And wouldn't you like to have a nice long coat like mine?" + +"Well, no," said Bit-o'-Fun--"that is, yes, you know; but it wouldn't +suit so well in running, you see. Look at my head, how it is formed to +cleave the wind. Look at my tail, again; that is what I steer with." + +"Oh! you're perfection itself, I know," said I. "Pray how many prizes +have you taken?" + +"Well," answered the greyhound, "I've had over fifty pound-pieces of +beef-steak and from twenty to thirty half-pound." + +"Do they give you beef-steak for prizes, then?" I asked. + +"Oh dear no," replied she; "but it's like this: whenever I take a first +prize my master gives me a one-pound piece of steak; if it's only a +second prize I only get half a pound, and I always get a kiss besides." + +"But supposing," I asked, "you took no prize?" + +"A thing which never happened," said Bit-o'-Fun, rather proudly. + +"But supposing?" I insisted. + +"Oh, well," she answered, "instead of being kissed and _steaked_, I +should be kicked and _Spratt-caked_, or sent to bed without my supper." + +"And do you enjoy yourself at a show?" said I. + +"Well, yes," said the greyhound; "all doggies don't, though, but I do. +And master gives me such jolly food beforehand, and grooms me every +morning, and washes me--but that isn't nice, makes one shiver so--and +then I have always such a nice bed to lie upon. Then I'm sent to the +show town in a beautiful box, and men meet me at the station with a +carriage. These men are sometimes very rough though, and talk angrily, +and carry big whips, and smell horribly of bad beer and, worse, tobacco. +One struck me once over the head. Now, if I had been doing anything I +wouldn't have minded; but I wasn't: only I served him out." + +"What did you do?" said I. + +"Why, just waited till I got a chance, then bit him through the leg. My +master just came up at the same moment, or it might have been a dear +bite to me." + +"And what is a dog-show like?" I asked. + +"Oh!" said Bit-o'-Fun, "when you enter the show-hall, there you see +hundreds and hundreds of doggies all chained up on benches. And the +noise they make, those that are new to it, is something awful. At first +I used to suffer dreadfully with headaches, but I'm used to it now. But +it is great fun to see and converse with so many pretty and intelligent +dogs, I can tell you. It is this conversation that makes all the row, +for perhaps you want to talk with a doggie quite at the other end of the +hall, and so you have to roar until you are hoarse. What do we speak +about? Well, about our masters, and our points, and our food and +exploits, and we abuse the judges, and wonder whether all the funny +people we see have souls the same as we have, and so on. I have often +thought what fun it would be if one of us were to break his chain some +night, and let all the other doggies loose. Oh, wouldn't we have a ball +just! + +"Well, we are taken out in batches to be judged, and are led round and +round in a ring, while two or three ugly men, with hooks in their hands +and ribbons in their buttonholes, shake their heads and examine us. +That is the time I look my proudest. I cock my ears, straighten my +tail, walk like a princess, and bow like a duchess, for I know that the +eyes of all the world are on me, and, more than that, my master's eyes. +And then when they hang the beautiful ticket around my neck, oh, ain't I +glad just! But still I can't help feeling for the poor doggies who +don't get any prize, they look so woe-begone and downhearted. + +"But managers might do lots to make us more comfortable, by feeding us +more regularly, and giving us better food and more water. Oh, I've +often had my tongue hanging out, and feeling like a bit of sand-paper +for want of a draught of pure water at a country show. And I've been at +shows where they never gave us food, and no shelter from the scorching +sun or the thunder-shower. Again, they ought to lead us all out +occasionally, if only for five minutes, just to stretch our poor cramped +legs. But they don't, and it is very cruel. Sometimes, too, the people +tease us. I don't mind a pretty child patting me on the head, nor I +don't object to a sweet young lady bending over me and letting her long +silky curls fall over my shoulder; but there are gawky young men, who +come round and prod us with their sticks; and silly old ladies, who +prick us with their parasols, and say, `Get up, sir, and show yourself.' +You've heard of my friend `Tell,' the champion Saint Bernard, I dare +say. No? Oh, I forgot; of course you wouldn't. But, at any rate, one +day a fat, podgy lady, vulgarly bedecked in satin and gold, goes up to +Tell and points her splendid white parasol right at his chest. `Get +up,' says she, `and show yourself.' Now Tell hasn't the best of tempers +at any time. So he did get up, and quickly, too, and showed his teeth +and bit; and if his chain hadn't been as short as his temper it would +have been a sad thing for Mrs Podgy. As it was, he collared the +parasol, and proceeded at once to turn it into toothpicks and rags, and +what is more, too, he kept the pieces. So you see the life even of a +show-dog has its drawbacks." + +"How exceedingly interesting!" said I; "wouldn't I like to be a +champion! Do you think now, Bit-o'-Fun, I would have any chance?" + +"Well, you see," said Bit-o'-Fun, smiling in her pleasant way, "there +isn't a class at present for Castle Hill collies." + +"What?" said I. "I thought you said a while ago I was a high-bred +mongrel?" + +"Yes, yes," said Bit-o'-Fun; "mongrel, or Castle Hill collie; it's all +the same, you know." + +"You're very learned, Bit-o'-Fun," I continued. "Now tell me this, what +do they mean by judging by points?" + +"Well, you see," replied Bit-o'-Fun, with a comical twinkle in her eye, +"the judge goes round, and he says, `We'll give this dog ten points for +his head,' and sticks in ten pins; and so many for his tail, and sticks +in so many pins in his tail, and his coat and legs, and so on, and does +the same with the other dogs, and the dog who has most pins in him wins +the prize. Do you understand?" + +"Yes," I replied; "you put it as plain as a book. But it is queer, and +I wouldn't like the pins; I'm sure I should bite." + +"Ha! ha! ha!" roared "Bill," the butcher's bull-and-terrier. I knew it +was he before I looked round, for he is a nasty vulgar thing, and +sometimes he bites me. "Ha! ha! ha!" he laughed again. "Good-morning, +Bit-o'-Fun. Whatever have you been telling that little fool of a +Fiddler?" + +They always call me Fiddler, after my dear master. + +"About the shows," said Bit-o'-Fun. + +"Why, you never mean to tell me, Fiddler, that you think of going to a +show! Ha! ha! ha!" + +"And suppose I did," I replied, a little riled, and I felt my hair +beginning to stand up all along my back, "I dare say I would have as +much chance as an ugly patch-eyed thing like you." + +"Look here, Fiddler," said Bill, showing all his teeth--and he has an +awful lot of them--"talk a little more respectfully when you address +your betters. I've a very good mind to--" + +"To what, Master Bill?" said "Don Pedro," a beautiful large +white-and-black Newfoundland, coming suddenly on the ground. + +"No one is talking to you, Don," said Bill. + +"But _I'm_ talking to you, Bill," said Don Pedro; "and if I hear you say +you'll dare to touch poor little Fiddler, I'll carry you off and drown +you in the nearest pond, that's all." + +Bill ran off with his tail between his feet before Don Pedro had done +speaking. Now isn't Don Pedro a dear, good fellow? + + "Well, I'm not a champion dog, you see, though I modestly advance; + I _might_ have taken a prize or two if I'd ever had a chance; + But shows, I fear, were never meant for the like of poor me,-- + Besides, my master isn't rich, and couldn't pay the fee; + Yet I love my master none the less, and serve him faithfully. + + "Poor master's got no eyes, you know, and I lead him through the + street; + And he plays upon the fiddle, and oh! he plays so sweet. + That I wonder and I ponder, while my eyes with salt tears glisten. + How so many people pass him by, and never stop to listen: + How that nasty big blue man, with his nasty big blue coat. + Moves master on so roughly that I long to bite his throat! + + "There are certain quiet side-streets where master oft I take, + Where he's sure to get a penny, and I a bit of cake; + But at times the nights are rainy, and seem so very long, + That I envy pets in carriages, though I know that that is wrong; + And master's growing very old, and his blood is getting thin, + And he often shivers with the cold before I lead him in. + + "Poor master loves me very much, and I love master too; + But if anything came over me, whatever _could_ he do? + I think of things like these, you know, when in my bed at night, + Even in my dreams those nasty thoughts oft make me cry with fright! + Yet, though my lot seems very hard, and my pleasures are but few + I do not grieve, for well I know a dog's life soon wears through; + And I've been told by some there are better worlds than this, + That, even for little doggies, there's a future state of bliss: + That faithfulness and love are things that cannot die, + And sorrow _here_ means joy _there_-- + in the realms beyond the sky." + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +MR AND MRS POLYPUS: A STORY FOUNDED ON A FACT IN NATURAL HISTORY. + + "Our plenteous streams a varied race supply." + + Pope. + + "Creatures that by a rule of Nature teach + The art of order to a peopled kingdom." + + Shakespeare. + +Scene: The old pine forest; a beautiful day in later summer. Grey +clouds flitting across the sky's bright blue, and occasionally obscuring +the sun's rays. A gentle breeze going whispering through the woods, the +giant elms, the lordly oaks, and the dark and gloomy firs bending and +bowing as the wind passes among their branches. Patches of bright +crimson here and there where the foxgloves still bloom; patches of +purple and yellow where heather and furze are growing. Not a sound to +be heard in all the wood, except the clear, joyous notes of the robin; +all his young ones are safely hatched and fledged, and flown away, and +he is singing a hymn of thanksgiving. + +Aileen Aroon lying as usual with her great head on my lap, Theodore Nero +as usual tumbling on the grass, Ida close at my side peeping over my +shoulder at the paper I am reading aloud to her. + +Ida (_speaks_): "What mites of people your hero and heroine are!" + +The author: "Yes, puss; didn't you order me to write you a tale with +tiny, tiny, tiny people in it? Well, here they are. They are +microscopic." + +Ida: "But of course it is not a true story; it is composed, as you call +it." + +The author: "It is a romance, Ida; but it is a romance of natural +history, because, you know, there _are_ creatures called polyps that +live in the sea, and are so small you have to get a microscope to watch +their motions, and they often eat each other, or swallow each other +alive, and do all sorts of strange things; and so I call my story-- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Mr and Mrs Polypus: A Tale of the Coralline Sea, a tale of the Indian +Ocean, a romance of the coralline sea. + +"Far down beneath the blue waves lived my hero and heroine all alone +together in their crystal home, with its floors of coral and its windows +of diamonds. The cottage in which they dwelt was of a very strange +shape indeed, being nothing like any building ever you saw on the face +of the earth--but it suited them well--and all around it was a beautiful +garden of living plants. Well, all plants possess life; but these were, +in reality, living animals, living beings, shaped like flowers, but as +capable of eating and drinking as you or I am, only they were all on +stalks, and could only catch their food as it floated past them. This +seems somewhat awkward, but then they were used to it, and custom is +everything. I don't believe these animals growing on stalks ever wished +to walk any oftener than human beings wished to fly. + +"Mr and Mrs Polypus, as you may easily guess, were husband and wife, +but for all that I am very sorry to have to tell you that they did not +always live very peaceably together. They used to have little +disagreements now and then; for they were only polyps, you must +remember, and smaller far than water-babies. Their little quarrels were +always about their food, for, if the truth must be told, Mr Polypus was +somewhat of a tyrant to his tiny wife. + +"Mr Polypus had many faults; he was, among other things, a very great +glutton; so much so, that he did not mind his wife starving so long as +he himself had enough to eat. + +"Now a word or two about the personal appearance of my principal +characters. They were indeed a funny-looking couple, and so small, that +unless you had had good eyes, and a tolerably good microscope as well, +it would have been impossible for you to see much of what they were +doing at all. They were both the same shape, and had only one leg +a-piece--a comparatively thick one though--so that when they walked +about it was hop, hop, hop on one end, and very ridiculous it looked. +But then, if they had only one leg each, Nature had made it up to them +in the matter of arms; for instead of two only, as you have, they had a +whole row of them all round their shoulders. Wonderfully movable arms +they were too, and seemed all joints together, and neither he nor his +wife could keep from whirling their arms about whenever they were +excited. They had, in fact, so many arms that they could afford to +place two pair akimbo, fold one or two pairs across the chest, and still +have a few left to shake in each other's faces when scolding; not that +she did much of that, for she was very mild and obedient. + +"The only food that Mr and Mrs Polypus got was little fishes, which +came floating in through the window to them, or down the chimney, or in +by the door; so that they never required to go to the market to buy any +provisions; they only had to wait comfortably at their own fireside +until breakfast or dinner swam in to them of its own accord. But this +did not satisfy the craving appetite of Mr Polypus; so he used often to +be from home, swimming up and down the streets, or hopping about at the +bottom of the village of Coral Town, where fish did most abound; and it +was only when he was away from home on a fishing expedition that poor +pretty Mrs Polypus used to get anything to eat, for she was a quiet +little woman, and always stopped at home. Poor thing, the neighbours +were often very sorry for her; for hers had been a very sad story. For +all she was so quiet now, she was once the gayest of the gay, the life +and soul of the village of Coral Town. At every ball or party that was +given, Peggy--for so she was then called--was the star; and whenever +Peggy countenanced a picnic or an angling match, all the village went +too and took his wife with him. + +"When Peggy was still in her teens she fell in love with gay, rollicking +young Mr Pompey, the potassium merchant. You know it was all potassium +that they burned in Coral Town, because that burns under water, and +coals won't; and instead of the streets and houses being lighted with +gas or oil at nights, they were illuminated with phosphorus. For the +next six months after Pompey met pretty Peggy at a ball, their young +lives were but as one happy dream; for Pompey loved Peggy dearly, and +Peggy loved Pompey. Away down at the bottom of Coral Town was a +beautiful submarine garden, with fresh-water shrubs of every shade and +flowers of every hue, and there were lonely caves and grottoes and +groves, and all kinds of lovely scenery imaginable; and here the lovers +often met, and along the winding pathways they ofttimes hopped together. +'Twas here Pompey first declared his passion, and first beheld the +love-light in his Peggy's beaming eyes. One evening they were seated +side by side in a coral cave. Everything around them was peaceful and +still, the water clear and pellucid, and unbroken by a single ripple. +They had sat thus for hours; for the time had flown very quickly, and +Pompey had been reading a delightful book to Peggy, until it got so dark +he couldn't see. Far up above them were the phosphorescent lights in +the village twinkling like stars in heaven's firmament. The cave in +which they sat was lighted up by a large diamond, which sparkled in the +roof, and diffused a soft rose light all around, while here and there on +the floor lay strange-shaped musical shells, which ever and anon gave +forth sounds like Aeolian harps. + +"`Ah!' sighed Pompey, and-- + +"`Ah!' sighed Peggy, and-- + +"`When shall we wed?' said Pompey, and-- + +"`Whenever you please,' said she. + +"`Oh! oh!' cried a terrible voice at their elbows, `there'll be two +words to that bargain. He! he! There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and +the lip. Ha! ha!' + +"And behold! there in the mouth of the cave stood an ugly old male polyp +grinning and bobbing at them like some dreadful ogre. + +"`How dare you, sir!' said Potassium Pompey, springing from his seat, +and striding with a couple of hops towards the new-comer--`how dare you +intrude yourself on the privacy of affianced lovers?' + +"`Intrude? Ho! ho! Privacy? He! he! Affianced? Ha! ha!' replied the +old polyp. `I'll soon let you know that, young jackanapes.' + +"`Sir,' cried Pompey, `this insolence shall not go unpunished. Unhand +me, Peggy.' + +"`Oh! hush, hush, pray hush,' cried poor Peggy, wringing a few of her +hands; `it's my father, Pompey, my poor father.' + +"`That fright your father?' replied Pompey; `but there, for your sake, +my Peggy, and for the sake of his grey hairs, I will spare him.' + +"`Come along, Miss Malapert; adieu, Mr Jackanapes,' cried the enraged +father; and he dragged his daughter from the cave, but not before she +had time to cast one tearful look of fond farewell on her lover, not +before she had time to extend ten hands to him behind her back, and he +had fondly pressed them all. + +"Peggy's father was a miserly old polyp, who lived in a superb residence +in the most fashionable part of Coral Town. He had servants who went or +came at his beck or call, a splendid chariot of pure gold to ride in, +with pure-bred fish-horses, and the only thing he ever had to annoy him +was that when he awoke in the morning he could not think of any new +pleasure for the day that had dawned. Every day he had a lovely little +polyp boy killed for his dinner--for polyps are all cannibals--and if +that meal didn't please him, then he used to eat one of the flunkeys. +But for all his riches, he was not a gentleman. He had made all his +money as a marine store dealer, and then retired to live at his mansion, +with his only daughter Peggy. + +"Now, for the next many days poor Potassium Pompey was a very unhappy +polyp indeed. He went about his business very listlessly, neglected to +eat, grew awfully thin, and let his beard grow, and people even said +that he sometimes sold them bad potassium. As for Peggy, she was locked +up in a room all by herself, and never saw any one at all, except her +father, who five times a day came regularly to feed her, and when she +refused to eat he cruelly crammed it down her throat. He was only a +polyp, remember. + +"`I'll fatten the gipsy,' he said to himself, `and then marry _her_ to +my old friend Peterie. He can support a wife, for I always see him +fishing, and he can't possibly eat all he catches himself.' + +"So it was all arranged that the wedding should come off, and one day, +as Pompey was returning disconsolately from his office, he met a great +and noisy crowd, who were huzzaing and waving their arms in the water, +and shouting, `Long live the happy, happy pair!' And presently up drove +the old miser's chariot, with six fish-horses, and polyp postillions to +match; and seated there beside his detested rival, Pompey caught a +glimpse of his loved and lost darling Peggy; thereupon Pompey made up +his mind to drown himself right off. So he went and sought out the +blackest, deepest pool, and plunged in. But polyps are so used to the +water that they cannot drown, and so the more Pompey tried to drown +himself, the more the water wouldn't drown him; so at last he wiped his +eyes, and-- + +"`What a fool I am,' said he, `to attempt death for the sake of one fair +lady, when there are hundreds of polyps as beautiful as she in Coral +Town. I'll go home and work, and make riches, then I'll marry ten +wives, and hold them all in my arms at once.' + +"But Pompey couldn't forget his early love as quickly as he wished to, +and often of an evening, when he knew that Mr Polypus was away at some +of his gluttonous carousals, Pompey would steal to the window of her +house and keek in through the chinks of the shutters, and sigh to see +his beloved Peggy sitting all so lonely by herself at the little table, +on which the phosphorus lamp was burning. And at the same time-- +although Pompey did not know it--Peggy would be gazing so sadly into the +potassium fire, and thinking of him; she really could not help it, +although she knew it was wrong, and poor pretty Mrs Polypus couldn't be +expected to be very cheery, could she? + +"Well, one night she was sitting all alone like that, wondering what was +keeping her husband so long, and if he would beat her, as usual, when he +did come home. She hadn't had a bit to eat for many, many hours, and +was just beginning to feel hungry and faint, when a tiny wee fish swam +in by the chimney, and pop! Mrs Polypus had it down her throat in a +twinkling; but as ill-luck would have it, who should return at the very +moment but her wicked husband. He had evidently been eating even more +than usual, and looked both flushed and angry. + +"`_Now_, Mrs Polypus,' he began, `I saw that. How dared you, when you +knew I was coming home to supper, and there wasn't a morsel in the +larder?' + +"`Oh! please, Peterie,' said poor little Mrs Polypus, beginning to cry, +`I really didn't mean to; but I was _so_ hungry, and--' + +"`Hungry?' roared the husband; `how dared you to be hungry?--how dared +you be anything at all, in fact? But there, I shall not irritate myself +by talking to you. Bring it back again.' + +"`Oh! if you please, Peterie--' cried Mrs Polypus. + +"`Bring it back again, I say,' cried Mr Polypus, making all his arms +swing round and round like a wheel, till you could hardly have seen one +of them, and finally crossing them on his chest; and, leaning on the +back of the chair, he looked sternly down on his spouse, and +said--`Disgorge at once!' + +"`I won't, then, and, what is more, I shan't; there!' said the wee +woman, for even a woman as well as a worm will turn when very much +trodden upon. + +"`Good gracious me!' cried Mr Polypus, fairly aghast with astonishment; +`does--she--actually--dare--to--defy me?' but `Ho! ho!' he added, +likewise `He! he!' and `we'll see;' and he strode to the window and +bolted it, and strode to the door and bolted that; then he took the +phosphorus lamp and extinguished it. + +"`It'll be so dark, Peterie,' said his wife, beginning to be frightened. + +"`There is light enough for what I have to do,' said Peterie, sternly. +Then he opened a great yawning mouth, and he seized her first by one +arm, and then by another, until he had the whole within his grasp, and +she all the time kicking with her one leg, and screaming-- + +"`Oh! please don't, Peterie. Oh! Peterie, don't.' + +"But he heeded not her cries, which every moment became weaker and more +far-away like, until they ceased entirely, and the unhappy Mrs Polypus +was nowhere to be seen. _Her husband had swallowed her alive_! + +"As soon as he had done so he sat down by the fire, looking rather +swollen, and feeling big and not altogether comfortable; but how could +he expect to be, after swallowing his wife? He leaned his head on three +arms and gazed pensively into the fire. + +"`After all,' he said to himself, `I may have been just a little too +hasty, for she wasn't at all a bad little woman, taking her all-in-all. +Heigho! I fear I'll never see her like again.' + +"Hark! a loud knocking at the door. He starts and listens, and trembles +like the guilty thing he is. The knocking was repeated in one +continuous stream of rat-tats. + +"`Hullo! Peterie,' cried a voice; `open the door.' + +"`Who is there?' asked Peterie at last. + +"`Why, man, it is I--Potassium Pompey. Whatever is up with you to-day +that you are barred and bolted like this? Afraid of thieves? Eh?' + +"`No,' said Peterie, undoing the fastenings and letting Pompey come in; +`it isn't that exactly. The fact is, I wasn't feeling very well, and +just thought I would lie down for a little while.' + +"`You don't look very ill, anyhow,' said Pompey; `and you are actually +getting stouter, I think!' + +"`Well,' replied Peterie, `you see, I've been out fishing, and had a +good dinner, and perhaps I've eaten rather more, I believe, than is good +for me.' + +"`Shouldn't wonder,' said Pompey, sarcastically; for the truth is, he +had been keeking through the chinks of the shutters, and had seen the +whole tragedy. + +"`A decided case of dropsy, I should think,' added Pompey. + +"Peterie groaned. + +"`Take a seat,' he said to Pompey. `I believe you are my friend, and I +want to have a little talk with you; I--I want to make a clean breast of +it.' + +"`Well, I'm all attention,' replied Pompey--`all ears, as the donkey +said.' + +"`Fact is, then,' continued Peterie, `I've been a rather unhappy man of +late, and my wife and I never understood one another, and never agreed. +She was in love with some scoundrel, you know, before we were married-- +leastways, so they tell me--and I--I'm really afraid I've swallowed her, +Pompey.' + +"`Hum!' said Pompey; `and does she agree any better with you now?' + +"`No,' replied Peterie, `that's just the thing; she's living all the +wrong way, somehow, and I fear she won't digest.' + +"`Wretch!' cried Peterie, starting to his feet, `behold me. Gaze upon +this wasted form: I am he who loved poor Peggy before her fatal +marriage. Oh! my Peggy, my loved, my lost, my half-digested Peggy, +shall we never meet again?' + +"`Sooner,' cried Peterie, `perhaps than you are aware of. So it was you +who loved my silly wife?' + +"`It was I.' + +"`Wretch, you shall die.' + +"`Never,' roared Pompey, `while I live.' + +"`We shall see,' said Peterie. + +"`Come on,' said Pompey, `set the table on one side and give us room.' + +"That was a fearful fight that battle of the polyps. It is awful enough +to see two men fighting who have only two arms a side, but when it comes +to twenty arms each, and all these arms are whirling round at once, like +a select assortment of windmills that have run mad, then, I can tell +you, it is very much more dreadful. Now Peterie has the advantage. + +"Now Pompey is down. + +"Now he is up again and Peterie falls. + +"Now Peterie half swallows Pompey. + +"Now Pompey appears again as large as life, and half swallows Peterie; +but at last, by one unlucky blow administered by ten fists at once, down +rolls Potassium Pompey lifeless on Peterie's floor. Peterie bent over +the body of Pompey. + +"`Bad job,' he mutters, `he is dead. And the question comes to be, what +shall I do with the body? Ha! happy thought! the struggle has given me +an appetite, _I'll swallow him too_.' + +"Barely had he thus disposed of poor Pompey's body, when a renewed +knocking was heard at the outside door. There was not a moment to lose; +so Peterie hastily set the furniture in order, and bustled away to open +the door, and hardly had he done so when in rushed an excited mob of +polyps headed by two warlike policemen, who _headed_ them by keeping +well in the rear, but being, after the manner of policemen, very loud in +their talk. + +"`Where is Potassium Pompey?' cried one; and-- + +"`Ay! where is Potassium Pompey?' cried another; and-- + +"`To be sure, where is Potassium Pompey?' cried a third; and-- + +"`That is the question, young man,' cried both policemen at once. + +"`Where is Potassium Pompey?' + +"`Oh!' groaned Peterie, `would I were as big as a bullfrog, that I might +swallow you all at a gulp.' + +"`Away with him, my friends,' cried the warlike policemen, `to the hall +of justice.' + +"In the present state of Peterie's digestive organs, resistance was not +to be thought of; so he quietly submitted to be led out with ten pairs +of handcuffs on his wrists, and dragged along the street, followed by +the hooting mob, who wanted to hang him on the spot; but a multitude of +policemen now arrived, and being at the rate of three policemen to each +civilian polyp, the hanging was prevented. The justice hall was a very +large building right in the centre of Coral Town. There the judges used +to sit night and day on a large pearl throne at one end to try the cases +that were brought before them. + +"Now Potassium Pompey was a very great favourite in Coral Town, so that +when the wretched Peterie was dragged by fifteen brave policemen before +the pearl throne, the hall was quite filled, and you might have heard a +midge sneeze, if there had been a midge to sneeze, so great was the +silence. The first accuser was Popkins, the miserly old polyp who was +poor Peggy's father. He was too wretchedly thin and weak and old to hop +in like any other polyp, so he came along the hall walking on his one +foot and his twenty hands after the fashion of the looper caterpillar, +which I daresay you have observed on a currant-bush. + +"`Where is me chee--ild?' cried the aged miser, as soon as he could +speak. `Give me back me chee--ild?' + +"`If that's all you've got to say,' said the judge, sternly, `you'd +better stand down.' + +"`I merely want me chee--ild,' repeated Popkins. + +"`Stand down, sir,' cried the judge. + +"After hearing various witnesses who had seen Pompey enter Peterie's +house and never return, the judge opened his mouth and spake, for +Peterie had said never a word. The judge gave it as his unbiassed +opinion that, considering all things, the mysterious disappearance of +Mrs Polypus, coupled with that of Potassium Pompey, whom every one +loved and admired, the absence of all defence on the part of the +prisoner, and the extraordinary rotundity of his corporation, as well as +the fact that he had always been a spare man, there could be little +doubt of the prisoner's guilt; `but to make assurance doubly sure,' +added the judge, `let him at once be opened, to furnish additional +proof, and the opening of the prisoner, I trust, will close the case.' +If guilty, the sentence of the Court was that he should then be dragged +to the common execution ground, and there divided into one hundred +pieces, and he, the judge, hoped it would be a warning to the prisoner +in all future time." + +[When a polyp is cut into pieces, each piece becomes a new individual.] + +"Twenty policemen now rushed away and brought the biggest knife they +could find; twenty more went for ropes, and having procured them, the +wretched Mr Polypus was bound to a table, and before he could have said +`cheese,' if he had wanted to say `cheese,' an immense opening was made +in his side, and, lo and behold! out stepped first Potassium Pompey, and +after him hopped, modestly hopped, poor Peggy. But the most wonderful +part of the whole business was, that neither Peggy nor Pompey seemed a +bit the worse for their strange incarceration. Indeed, I ought to say +they looked all the better; for Pompey was all smiles, and Peggy was +looking very happy indeed, and even Peterie seemed immensely relieved. +Pompey led Peggy before the throne, and here he told all the story about +how Peggy was murdered, and then how he, Pompey, was murdered next. +And-- + +"`Enough! enough!' cried the judge; `away with the doomed wretch! Let +the execution be proceeded with without a moment's delay.' + +"`Please, my lord,' said Peggy, modestly, `may I have a divorce?' + +"`To be sure, to be sure,' said the judge; `you are justly entitled to a +divorce.' + +"`And please, my lord,' continued Peggy, `may--may--' + +"`Well? well?' said the judge, with slight impatience, `out with it.' + +"`She wants to ask if she may marry me,' said Pompey, boldly. + +"`Most assuredly,' said the judge, `and a blessing be on you both.' + +"In vain the unhappy Peterie begged and prayed for mercy; he was hurried +away to the execution ground and led to the scaffold. In all that crowd +of upturned faces, Peterie saw not one pitying eye. And now a large +barrel was placed to receive the pieces, and, beginning with his head +and arms, the executioners cut him into one hundred pieces, leaving +nothing of Peterie but the foot. + +"`Now,' cried the judge, `empty the barrel on the floor.' + +"This was done. + +"And it did seem that wonders would never cease, for as soon as each +piece was thrown on the floor it immediately _grew up into a real live +polyp, and body and arms all complete and hopping_; and the foot, which +had been left, and which was more especially Peterie's--being all that +remained of him, you know--grew up into another polyp, and behold there +was another and a new Peterie. He was at once surrounded by the ninety +and nine new polyps, who all threw their arms--nineteen hundred and +ninety arms--around his neck, and began to kiss him and call him dearest +dada. + +"`On my honour,' said Peterie, `I think this is rather too much of a +joke.' + +"But nobody had any pity on him, and the judge said--`Now, Mr Polypus, +let this be a lesson to you. Go home at once and work for your +children, and remember you support them; if even one of them comes to +solicit parish relief, dread the consequences.' + +"`How ever shall I manage?' said poor Peterie. + +"And he hopped away disconsolate enough amid his ninety and nine baby +polyps all crying-- + +"`Dada dear, give us a fish.' + +"`I think,' said the judge, when Peterie had gone--`I think, Mr +Popkins, you cannot now do better than consent to make these two young +things happy by letting them wed. Pompey, it is true, isn't a king, but +he has an excellent business in the potassium line, and none of us can +live without fire, you know.' + +"`But I'm a king,' cried the aged miser; `I have mines of wealth, and +all I have is theirs. Come to your father's arms, my Peggy and Pompey.' + +"`Hurrah!' shouted the mob; `three cheers for the old miser, and three +for Pompey the brave, and three times three for the bonny bride Peggy.' + +"And away rolled Peggy in the golden chariot, with her father--such a +happy, happy Peggy now; and Pompey was carried through the streets, +shoulder high, to his old home. + +"So nothing was talked about in Coral Town for the next month but the +grandeur of the coming wedding, and the beauty of Peggy, and everybody +was happy and gay except poor Peterie; for who could be happy with +ninety-nine babies to provide for--ninety-nine breakfasts to get, +ninety-nine dinners, ninety-nine teas and suppers all in one, two +hundred and ninety-seven meals to provide in one day? + +"There were no more fishing excursions for him, no more big dinners, and +he worked and toiled to get ends to meet deep down in a potassium mine +in the darkest, dismalest corner of Coral Town. And everybody said-- + +"`It serves him right, the cruel wretch.' + +"What a wonderful house that was which Pompey built for his Peggy! + +"It was charmingly situated on the slope of a wooded hill, quite in the +country. Pompey spent months in furnishing and decorating it, and his +greatest pleasure was to superintend all the work himself. Such trees +you never saw as grew in the gardens and park, marine trees whose very +leaves seemed more lovely than any terrestrial flower, and they were +incessantly moving their branches backwards and forwards with a gentle +undulating motion, as if they luxuriated in the sight of each other's +beauty. Such flowers!--living, breathing flowers they were, and radiant +with rainbow tints, flowers that whispered together, and beckoned and +bowed and made love to each other. Then those delightful rockeries, +half hidden here and there amid the wealth of foliage, and there were +curious shells of brilliant colours that made music whenever there was +the slightest ripple in the water, and whole colonies of the quaintest +little animals that ever you dreamt of crept in and crept out of every +fissure or miniature cave in the rocks. + +"At night the garden was all lighted up with phosphorescent lamps; but +inside the palace itself, in the spacious halls, along the marble +staircases, and in the beautiful rooms, nothing short of diamond lights +would satisfy Pompey; for you must know that Pompey thought nothing too +good for Peggy. So each room was lighted up by a diamond, that shone in +the centre of the vaulted roof like a large and beautiful star. Some of +these diamonds suffused a rosy light throughout the apartment, the light +from others was of a paley green, and from others a faint saffron, while +in one room the light from the diamond was for ever changing as you may +see the planet Mars doing, if you choose to watch--one moment it was a +bright, clear, bluish white, next a rainbow green, and anon changing to +deepest crimson. This was a very favourite dining-hall with Pompey, for +the simple reason that no one could be sure how his neighbour looked. +For instance, if a lady blushed, it did not look like a blush--oh dear +no--but a flash of rosy light; if an old gentleman indulged rather much +in the pleasures of the table, and began to feel ill in consequence, not +a bit of it, he was never better in his life--it was the bluish flash +from the diamond; and so, again, if last night's lobster salad rendered +any one yellow and bilious-looking, he could always blame the poor +pretty diamond. + +"In some rooms the chairs themselves were made of precious stones, and +the ottomans and couches built of a single pearl. + +"At length everything was completed to Pompey's entire satisfaction, and +he had given any number of gay parties and balls, just by way of warming +the house. Pompey flattered himself he had the best provisions in his +cellars and the best-trained servants in all Coral Town, and of course +nobody cared to deny that. These servants were nearly all of different +shapes: some were properly-made polyps; some rolled in when Pompey +touched the gong, rolled in like a gig-wheel without the rim, all legs +and arms, and the body in the centre; some were merely round balls, and +you couldn't see any head or legs or arms at all till they stopped in +front of you, then they popped them all out at once; some walked in, +others hopped, one or two floated, and one queer old chap walked on the +crown of his head. If you think this is not all strictly true, you have +only to take a microscope and look for yourself. + +"`Heigho!' said Pompey one day, after he had finished a dinner fit to +set before a polyp king, `all I now want to make me perfectly happy is +Peggy. Peggy--Peggy! what a sweetly pretty name it is to be sure! +Peggy!' + +"And that came too; for if you wait long enough for any particular day, +it is sure to come at last, just as whistling at sea makes the wind +blow, which it invariably does--when you whistle long enough. + +"And never was such a day of rejoicing seen in Coral Town. The bells +were ringing and the banners all waving almost before the phosphorescent +lamps began to pale in the presence of day. + +"Then everybody turned out. + +"And everybody seemed to take leave of his senses by special +arrangement. + +"All but poor Peterie, who was left all by himself to work away in the +deep, dark potassium mine. The wedding took place in Peggy's father's-- +Popkins's--house. The old miser, miser no more though, was half crazy +with joy. And nothing would satisfy him but to have one of the upper +servants cooked for his breakfast. He didn't care, he said, whether it +was Jeames or the butler. So the butcher dressed the butler, and he was +stewed for his master's breakfast with sauce of pearls powdered in +ambrosia. + +"And after the ceremony was performed, Pompey appeared on the balcony, +clasping Peggy to his heart with ten arms, while he gave ten other hands +to Popkins, his father-in-law, to shake as he cried-- + +"`Bless you, bless you, my children.' + +"Then such a ringing cheer was heard, as never was heard before, or any +time since. Even Peterie heard it down in the darkling mine, swallowed +a ball of potassium, and died on the spot. As soon as Peterie was dead, +he (Peterie) said, `Well now, I wonder I never thought of that before;' +because he at once grew up again into ten new polyps, who forthwith left +the mine, joined the revellers, and shouted louder than all the rest. + +"And when at last Peggy was in Peterie's house, when the idol of his +love became the light of his home, when he saw her there before him, so +blooming and bonnie, he opened his twenty arms, and she opened _her_ +twenty arms, and-- + +"`Peggy!' cried Pompey; and-- + +"`Pompey!' cried Peggy; and-- + +"Down drops the curtain. It would be positively mean and improper to +keep it up one moment longer." + +CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. + +THE TALE OF THE "TWIN CHESTNUTS"; OR, A SUMMER EVENING'S REVERIE. + + "Twilight grey + Had in her sober livery all things clad: + Silence accompanied; for beast and bird, + They to their grassy couch; these to their nests + Were slunk, all save the wakeful nightingale: + Hesperus that led + The starry host rode brightest, till the moon + Unveiled her peerless light, + And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw." + + Milton. + +Running all along one side of our orchard, garden, and lawn are a row of +tall and graceful poplar trees. So tall are they that they may be seen +many miles away; they are quite a feature of the landscape, and tell the +position of our village to those coming towards it long before a single +house is visible. + +These trees are the admiration of all that behold them, but, to my eye, +there seems always connected with them an air of solemnity. All the +other trees about--the spreading limes, the broad-leaved planes, and the +rugged oaks and elms--seem dwarfed by their presence, so high do they +tower above them. Their tips appear to touch the very sky itself, their +topmost branches pierce the clouds. Around the stem of each the +beautiful ivy climbs and clings for support; and this ivy gives shelter +by night to hundreds of birds, and to bats too, for aught I know. + +Their very position standing there in a row, like giant sentinels, +surrounds them with an air of mystery to which the fact that they follow +each other's motions--all bending and nodding in the same direction at +once--only tends to add. And spring, summer, autumn, or winter they are +ever pointing skywards. In the winter months they are leafless and +bare, and there is a wild, weird look about them on a still night, when +the moon and stars are shining, which it would be difficult to describe +in words. But sometimes in winter, when the hoar-frost falls and +silvers every twiglet and branch till they resemble nothing so much as +the snowiest of coral, then, indeed, the beauty with which they are +adorned, once seen must ever be remembered. + +But hardly has spring really come, and long before the cuckoo's dual +notes are heard in the glade, or the nightingale's street, unearthly +music fills every copse and orchard, making the hearts of all that hear +it glad, ere those stately poplars are clothed from tip to stem in robes +of yellow green, and their myriad leaves dance and quiver in the +sunlight, when there is hardly wind enough to bend a blade of grass. As +the summer wears on, those leaves assume a darker tint, and approach +more nearly to the colour of the ivy that crowds and climbs around their +stems. The wind is then more easily heard, sighing and whispering +through the branches even when there is not a breath of air down on the +lawn or in the orchard. On what we might well call still evenings, if +you cast your eye away aloft, you may see those tree-tops all swaying +and moving in rhythm against the sky; and if you listen you may catch +the sound of their leaves like that of wavelets breaking on a beach of +smoothest sand. + +I remember it was one still summer's night, long after sundown, for the +gloaming star was shining, that we were all together on the rose lawn. +The noisy sparrows were quiet, every bird had ceased to sing, there +wasn't a sound to be heard anywhere save the sighing among the topmost +branches of the poplars. Far up there, a breeze seemed to be blowing +gently from the west, and as it kissed the tree-tops they bent and bowed +before it. + +Ida lay in a hammock of grass, the book she could no longer see to read +lying on her lap in a listless hand. + +"No matter how still it is down here," she said, "those trees up there +are always whispering." + +"What do you think they are saying?" I asked. + +"Oh," she answered, "I would give worlds to know." + +"Perhaps," she added, after a pause, "they hear voices up in the sky +there that we cannot hear, that they catch sounds of--" + +"Stop, Ida, stop," I cried; "why, if you go on like this, instead of the +wise, sensible, old-fashioned little girl that I'm so fond of having as +my companion in my rambles, you will degenerate into a poet." + +"Ha! ha!" laughed Frank; "well, that is a funny expression to be sure. +Degenerate into a poet. How complimentary to the sons and daughters of +the lyre, how complimentary to your own bonnie Bobby Burns, for +instance!" + +Ida half raised herself in her hammock. She was smiling as she spoke. + +"It was you, uncle, that taught me," she said. "Did you not tell me +everything that grows around us has life, and even feeling; that in +winter the great trees go to sleep, and do not suffer from the cold, but +that in summer they are filled with a glow of warmth, and that if you +lop a branch off one, though it does not feel pain, it experiences cold +at the place where the axe has done its work? Haven't you taught me to +look upon the flowers as living things? and don't I feel them to be so +when I stoop to kiss the roses? Yes, and I love them too; I love them +all--all." + +"And I've no doubt the love is reciprocated, my little mouse. But now, +talking about trees, if Frank will bring the lamp, I'll read you a kind +of a story about two trees. It isn't quite a tale either--it is a kind +of reverie; but the descriptive parts of it are painted from the life. +Thank you, Frank. Now if the moths will only keep away for a minute, if +it wasn't for that bit of displayed humanity on the top of the glass in +the shape of a morsel of wire gauze, that big white moth would go pop in +and immolate himself. Ahem!" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE TWIN CHESTNUTS: A REVERIE. "THEY GREW IN BEAUTY SIDE BY SIDE." + +We weren't the only happy couple that had spent a honeymoon at Twin +Chestnut Cottage. In point of fact, the chestnuts themselves had their +origin in a honeymoon; for in the same old-fashioned cottage, more than +one hundred and ninety years ago, there came to reside a youthful pair, +who, hand in hand, had just commenced life's journey together. They +each had a little dog, and those two little dogs were probably as fond +of each other, after their own fashion, as their master and mistress +were; and the name of the one dog was "Gip," and the name of the other +was "George"--Gip and George, there you have them. And it was very +funny that whatever Gip did, George immediately followed suit and did +the same; and, _vice versa_, whatever George did, Gip did. If Gip +harked, George barked; if George wagged his tail, so did Gip. Whenever +Gip was hungry, George found that he too could eat; and when George took +a drink of water, Gip always took a mouthful as well, whether she was +thirsty or not. Well, it happened one day in autumn, when the +beauty-tints were on the trees--the sunset glow of the dying year--that +the two lovers (for although they were married, they were lovers still) +were walking on the rustling leaves, and of course George and Gip were +no great way behind, and were having their own conversation, and their +own little larks all to themselves, when suddenly-- + +"I say, Georgie," said Gip. + +"Well, my love?" replied George. + +"I'm quite tired watching for that silly blind old mole, who I'm certain +won't come again to-night. Let us carry a chestnut home." + +"All right," said George; "here goes." + +So they each of them chose the biggest horse-chestnut they could find, +and they were only very small dogs, and went trotting home with them in +their mouths; and when they got there, they each laid their little gifts +at the feet of their loved master or mistress. + +This they did with such a solemn air that, for the life of them, the +lovers could not help laughing outright. But the little dogs received +their due meed of praise nevertheless, and the two chestnuts were +carefully planted, one on each side of the large lawn window. And when +winter gave place to spring, lo! the chestnuts budded, budded and peeped +up through the earth, each one looking for all the world like a Hindoo +lady's little finger, which isn't a bit different, you know, from your +little finger, only it is dark-brown, and yours is white. Then the +little finger opened, and bright green leaves unfolded and peeped up at +the sun and the blue sky, and long before the summer was over they had +grown up into sprightly little trees, as straight as rushes, and very +nearly as tall, for they had been very carefully watered and tended. +Very pretty they looked too, although their leaves seemed a mile too big +for their stems, which made them look like two very small men with very +large hats; but the young chestnuts themselves didn't see anything +ridiculous in the matter. + +These, then, were the infant chestnuts. + +And as the years rolled on, and made those lovers old, the chestnuts +still grew in height and beauty. And in time poor Grip died, and as +George had always done exactly as Gip did, he died too; and Gip was laid +at the foot of one tree, and George at the foot of the other, and their +graves were watered with loving tears. And the trees grew lovelier +still. And when at last those lovers died, the trees showered their +flowers, pink-eyed and white, on the coffins, as they were borne away +from the old cottage to their long, quiet home in the "moots." + +And time flew on, generation after generation was born, grew up, grew +old, and died, and still the twin chestnuts increased and flourished, +and they are flourishing now, on this sweet summer's day, and shading +all the cottage from the noonday sun. + +It is a very old-fashioned cottage, wholly composed, one might almost +say, of gables, the thatch of some of which comes almost to the ground, +and I defy any one to tell which is the front of the cottage and which +isn't the front. There are gardens about the old cottage, fruit gardens +and flower gardens, and grey old walls half buried in ivy, which never +looked half so pretty as in autumn, when the soft leaves of the Virginia +creepers are changing to crimson, and blending sweetly with the ivy's +dusky green. + +The principal gable is that abutting on to the green velvety lawn, which +goes sloping downwards to where the river, broad and still, glides +silently on its way to bear on its breast the ships of the greatest city +of the world, and carry them to the ocean. + +But the main beauty of the cottage lies in those twin chestnuts. No +chestnuts in all the countryside like those two beautiful trees; none so +tall, so wide, so spreading; none have such broad green leaves, none +have such nuts--for each nutshell grows as big and spiny as a small +hedgehog, and contains some one nut, many two, but most three nuts +within the outer rind. I only wish you could see them, and you would +say, as I do, there are no trees like those twin chestnuts. + +The earth was clad in its white cocoon when first we went to Twin +Chestnut Cottage, and the two giant trees pointed their skeleton fingers +upwards to the murky sky; but long before any of the other +chestnut-trees that grew in the parks and the avenues, had even dreamt +of awakening from their deep winter sleep, the twin chestnuts had sent +forth large brown buds, bigger and longer than rifle bullets, and all +gummed over with some sticky substance, as if the fairies had painted +them all with glycerine and treacle. With the first sunshine of April +those bonnie buds grew thicker, and burst, disclosing little bundles of +light-green foliage, that matched _so_ sweetly with the brown of the +buds and the dark grey of the parent tree. + +Day by day we watched the folded leaves expanding; and other eyes than +ours were watching them too; for occasionally a large hornet or an early +bee would fly round the trees and examine the buds, then off he would go +again with a satisfied hum, which said plainly enough, "You're getting +on beautifully, and you'll be all in flower in a fortnight." + +And, indeed, hardly had a fortnight elapsed, from the time the buds +first opened, till the twin chestnuts were hung in robes of drooping +green. Such a tender green! such a light and lovely green! and the +pendent, crumply leaves seemed as yet incapable of supporting their own +weight, like the wings of the moth when it first bursts from its +chrysalis. Then, oh! to hear the _frou-frou_ of the gentle wind through +the silken foliage! And every tree around was bare and brown save them. + +Even the river seemed to whisper fondly to the bending reeds as it +glided past those chestnuts twain; and I know that the mavis and the +merle sung in a louder, gladder key when they awoke in the dewy dawn of +morn, and their bright eyes rested on those two clouds of living green. + +And now crocuses peeping through the dun earth, and primroses on mossy +banks, had long since told that spring had come; but the chestnut-trees +said to all the birds that summer too was on the wing. Cock-robin +marked the change, and came no more for crumbs--for he thought it was +high time to build his nest; only there were times when he seated +himself on the old apple-tree, and sung his little song, just to show +that he hadn't forgotten us, and that he meant to come again when family +cares were ended and summer had flown away. + +Meanwhile, the flower-stems grew brown and mossy, and in a week or two +the flowers themselves were all in bloom. Had you seen either of those +twin chestnuts then, you would have seen a thing of beauty which would +have dwelt in your mind as a joy for ever. It was summer now. Life and +love were everywhere. The bloom was on the may--pink-eyed may and white +may. The yellow laburnum peeped out from the thickets of evergreen, the +yellow broom dipped its tassels in the river, and elder-flowers perfumed +the wind. I couldn't tell you half the beautiful creatures that visited +the blossoms on the twin chestnut-trees, and sang about them, and +floated around them, and sipped the honey from every calyx. Great +droning, velvety bees; white-striped and red busy little hive-bees; +large-winged butterflies, gaudy in crimson and black; little white +butterflies, with scarlet-tipped wings; little blue butterflies, that +glanced in the sunshine like chips of polished steel; and big +slow-floating butterflies, so intensely yellow that they looked for all +the world as if they had been fed on cayenne, like the canaries, you +know. In the gloaming, "Drowsy beetles wheeled their droning flight" +around the trees, and noisy cockchafers went whirring up among the +blossoms, and imagined they had reached the stars. + +When the roses, purple, red, and yellow, clung around the cottage porch, +climbed over the thatch, and clung around the chimneys, when the mauve +wisterias clustered along the walls, when the honeysuckle scented the +green lanes, when daisies and tulips had faded in the garden, and +crimson poppies shone through the corn's green, a breeze blew soft and +cool from the south-east, and lo! for days and days the twin chestnuts +snowed their petals on the lawn and path. And now we listened every +night for the nightingale's song. They came at last, all in one night +it seemed: "Whee, whee, whee." What are those slow and mournful notes +ringing out from the grove in the stillness of night? A lament for +brighter skies born of memories of glad Italy? + +"Churl, churl; chok, wee, cho!" This in a low and beautiful key; then +higher and more joyful, "Wheedle, wheedle, wheedle; wheety, wheety, +wheety; chokee, okee, okee-whee!" + +Answering each other all the livelong night, bursting into song at +intervals all the day, when, we wondered, did they sleep? Did they take +it in turns to make night and day melodious, keeping watches like the +sailors at sea? We thought the song of the mavis so tame now; but +cock-robin's had not lost its charm, just as the dear old simple "lilts" +of bonnie Scotland, or the sadder ditties of the Green Isle, never pall +on our ear, love we ever so well the lays of sunny Italy. + +As the summer waned apace, and the leaves on the chestnuts changed to a +darker, hardier green, the nightingales ceased their song; but, somehow, +we never missed them much, there were so many other songsters. We used +to wonder how many different sorts of birds found shelter in those twin +chestnuts, apart from the bickering sparrows, who colonised it; apart +from the merle and thrush, who merely came home to roost; apart from the +starling, who was continually having quarrels with his wife about +something or other; and apart from the noisy jackdaw, who was such an +argumentative fellow, and made himself such a general nuisance that it +always ended in his being forcibly ejected. + +Robin was invariably the first to awake in the morning. As the first +faint tinge of dawning day began to broaden in the east, he shook the +dew from his wings, and gave vent to a little peevish twitter. Then he +would hop down from the tree, perch on the gate, and begin his sweet wee +song: "Twitter, twitter, twee!" We used to wonder if it really was a +song of praise to Him who maketh the sun to rise and gladden all the +earth. + +"Twitter, twitter, twee!" Little birdies are so happy, and awake every +morning as fresh and joyous as innocent children. + +"Twitter, twitter, twitter, twee!" went the song for fully half an hour, +till it was so light that even the lazy sparrows began to awake, and +squabble, and scold, and fight; for you must know that sparrows hold +about the same social rank in the feathered creation, that the dwellers +around Billingsgate do among human beings. + +Then there would be such a chorus of squabbling from the big trees, that +poor robin had to give up singing in disgust, and come down to have his +breakfast. + +"Hullo!" he would cry, addressing a humble-bee, who with his wings all +bedraggled in dew, was slowly moving across the gravel, thinking the sun +would soon rise and dry him--for poor bees often do stay too long on +thistles at night, get drugged with the sweet-scented ambrosia, and are +unable to get home till morning--"Hullo!" robin would say; "do you know +you're wanted?" + +The poor bee would hold up one arm in mute appeal. + +"Keep down your hands," robin would say; "I'll do it ever so gently;" +and off the bee's head would go in a twinkling. Then robin would eye +his victim till the sting ceased to work out and in, then quietly +swallow it. This, with an earthworm or two, and a green caterpillar by +way of relish, washed down with a bill-full of water from a little pool +in a cabbage-leaf, would form robin's breakfast; then away he would fly +to the woods, where he could sing all day in peace. + +And so the summer sped away in that quiet spot, and anon the fields were +all ablaze with the golden harvest, and the sturdy leaves of our +chestnut-trees turned yellow and brown, and the great nuts came tumbling +down in a steady cannonade each time the wind shook the branches. And +the twin chestnuts, perhaps, looked more lovely now than ever they had +looked--they had borrowed the tints of the autumn sunset; yet their very +beauty told us now that the end was not far away. + +The wind of a night now moved the branches with a harsher, drier +rustling, like the sound of breaking waves or falling water, and we +often used to dream we were away at sea, tossed up and down on the +billows. "Heigho!" we [Part of this page missing.] + +There were days when the sun set in an ochrey haze, when the evening +star with its dimmed eye looked down from a sky of emerald green, where +as the gloaming deepened into night, not a cloud was there to hide the +glittering orbs; then the fairies set to work to adorn the trees, and +when morning came, lo! what a sight was there! All around the +hoar-frost lay, white and deep on bush and brake, on the hedgerows and +brambles; and every twiglet and thorn was studded with starry jewels on +tit twin chestnuts, and they were trees no more--every branchlet and +spray was changed to glittering coral; and garlands of silver and +lace-work, lovelier far than human brains could ever plan or fingers +weave, were looped from bough to bough, and hung in sheeny radiance +around the sturdy stems. + +Those dear old chestnut-trees! + +And as the seasons pass o'er the chestnut-trees, and each one clothes +them in a beauty of its own, so across the seasons of our life Time +spreads his varied joys: childhood, in its innocence, hath its joys, +youth in its hope of brighter days, manhood in its strength and +ambition, and old age in the peaceful trust of a better world to come. + +CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. + +THE STORY OF AILEEN'S HUSBAND, NERO. + + "The pine-trees, gathering closer in the shadows, + Listened in every spray--" + +I certainly had no intention of bringing tears to little Ida's eyes; it +was mere thoughtlessness on my part, but the result was precisely the +same; and there was Ida kneeling beside that great Newfoundland, +Theodore Nero, with her arms round his neck, and a moment or two after I +had spoken, I positively saw a tear fall on his brow, and lie there like +a diamond. Ah! such tears are far more precious than any diamonds. + +"You don't love that dog, mouse?" These were the words I had given +utterance to, half-banteringly, as she sat near me on the grass playing +with the dog. I went on with my writing, and when I looked up again +beheld that tear. + +Yes, I felt sorry, and set about at once planning some means of amends. +I knew human nature and Ida's nature too well to make any fuss about the +matter--I would not even let her know I had seen her wet eyelashes, nor +did I attempt to soothe her. If I had done so, there would have been +some hysterical sobbing and a whole flood of tears, with red eyes and +perhaps a headache to follow. So without looking up I said-- + +"By the way, birdie, did ever I tell you Nero's story?" + +"Oh, no," she said, in joyful forgetfulness of her recent grief; "and I +would so like to hear it. But," she added, doubtfully, "a few minutes +ago you said you could not talk to me, that you must finish writing your +chapter. Why have you changed your mind?" + +"I don't see why in this world, Ida," I replied, smiling, "a man should +not be allowed to change his mind sometimes as well as a woman." + +This settled the matter, and I put away my paper in my portfolio, and +prepared to talk. + +Where were we seated? Why, under the old pine-tree--our _very_ +favourite seat. My wife was engaged at home turning gooseberries into +jam, and had packed Ida and me off, to be out of the way, and friend +Frank himself had gone that day on some kind mission or other connected +with boys. I never saw any one more fond of boys than Frank was; I am +sure he spent all his spare cash on them. He was known all over the +parish as the boys' friend. If in town Frank saw a new book suitable +for a boy, it was a temptation he could not resist. If he had been +poor, I'm certain he would have gone without his dinner in order to +secure a good book for a boy. He was constantly finding out deserving +lads and getting them situations, and the day they were going to start +was a very busy one indeed for Frank. He would be up betimes in the +morning, sometimes before the servants, and often before the maids came +down he would have the fire lighted, and the kettle boiling, and +everything ready for breakfast. Then he would hurry away to the boy's +home, to see he got all ready in time for the start, and that he also +had had breakfast. He saw him to the station, gave him much kind and +fatherly advice, and, probably, in the little kit that accompanied the +lad, there were several comforts in the way of clothes, that wouldn't +have been there at all if friend Frank had not possessed the kindest +heart that ever warmed a human breast. + +I said Frank found out the _deserving_ boys; true. But he did not +forget the undeserving either, and positively twice every season what +should Frank do but get up what he called-- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"THE BAD BOYS' CRICKET MATCH." + +Nobody used to play at these matches but the bad boys and the +unregenerate and the ungrateful boys. And after the match was over, if +you had peeped into the tent you would have seen Frank, his jolly face +radiant, seated at the head of a well-spread table, and all his bad boys +around him, and, had you been asked, you could not have said for certain +whether Frank looked happier than the boys, or the boys happier than +Frank. + +But I've seen a really bad boy going away from home to some situation, +where Frank was sending him on trial, and bidding Frank good-bye with +the big lumps of tears rolling down over cheeks and nose, and heard the +boy say-- + +"God bless ye, sir; ye've been a deal kinder to me than my own father, +and I'll try to deserve all your goodness, sir, and lead a better life." + +To whom Frank would curtly reply, perhaps with a tear in his own honest +blue eye-- + +"Don't thank me, boy--I can't stand that. There, good-bye; turn over a +new leaf, and don't let me see you back for a year--only write to me. +Good-bye." + +And Frank's boys' letters, how he did enjoy them to be sure! + +Dear Frank! he is dead and gone, else dare I not write thus about him, +for a more modest man than my friend I have yet to find. + +Well, Frank was away to-day on some good mission, and that is how Ida +and I were alone with the dogs. Nero, by the way, was on the sick-list +to some extent. Indeed, Nero never minded being put on the sick-list if +there was nothing very serious the matter with him, because this +entailed a deal of extra petting, and innumerable tit-bits and dainties +that would never otherwise have found the road to his appreciative maw. +As to petting, the dog could put up with any amount of it; and it is a +fact that I have known him sham ill in order to be made much of. Once, +I remember, he had hurt his leg by jumping, and long after he was +better, if any of us would turn about, when he was walking well enough, +and say--in fun, of course--"Just look how lame that poor dear dog is!" +then Nero would assume the Alexandra limp on the spot, and keep it up +for some time, unless a rat happened to run across the road, or a +rabbit, or a hedgehog put in an appearance--if so, he forgot all about +the bad leg. + +"Well, birdie," I said, "to give you anything like a complete history of +that faithful fellow you are fondling is impossible. It would take up +too much time, because it would include the history of the last ten +years of my own life, and that would hardly be worth recording. When my +poor old Tyro died, the world, as far as dogs were concerned, seemed to +me a sad blank. I have never forgotten Tyro, the dog of my student +days, I never shall, and I am not ashamed to say that I live in hopes of +meeting him again. + +"What says Tupper about Sandy, birdie? Repeat the lines, dear, if you +remember them, and then I'll tell you something about Nero." + +Ida did so, in her sweet, girlish tones; and even at this moment, +reader, I have only to shut my eyes, and I seem to see and hear her once +more as she sits on that mossy bank, with her one arm around the great +Newfoundland's neck, and the summer wind playing with her bonnie hair. + +"Thank you, birdie," I said, when she had finished. + +"Now then," said Ida. + +"I was on half-pay when I first met Nero," I began, "and for some time +the relations between us were somewhat strained, for Newfoundlands are +most faithful to old memories. The dog seemed determined not to let +himself love me or forget his old master, and I felt determined not to +love him. It seemed to me positively cruel to let any other animal find +a place in my affections, with poor Tyro so recently laid in his grave +in the romantic old castle of Doune. So a good month went past without +any great show of affection on either side. + +"Advancement towards a kindlier condition of feeling betwixt us took +place first and foremost from the dog's side. He began to manifest +regard for me in a somewhat strange way. His sleeping apartment was a +nice, clean, well-bedded out-house, but every morning he used to find +his way upstairs to my room before I was awake, and on quietly gaining +an entrance, the next thing he would do was to place his two fore-paws +on the bed at my shoulder, then raise himself straight up to the +perpendicular. + +"So when I awoke I would find, on looking up, the great dog standing +thus, looming high above me, but as silent and fixed as if he had been a +statue chiselled out of the blackest marble. + +"At first it used to be quite startling, but I soon got used to it. He +never bent his head, but just stood there. + +"`I'm here,' he seemed to say, `and you can caress me if you choose; I +wouldn't be here at all if I didn't care just a little about you.' + +"But one morning, when I put up my hand and patted him, and said--`You +are a good, honest-hearted dog, I do believe,' he lowered his great head +instantly, and licked my face. + +"That is how our friendship began, Ida, and from that day till this we +have never been twenty-four hours parted--by sea or on land he has been +my constant companion. + +"He was very young when I first got him, and had only newly been +imported, but he was even then quite as big as he is now. + +"The ice being broken, as I might say, affection both on his side and on +mine grew very fast; but what cemented our friendship infrangibly was a +terrible illness that the poor fellow contracted some months after I got +him. + +"He began to get very thin, to look pinched about the face, and weary +about the eyes, his coat felt harsh and dry, and his appetite went away +entirely. + +"He used to look up wistfully in my face, as if wanting me to tell him +what could possibly be the matter with him. + +"The poor dog was sickening for distemper. + +"All highly-bred dogs take this dreadful illness in its very worst form. + +"I am not going to describe the animal's sufferings, nor any part of +them; they were very great, however, and the patience with which he bore +them all would have put many a human invalid to shame. He soon came to +know that I was doing all I could to save him, and that, nauseous though +the medicines were he had to take, they were meant to do him good, and +at last he would lick his physic out of the spoon, although so weak that +his head had to be supported while he was doing so. + +"One night, I remember, he was so very ill that I thought it was +impossible he could live till morning, and I remember also sorrowfully +wondering where I should lay his great body when dead, for we lived then +in the midst of a great, bustling, busy city. But the fever had done +its worst, and morning saw him not only alive, but slightly better. + +"I was on what we sailors call a spell of half-pay, so I had plenty of +time to attend to him--no other cares then, Ida. I did all my skill +could suggest to get him over the after effects of the distemper, and +soon had the satisfaction of seeing him one of the most splendid +Newfoundlands that had ever been known in the country, with a coat that +rivalled the raven's wing in darkness and sheen. + +"The dog loved me now with all his big heart--for a Newfoundland is one +of the most grateful animals that lives--and if the truth must be told, +I already loved the dog. + +"Nero was bigger then, Ida, than he is now." + +"Is that possible?" said Ida. + +"It is; for, you see, he is getting old." + +"But dogs don't stoop like old men," laughed Ida. + +"No," I replied, "not quite; but the joints bend more, the fore and hind +feet are lengthened, and that, in a large dog like a Saint Bernard or +Newfoundland, makes a difference of an inch or two at the shoulder. But +when Nero was in his prime he could easily place his paws on the +shoulder of a tall man, and then the man's head and his would be about +on a level. + +"Somebody taught him a trick of taking gentlemen's hats off in the +street." + +"Oh!" cried Ida, "I know who the somebody was; it was you, uncle. How +naughty of you!" + +"Well, Ida," I confessed, "perhaps you are right; but remember that both +the dog and I were younger then than we are now. But Nero frequently +took a fancy to a policeman's helmet, and used to secure one very neatly +when the owner had his back turned, and having secured it, he would go +galloping down the street with it, very much to the amusement of the +passengers, but usually to the great indignation of the denuded +policeman. It would often require the sum of sixpence to put matters to +rights." + +"I am so glad," said Ida, "he does not deprive policemen of their +helmets now; I should be afraid to go out with him." + +"You see, Ida, I am not hiding any of the dog's faults nor follies. He +had one other trick which more than once led to a scene in the street. +I was in the habit of giving him my stick to carry. Sometimes he would +come quietly up behind me and march off with it before I had time to +prevent him. This would not have signified, if the dog had not taken it +into his head that he could with impunity snatch a stick from the hands +of any passer-by who happened to carry one to his--the dog's--liking. +It was a thick stick the dog preferred, a good mouthful of wood; but he +used to do the trick so nimbly and so funnily that the aggrieved party +was seldom or never angry. I used to get the stick from Nero as soon as +I could, giving him my own instead, and restore it with an ample apology +to its owner. + +"But one day Nero, while out walking with me, saw limping on ahead of us +an old sailor with a wooden leg. I daresay he had left his original leg +in some field of battle, or some blood-stained deck. + +"`Oh!' Nero seemed to say to himself, `there is a capital stick. That +is the thickness I like to see. There is something in that one can lay +hold of.' + +"And before I could prevent him, he had run on and seized the poor man +by the wooden leg. Nero never was a dog to let go hold of anything he +had once taken a fancy to, unless he chose to do so of his own accord. +On this occasion, I feel convinced he himself saw the humour of the +incident, for he stuck to the leg, and there was positive merriment +sparkling in his eye as he tugged and pulled. The sailor was Irish, and +just as full of fun as the dog. Whether or not he saw there was +half-a-crown to be gained by it I cannot say, but he set himself down on +the pavement, undid the leg, and off galloped Nero in triumph, waving +the wooden limb proudly aloft. The Irishman, sitting there on the +pavement, made a speech that set every one around him laughing. I found +the dog, and got the leg, slipping a piece of silver into the old +sailor's hand as I restored it. + +"Well, that was an easy way out of a difficulty. Worse was to come, +however, from this trick of Nero's; for not long after, in a dockyard +town, while out walking, I perceived some distance ahead of me our +elderly admiral of the Fleet. I made two discoveries at one and the +same time: the first was, that the admiral carried a beautiful strong +bamboo cane; the second was, that master Nero, after giving me a glance +that told me he was brimful of mischief, had made up his mind to possess +himself of that bamboo cane. Before I could remonstrate with him, the +admiral was caneless, and as brimful of wrath as the dog was of fun. + +"The situation was appalling. + +"I was in uniform, and here was a living admiral, whom _my_ dog +assaulted, the dog himself at that very moment lying quietly a little +way off, chewing the head of the cane into match-wood. An apology was +refused, and I couldn't offer him half-a-crown as I had done the old +wooden-legged sailor. + +"The name of my ship was demanded, and with fear and trembling in my +heart I turned and walked sorrowfully away." + +[This page missing.] + +CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. + +THE STORY OF AILEEN'S HUSBAND, NERO--CONTINUED. + + "His hair, his size, his mouth, his lugs, + Showed he was none o' Scotland's dogs." + + Burns. + +"You see, dear," I continued, "that Nero had even in his younger days a +very high sense of humour and fun, and was extremely fond of practical +joking, and this trait of his character sometimes led his master into +difficulties, but the dog and I always managed to get over them. At a +very early age he learned to fetch and carry, and when out walking he +never seemed happy unless I gave him something to bring along with him. +Poor fellow, I daresay he thought he was not only pleasing me, but +assisting me, and that he was not wrong in thinking so you will readily +believe when told that, in his prime, he could carry a large carpet bag +or light portmanteau for miles without the least difficulty. He was +handy, therefore, when travelling, for he performed the duties of a +light porter, and never demanded a fee. + +"He used to carry anything committed to his charge, even a parcel with +glass in it might be safely entrusted to his care, if you did not forget +to tell him to be very cautious with it. + +"I was always very careful to give him something to carry, for if I did +not he was almost sure to help himself. When going into a shop, for +instance, to make a purchase, he was exceedingly disappointed if +something or other was not bought and handed to him to take home. Once +I remember going into a news-agent's shop for something the man did not +happen to have. I left shortly, taking no thought about my companion, +but had not gone far before Nero went trotting past me with a +well-filled paper bag in his mouth, and after us came running, gasping +and breathless, a respectable-looking old lady, waving aloft a blue +gingham umbrella. `The dog, the dog,' she was bawling, `he has run off +with my buns! Stop thief!' + +"I stopped the thief, and the lady was gracious enough to accept my +apologies. + +"Not seeing me make any purchase, Nero had evidently said to +himself--`Why, nothing to carry? Well, I don't mean to go away without +anything, if my master does. Here goes.' And forthwith he had pounced +upon the paper bag full of buns, which the lady had deposited on the +counter. + +"At Sheerness, bathers are in the habit of leaving their boots on the +beach while they enjoy the luxury of a dip in the sad sea waves. They +usually put their stockings or socks in the boots. When quite a mile +away from the bathing-place, one fine summer's day, I happened to look +round, and there was Nero walking solemnly after me with a young girl's +boot, with a stocking in it, in his mouth. We went back to the place, +but I could find no owner for the boot, though I have no doubt it had +been missed. Don't you think so, birdie?" + +"Yes," said Ida; "only fancy the poor girl having to go home with one +shoe off and one shoe on. Oh! Nero, you dear old boy, who could have +thought you had ever been so naughty in the days of your youth!" + +"Well, another day when travelling, I happened to have no luggage. This +did not please Master Nero, and in lieu of something better, he picked +up a large bundle of morning papers, which the porter had just thrown +out of the luggage van. He ran out of the station with them, and it +required no little coaxing to make him deliver them up, for he was +extremely fond of any kind of paper to carry. + +"But Nero was just as honest, Ida, when a young dog as he is now. +Nothing ever could tempt him to steal. The only thing approaching to +theft that could be laid to his charge happened early one morning at +Boston, in Lincolnshire. I should tell you first, however, that the +dog's partiality for rabbits as playmates was very great indeed. He has +taken more to cats of late, but when a young dog, rabbits were his +especial delight. + +"We had arrived at Boston by a very early morning train, our luggage +having gone on before, the night before, so that when I reached my +journey's end, I had only to whistle on my dog, and, stick in hand, set +out for my hotel. It was the morning of an agricultural show, and +several boxes containing exhibition rabbits lay about the platform. + +"Probably the dog had reasoned thus with himself:-- + +"`Those boxes contain rabbits; what a chance to possess myself of a +delightful pet! No doubt they belong to my master, for almost +everything in this world does, only he didn't notice them; but I'm sure +he will be as much pleased as myself when he sees the lovely rabbit hop +out of the box; so here goes. I'll have this one.' + +"The upshot of Nero's cogitations was that, on looking round when fully +a quarter of a mile from the station, to see why the dog was not keeping +pace with me, I found him marching solemnly along behind with a box +containing a live rabbit in his mouth. He was looking just a little +sheepish, and he looked more so when I scolded him and made him turn and +come back with it. + +"Dogs have their likes and dislikes to other animals and to people, just +as we human beings have. One of Nero's earliest companions was a +beautiful little pure white Pomeranian dog, of the name of `Vee-Vee.' +He was as like an Arctic fox--sharp face, prick ears, and all--as any +dog could be, only instead of lagging his tail behind him, as a fox +does, the Pomeranian prefers to curl it up over his back, probably for +the simple reason that he does not wish to have it soiled. Vee-Vee was +extremely fond of me, and although, as you know, dear Nero is of a +jealous temperament, he graciously permitted Vee-Vee to caress me as +much as he pleased, and me to return his caresses. + +"It was a sight to see the two dogs together out for a ramble--Nero with +his gigantic height, his noble proportions, and long flat coat of jetty +black, and Vee-Vee, so altogether unlike him in every way, trotting +along by his side in jacket of purest snow! + +"Vee-Vee's jacket used to be whiter on Saturday than on any other day, +because it was washed on that morning of the week, and to make his +personal beauties all the more noticeable he always on that day and on +the next wore a ribbon of blue or crimson. + +"Now, mischievous Nero, if he got a chance, was sure to tumble Vee-Vee +into a mud-hole just after he was nearly dried and lovely. I am sure he +did it out of pure fun, for when Vee-Vee came downstairs to go out on +these occasions, Nero would meet him, and eye him all over, and walk +round him, and snuff him, and smell at him in the most provoking teasing +manner possible. + +"`Oh! aren't you proud!' he would seem to say, and `aren't you white and +clean and nice, and doesn't that bit of blue ribbon, suit you! What do +you think of yourself, eh? My master can't wash me white, but I can +wash you black, only wait till we go out and come to a nice mud-heap, +and see if I don't change the colour of your jacket for you.' + +"Vee-Vee, though only a Pomeranian, learned a great many of Nero's +tricks; this proves that one dog can teach another. He used to swim +along with Nero, although when first going into the water he sometimes +lost confidence, and got on to his big friend's shoulders, at which Nero +used to seem vastly amused. He would look up at me with a sparkle of +genuine mirth in his eye as much as to say-- + +"`Only look, master, at this little fool of a Vee-Vee perched upon my +shoulder, like a fantail pigeon on top of a hen-house. But I don't mind +his weight, not in the slightest.' + +"Vee-Vee used to fetch and carry as well as Nero, in his own quiet +little way. One day I dropped my purse in the street, and was well-nigh +home before I missed it. You may judge of my joy when on looking round +I found Vee-Vee coming walking along with the purse in his mouth, +looking as solemn as a little judge. Vee-Vee, I may tell you, was only +about two weeks old when I first had him; he was too young to wean, and +the trouble of spoon-feeding was very great. In my dilemma, a favourite +cat of mine came to my assistance. She had recently lost her kittens, +and took to suckling young Vee-Vee as naturally as if she had been his +mother." + +"How strange," said Ida, "for a cat to suckle a puppy." + +"Cats, Ida," I replied, "have many curious fancies. A book [Note 1] +that I wrote some little time since gives many very strange +illustrations of the queer ways of these animals. Cats have been known +to suckle the young of rats, and even of hedgehogs, and to bring in +chickens and ducklings, and brood over them. This only proves, I think, +that it is cruel to take a cat's kittens away from her all at once." + +"Yes, it is," Ida said, thoughtfully; "and yet it seems almost more +cruel to permit her to rear a large number of kittens that you cannot +afterwards find homes for." + +"A very sensible remark, birdie. Well, to return to our mutual friend +Nero: about the same time that he had as his bosom companion the little +dog Vee-Vee, he contracted a strange and inexplicable affection for +another tiny dog that lived quite a mile and a half away, and for a time +she was altogether the favourite. The most curious part of the affair +was this: Nero's new favourite was only about six or seven inches in +height, and so small that it could easily have been put into a +gentleman's hat, and the hat put on the gentleman's head without much +inconvenience to either the gentleman or the dog. + +"When stationed at Sheerness, we lived on board H.M.S. P--, the flagship +there. On board were several other dogs. The captain of marines had +one, for example, a large, flat-coated, black, saucy retriever, that +rejoiced in the name of `Daidles'; the commander had two, a large +fox-terrier, and a curly-coated retriever called `Sambo.' All were +wardroom dogs--that is, all belonged to the officers' mess-room--and +lived there day and night, for there were no fine carpets to spoil, only +a well-scoured deck, and no ladies to object. Upon the whole, it must +be allowed that there was very little disagreement indeed among the mess +dogs. The fox-terrier was permitted to exist by the other three large +animals, and sometimes he was severely chastised by one of the +retrievers, only he could take his own part well enough. With the +commander's curly retriever, Nero cemented a friendship, which he kept +up until we left the ship, and many a romp they had together on deck, +and many a delightful cruise on shore. But Daidles, the marine +Officer's dog, was a veritable snarley-yow; he therefore was treated by +Nero to a sound thrashing once every month, as regularly as the new +moon. It is but just to Nero to say that Daidles always commenced those +rows by challenging Nero to mortal combat. Wild, cruel fights they used +to be, and much blood used to be spilled ere we could part them. As an +instance of memory in the dog, I may mention that two years after Nero +and I left the ship, we met Captain L--and his dog Daidles by chance in +Chatham one day. Nero knew Daidles, and Daidles knew Nero, long before +the captain and I were near enough to shake hands. + +"`Hullo!' cried Nero; `here we are again.' + +"`Yes,' cried Daidles; `let us have another fight for auld lang syne.' + +"And they did, and tore each other fearfully. + +"Nero's life on board this particular ship was a very happy one, for +everybody loved him, from the captain downwards to the little loblolly +boy who washed the bottles, spread the plasters, and made the poultices. + +"The blue-jackets all loved Nero; but he was more particularly the pet +of the marine mess. This may be accounted for from the fact that my +servant was a marine. + +"But every day when the bugle called the red-coats to dinner-- + +"`That calls me,' Master Nero would say; then off he would trot. + +"His plan was to go from one table to another, and it would be +superfluous to say that he never went short. + +"Nero had one very particular friend on board--dear old chief engineer +C--. Now my cabin was a dark and dismal one down in the cockpit, I +being then only junior surgeon; the engineer's was on the main deck, and +had a beautiful port. As Mr C--was a married man, he slept on shore; +therefore he kindly gave up his cabin to me--no, not to _me_, as he +plainly gave me to understand, but to _Nero_. + +"Nero liked his comforts, and it was C--'s delight of a morning after +breakfast to make Nero jump on top of my cot, and put his head on my +pillow. Then C--would cover him over with a rug, and the dog would give +a great sigh of satisfaction and go off to sleep, and all the din and +all the row of a thousand men at work and drill, could not waken Nero +until he had his nap out. + +"On Sunday morning the captain went round all the decks of the ship +inspecting them--the mess places, and the men's kits and cooking +utensils, everything, in fact, about the ship was examined on this +morning. He was followed by the commander, the chief surgeon, and by +Nero. + +"The inspection over, the boats were called away for church on shore. +Having landed, the men formed into marching order, band first, then the +officers, and next the blue-jackets. Nero's place was in front of the +band, and from the gay and jaunty way he stepped out, you might have +imagined that he considered himself captain of all these men. + +"Sometimes a death took place, and the march to the churchyard was a +very solemn and imposing spectacle. The very dog seemed to feel the +solemnity of the occasion; and I have known him march in front all the +way with lowered head and tail, as if he really felt that one of his +poor messmates was like Tom Bowling, `a sheer hulk,' and that he would +never, never see him again. You remember the beautiful old song, Ida, +and its grand, ringing old tune-- + + "`Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling, + The darling of our crew; + No more he'll hear the billows howling, + For death has broached him to. + His form was of the manliest beauty, + His heart was pure and soft; + Faithful below he did his duty, + And now he has gone aloft.' + +"It was on board this ship that Nero first learned that graceful +inclination of the body we call making a bow, and which Aileen Aroon +there has seen fit to copy. + +"You see, on board a man-o'-war, Ida, whenever an officer comes on the +quarter-deck, he lifts his hat, not to any one, remember, but out of +respect to Her Majesty the Queen's ship. The sailors taught Nero to +make a bow as soon as he came upstairs or up the ship's side, and it +soon came natural to him, so that he really was quite as respectful to +Her Majesty as any officer or man on board. + +"My old favourite, Tyro, was so fond of music that whenever I took up +the violin, he used to come and throw himself down at my feet. I do not +think Nero was ever fond of music, and I hardly know the reason why he +tolerated the band playing on the quarter-deck, for whenever on shore if +he happened to see and hear a brass band (a German itinerant one, I +mean), he flew straight at them, and never failed to scatter them in all +directions. I am afraid I rather encouraged him in this habit of his; +it was amusing and it made the people laugh. It did not make the German +fellows laugh, however--at least, not the man with the big bassoon--for +Nero always singled him out, probably because he was making more row +than the others. A gentleman said one day that Nero ought to be bought +by the people of Margate, and kept as public property to keep the +streets clear of the German band element. + +"But Nero never attempted to disperse the ship's band--he seemed rather +to like it. I remember once walking in a city up North, some years +after Nero left the service, and meeting a band of volunteers. + +"`Oh,' thought Nero, `this does put me in mind of old times.' + +"I do not know for certain that this was really what the dog thought, +but I am quite sure about what he did, and that was, to put himself at +the head of that volunteer regiment and march in front of it. As no +coaxing of mine could get the dog away, I was obliged to fall in too, +and we had quite a mile of a march, which I really had not expected, and +did not care for. + +"Nero's partiality for marines was very great; but here is a curious +circumstance: the dog knows the difference between a marine and a +soldier in the street, for even a year after he left garrison, if he saw +a red-jacket in the street, he would rush up to its owner. If a +soldier, he merely sniffed him and ran on; if a marine, he not only +sniffed him, but jumped about him and exhibited great joy, and perhaps +ended by taking the man's cap in a friendly kind of a way, and just for +auld lang syne. + +"Nero's life on board ship would have been one of unalloyed happiness, +except for those dreadful guns. The dog was not afraid of an ordinary +fowling-piece, but a cannon was another concern, and as we were very +often at general quarters, or saluting other ships, Nero had more than +enough of big guns. Terrible things he must have thought them--things +that went off when a man pulled a string, that went off with fire and +smoke, and a roar louder than any thunder; things that shook the ship +and smashed the crockery, and brought his master's good old fiddle +tumbling down to the deck--terrible things indeed. Even on days when +there was no saluting or firing, there was always that eight o'clock +gun. + +"As soon as the quartermaster entered the wardroom, a few seconds before +eight in the evening, and reported the hour to the commander, poor Nero +took refuge under the sofa. + +"He knew the man's knock. + +"`Eight o'clock, sir, please,' the man would say. + +"`Make it so,' the commander would reply, which meant, `Fire the gun.' + +"This was enough for Nero; he was in hiding a full minute before they +could `make it so.'" + +"Is that the reason," asked Ida, "why you sometimes say eight o'clock to +him when you want him to go and lie down?" + +"Yes, birdie," I replied. "He does not forget it, and never will as +long as he lives. If you look at him even now, you will see a kind of +terror in his eye, for he knows what we are talking about, and he is not +quite sure that even here in this peaceful pine wood some one might not +fire a big gun and make it eight o'clock." + +"No, no, no," cried Ida, throwing her arms around the dog, "don't be +afraid, dear old Nero. It shan't be eight o'clock. It will never, +never be eight o'clock any more, dearest doggie." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. "Friends in Fur." Published by Messrs. Dean and Son, Fleet +Street, London. + +CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. + +THE STORY OF AILEEN'S HUSBAND, NERO--CONTINUED. + + "His locked and lettered braw brass collar + Showed him the gentleman and scholar." + +"You promised," said my little companion the very next evening, "to +resume the thread of Nero's narrative." + +"Very prettily put, birdie," I said; "resume the thread of Nero's +narrative. Did I actually make use of those words? Very well, I will, +though I fear you will think the story a little dull, and probably the +story-teller somewhat prosy. + +"Do you know, then, Ida, that I am quite convinced that Providence gave +mankind the dog to be a real companion to him, and I believe that this +is the reason why a dog is so very, very faithful, so long-suffering +under trial, so patient when in pain, and so altogether good and kind. +When I look at poor old Nero, as he lies beside you there, half asleep, +yet listening to every word we say, my thoughts revert to many a bygone +scene in which he and I were the principal actors. And many a time, +Ida, when in grief and sorrow, I have felt, rightly or wrongly, that I +had not a friend in the world but himself. + +"Well, dear, I had learned to love Nero, and love him well, when I +received an appointment to join the flagship at Sheerness. The fact is +I had been a whole year on sick leave, and Nero and I had been +travelling for the sake of my health. There was hardly a town in +England, Ireland, or Scotland we had not visited, and I always managed +it so that the dog should occupy the same room as myself. By the end of +a twelvemonth, Nero had got to be quite an old and quite a wise +traveller. His special duty was to see after the luggage--in other +words, Master Nero was baggage-master. When I left a hotel, my traps +were generally taken in a hand-cart or trolly. Close beside the man all +the way to the station walked my faithful friend, he himself in all +probability carrying a carpet bag, and looking the very quintessence of +seriousness and dignified importance. As soon as he saw the porter +place the luggage in the van, then back he would come to me, with many a +joyous bark and bound, quite regardless of the fact that he sometimes +ran against a passenger, and sent him sprawling on the platform. + +"When we arrived at our journey's end, Nero used to be at the luggage +van before me. And here is something worth recording: as we usually +came out at a door on the opposite side of the train to that at which we +had entered, I was apt for a moment or two to forget the position of the +luggage van. Nero never made a mistake, so I daresay his scent assisted +him. As soon as the luggage was put on the trolly, and the man started +with it, the dog went with him, but as the man often went a long way +ahead of me, Nero was naturally afraid of losing sight of me; therefore +if the porter attempted to turn a corner the dog invariably barked, not +angrily, but determinedly, till he stopped. As soon as I came up, then +the procession went on again, till we came to another corner, when the +man had to stop once more. I remember he pulled a man down, because he +would not stop, but he did not otherwise hurt him at all. + +"In the train, he either travelled in the same carriage with myself, or +in cases where the guard objected to this, I travelled in the van with +the dog, so we were not separated. + +"If a man is travelling much by train or by steamboat, he need never +feel lonely if he has as splendid a dog as the Champion Theodore Nero +with him; for the dog makes his master acquaintances. + +"When Nero was with me, I could hardly stand for a moment at a street +corner or to look in at a shop window without attracting a small crowd. +I was never half an hour on the deck of a steamer without some one +coming up and saying-- + +"`Excuse me, sir, but what a noble-looking dog you have! What breed is +he? Pure Newfoundland, doubtless.' + +"This would in all probability lead to conversation, and many an +acquaintance I have thus formed, which have ripened into friendships +that last till this day. + +"Well, Ida, when I received my appointment to the flagship, my very +first thoughts were about my friend the dog, and with a sad feeling of +sinking at my heart, I asked myself the question--`Will Nero be +permitted to live on board?' To part with the dear fellow would have +been a grief I could not bear to contemplate. + +"An answer to the question, however, could not be obtained until I +joined my ship, that was certain; so I started. + +"It was in the gloaming of a blustering day in early spring that the +train in which we travelled, slowly, and after much unseemly delay, +rolled rattling into the little station at Sheerness, and after a +shoulder-to-shoulder struggle between half a dozen boatmen, who wished +to take me, bag and baggage, off somewhere, and the same number of +cabbies, who wished to carry me anywhere else, I was lucky enough to get +seated in a musty conveyance that smelt like the aroma of wet +collie-dogs and stale tobacco, with a slight suspicion of bad beer. +Against the windows of this rattletrap beat the cold rain, and the mud +flew from the wheels as from a wet swab. Lights were springing up here +and there in the street under the busy fingers of a lamp-lighter, who +might have been mistaken for a member of the monkey tribe, so nimbly did +he glide up and down his skeleton ladder, and hurry along at his task. +The wind, too, was doing all in its power to render his work abortive, +and the gas-lights burned blue under the blast. + +"We were glad when we reached the hotel, but I was gladder still when, +on making some inquiries about the ship I was about to join, I was told +that the commander was extremely fond of dogs, and that he had two of +his own. + +"I slept more soundly after that. + +"Next day, leaving my friend carefully under lock and key in charge of +the worthy proprietor of the Fountain Hotel, I got into uniform, and +having hired a shore boat, went off to my ship to report myself. To my +joy I found Commander C--to be as kind and jovial a sailor as any one +could wish to see and talk to. I was not long before I broached the +subject nearest to my heart. + +"`Objection to your dog on board?' he said, laughing. `Bring him, by +all means; he won't kill mine, though, I hope.' + +"`That I'm sure he won't,' I replied, feeling as happy as if I had just +come into a fortune. + +"I went on shore with a light heart, and hugged the dog. + +"`We're not going to be parted, dear old boy,' I said. `You are going +on board with me to-morrow.' + +"The evening before my heart was as gloomy as the weather; to-day the +sun shone, and my heart was as bright as the sky was blue. Nero and I +set out after luncheon to have a look at the town. + +"Sheerness on two sides is bounded by the dockyard, which divides it +from the sea. Indeed, the dockyard occupies the most comfortable +corner, and seems to say to the town, `Stand aside; you're nobody.' The +principal thoroughfare of Sheerness has on one side of it the high, +bleak boundary wall, while on the other stands as ragged-looking a line +of houses as one could well imagine, putting one in mind of a regiment +of militia newly embodied and minus uniform. As you journey from the +station, everything reminds you that you are in a naval seaport of the +lowest class. Lazy watermen by the dozen loll about the pier-head with +their arms, to say nothing of their hands, buried deeply in their +breeches-pockets, while every male you meet is either soldier or sailor, +dockyard's man or solemn-looking policeman. Every shop that isn't a +beer-house, is either a general dealer's, where you can purchase +anything nautical, from a sail-needle to sea boots, or an eating house, +in the windows of which are temptingly exposed joints of suspiciously +red corned-beef, soapy-looking mutton and uninviting pork, and where you +are invited to partake of tea and shrimps for ninepence. + +"So on the whole the town of Sheerness itself is by no means a very +inviting one, nor a very savoury one either. + +"But away out beyond the dockyard and over the moat, and Sheerness +brightens up a little, and spreads out both to left and right, and you +find terraces with trim little gardens and green-painted palings, while +instead of the odour of tar and cheese and animal decay, you can breathe +the fresh, pure air from over the ocean, and see the green waves come +tumbling in and break in soft music on the snowy shingle. + +"Here live the benedicts of the flagship. At half-past seven of a fine +summer morning you may see them, hurried and hungry, trotting along +towards the dockyard, looking as if another hour's sleep would not have +come amiss to them. But once they get on board their ships, how +magic-like will be the disappearance of the plump soles, the curried +lobster, the corned-beef, and the remains of last night's pigeon-pie, +while the messman can hardly help looking anxious, and the servants run +each other down in their hurry to supply the tea and toast! + +"Of the country immediately around this town of Sheerness, the principal +features are open ditches, slimy and green, evolving an effluvium that +keeps the very bees at bay, encircling low flat fields and marshy moors, +affording subsistence only to crazy-looking sheep and water rats. The +people of Sheerness eat the sheep; I have not been advised as to their +eating the rats. + +"But, and if you are young, and your muscles are well developed, and +your tendo Achillis wiry and strong, then when the summer is in its +prime and the sun is brightly shining, shall you leave the odoriferous +town and its aguish surroundings, and like `Jack of the bean-stalk,' +climb up into a comparative fairyland. At the top of the hill stands +the little village of Minster, its romantic old church and ivied tower +begirt with the graves of generations long since passed and gone, the +very tombstones of which are mouldering to dust. The view from here +well repays the labour of climbing the bean-stalk. But leave it behind +and journey seaward over the rolling tableland. Rural hamlets; pretty +villages; tree-lined lanes and clovery fields with grazing kine--you +shall scarcely be tired of such quiet and peaceful scenery when you +arrive at the edge of the clayey cliff, with the waves breaking among +the boulders on the beach far beneath you, and the sea spreading out +towards the horizon a vast plain of rippling green, crowded with ships +from every land and clime. Heigho! won't you be sorry to descend your +bean-stalk and re-enter Sheerness once again? + +"I do not think, Ida, that ship dogs' lives are as a rule very happy +ones. They get far too little exercise and far too much to eat, so they +grow both fat and lazy. But in this particular flagship neither I nor +my friend Nero had very much to grumble about. The commander was as +good as he looked, and there was not an officer in the ship, nor a man +either, that had not a kind word for the dog. + +"The great event of the day, as far as Nero and I were concerned, was +going on shore in the afternoon for a walk, and a dip in the sea when +the weather was warm. Whether the weather was warm or not, Nero always +had his bath, for the distance to the shore being hardly half a mile, no +sooner had the boat left the vessel's side than there were cries from +some of us officers of the vessel-- + +"`Hie over, you dogs, hie over, boys.' + +"The first to spring into the sea would be Nero, next went his friend +Sambo, and afterwards doggie Daidles. The three black heads in the +water put one in mind of seals. Although the retrievers managed to keep +well up for some time, gradually the Newfoundland forged ahead, and he +was in long before the others, and standing very anxiously gazing +seawards to notice how Sambo was getting on; for the currents run +fearfully strong there. Daidles always got in second. Of Daidles Nero +took not the slightest notice; even had he been drowning he would have +made no attempt to save him; but no sooner did Sambo approach the stone +steps than with a cry of fond anxiety, the noble Newfoundland used to +rush downwards, seize Sambo gently by the neck, and help him out. + +"I was coming from the shore one day, when Sambo fell from a port into +the sea. Nero at once leapt into the water, and swimming up to his +friend, attempted to seize him. The conversation between them seemed to +be something like the following-- + +"_Nero_: `You're drowning, aren't you? Let me hold you up.' + +"_Sambo_: `Nonsense, Nero, let go my neck; I could keep afloat as long +as yourself.' + +"_Nero_: `Very well, here goes then; but I _must_ pick something up.' + +"So saying, Nero swam after a piece of newspaper, seized that, and swam +to the ladder with it; some of the men lent him a helping hand, and up +he went. + +"The flagship was a tall old line of battle ship; on the starboard side +was a broad ladder, on the port merely a ladder of ropes. On stormy +days, with a heavy sea on, the starboard ladder probably could not be +used, and so the dog had to be lowered into the boat and hoisted up +therefrom with a long rope. To make matters more simple and easy for +him, one of the men made the dog a broad belt of canvas. To this corset +the end of the rope was attached, and away went Nero up or down as the +case happened to be. + +"Although as gentle by nature as a lamb, Nero would never stand much +impudence from another dog without resenting it. When passing through +the dockyard one day, we met an immense Saint Bernard, who strutted up +to Nero, and at once addressed him in what appeared to me the following +strain-- + +"`Hullo! Got on shore, have you? I daresay you think yourself a pretty +fellow now? But you're not a bit bigger than I am, and not so handsome. +I've a good mind to bite you. Yah! you're only a surgeon's dog, and my +master is captain of the dockyard. Yah!' + +"`Don't growl at me,' replied Nero; `my master is every bit as good as +yours, and a vast deal better, _so_ don't raise your hair, else I may +lose my temper.' + +"`Yah! yah!' growled the Saint Bernard. + +"`Come on, Nero,' I cried; `don't get angry, old boy.' + +"`Half a minute, master,' replied Nero; `here is a gentleman that wants +to be brought to his bearings.' + +"Next moment those two dogs were at it. It was an ugly fight, and some +blood was spilled on both sides, but at last Nero was triumphant. He +hauled the Saint Bernard under a gun carriage and punished him severely, +I being thus powerless to do anything. + +"Then Nero came out and shook himself, while the other dog lay beaten +and cowed. + +"`I don't think,' said Nero to me, `that he will boast about his master +again in a hurry.' + +"Generosity is a part of the Newfoundland dog's nature. At my father's +village in the far north, called Inverurie, there used to be a large +black half-bred dog, that until Nero made an appearance lorded it over +all the other dogs in the town. This animal was a bully, and therefore +a coward. He had killed more than one dog. + +"The very first day that he saw Nero he must needs rush out and attack +him. He found himself on his back on the pavement in a few moments. +Then came the curious part of the intercourse. Instead of worrying him, +Nero simply held him down, and lay quietly on top of him for more than +two minutes, during which time he appeared to reason with the cur, who +was completely cowed. + +"`I'll let you up presently,' Nero said; `but you must promise not to +attempt to attack me again.' + +"`I promise,' said the other dog. + +"Then, much to the amusement of the little crowd that had collected, +Nero very slowly raised himself and walked away. Behold! no sooner had +he turned his back than his prostrate foe sprang up and bit him +viciously in the leg. + +"It was no wonder Nero now lost his temper, or that he shook that black +dog as a servant-maid shakes a hearthrug. + +"_I_ tried to intervene to save the poor mongrel, but was kept back by +the mob. + +"`Let him have it, sir,' cried one man; `he killed S--'s dog.' + +"`Yes, let him have it,' cried another; `he kills dogs and he kills +sheep as well.' + +"To his honour be it said, I never saw Nero provoke a fight, but when +set upon by a cur he always punished his foe. In two instances he tried +to drown his antagonist. A dog at Sheerness attacked him on the beach +one day. Nero punished him well, but seeing me coming to the dog's +rescue, he dragged the dog into the sea and lay on him there. I had to +wade in and pull Master Nero off by the tail, else the other dog would +assuredly have been drowned. I am referring to a large red retriever, +lame in one leg, that belonged to the artillery. He had been +accidentally blown from a gun and set fire to. That was the cause of +his lameness. + +"There was a large Newfoundland used to be on the _Great Eastern_, whose +name was `Sailor.' Before Nero's appearance at Sheerness, he was looked +upon as the finest specimen of that kind of dog ever seen. He had to +lower his flag to Nero, however. + +"They met one morning on the beach at the oyster beds. + +"`Hullo!' said Sailor, `you are the dog that everybody is making such a +fuss over. You're Nero, aren't you?' + +"`My name is Theodore Nero,' said my friend, bristling up at the saucy +looks of the stranger. + +"`And my name is Sailor, at your service,' said the other, `and I belong +to the largest ship in the world. And I don't think much of you. Yah!' + +"`Good-morning,' said Nero. + +"`Not so fast,' cried the other; `you've got to fight first, but I +daresay you're afraid. Eh! Yah!' + +"`Am I?' said Nero. `We'll see who is afraid.' + +"Next moment the oyster beach was a battle-field. But some sailors +coming along, we managed to pull the dogs asunder by the tails. +Whenever Sailor saw Nero after this he took to his heels and ran away. +But a good dog was Sailor for all that, and a very clever water-dog. He +used to jump from the top of the paddle-box of the great ship into the +sea--a height, I believe, of about seventy feet. + +"Nero's prowess as a water-dog was well known in Sheerness, and +wonderful stories are told about him, even to this day; not all of which +are true, any more than the tales of the knights of old are. But some +of our marines managed to turn his swimming powers to good account, as +the following will testify. + +"On days when it was impossible for me to get on shore, I used to send +my servant with the dog for a swim and a run. When near the dockyard +steps, a great log of wood used to be pitched out of the boat, and Nero +sent after it. Anything Nero fetched out of the water he considered his +own or his master's property, which it would be dangerous for any one to +meddle with. Well, as soon as he had landed with the log, Nero used to +march up the steps, the water flowing behind from his splendid coat, up +the steps and through the dockyard; the policemen only stood by +marvelling to see a dog carrying such an immense great log of wood. If +my servant carried a basket, that would be searched for contraband +goods, rum or tobacco. + +"Then my servant would pass on, smiling in his own sleeve as the saying +is, for no one ever dreamed of searching the dog." + +"Searching the dog!" said Ida, with wondering eyes. + +"Yes, dear, the dog was a smuggler, though he did not know it. For that +log of wood was a hollow one, and stuffed with tobacco. I did not know +of this, of course." + +"How wicked!" said Ida. "Why, Nero, you've been a regular pirate of the +boundless ocean." + +CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. + +THE STORY OF AILEEN'S HUSBAND, NERO--CONTINUED. + + "Poor dog! he was faithful and kind, to be sure, + And he constantly loved me, although I was poor." + + Campbell. + +"Do I think that Master Nero knows we are talking about him? Yes, +birdie, of that I am quite convinced. Just look at the cunning old +rogue lying there pretending to be asleep, but with his ears well +forward, and one eye half-open. And Aileen, too, knows there is a bit +of biography going on, and that it is all about her well-beloved lord +and master. + +"But to tell you one-tenth part of all that had happened to Nero, or to +me and Nero together, would take far more time than I can spare, dear +Ida. I could give you anecdote after anecdote about his bravery, his +strength, his nobility of mind, and his wonderful sagacity; but these +would not make you love him more than you do. + +"And you never can love the faithful fellow half so much as I do. I +have been blamed for loving him far too well, and reminded that he is +only a dog. + +"Only a dog! How much I hate the phrase; and sinful though I know it to +be, I can hardly help despising those who make use of it. But of those +who do use the expression, there are few, I really believe, who would +wonder at me loving that noble fellow so well did they know the sincere +friend he has been many a time and oft to me. + +"He saved my life--worthless though it may be--he saved the life of +another. Tell you the story? It is not a story, but two stories; and +though both redound to the extreme wisdom and sagacity and love of the +dog, both are far too sad for you to listen to. Some day I may tell +them. Perhaps--" + +There was a pause of some minutes here; Ida, who was lying beside the +dog, had thrown her arms around his neck, and was fondly hugging him. +Aileen came directly to me, sighed as usual, and put her head on my +shoulder. + +"Love begets love, Ida, and I think it was more than anything else the +dog's extreme affection for me, shown in a thousand little ways, that +caused me to take such a strong abiding affection for him. He knew--as +he does now--everything I said, and was always willing to forestall my +wishes, and do everything in the world to please me. + +"When ill one time, during some of our wanderings, and laid up in an +out-of-the-way part of the country among strange people, it was a sad +anxiety for me to have to tell the dog he must go out by himself and +take his necessary ramble, as I was far too ill to leave my bed. + +"The poor animal understood me. + +"`Good-bye, master,' he seemed to say, as he licked my face; `I know you +are ill, but I won't stop out long.' + +"He was back again in a quarter of an hour, and the same thing occurred +every time he was sent by himself; he never stopped more than fifteen +minutes. + +"Would a human friend have been as careful? Do you not think that there +were temptations to be resisted even during that short ramble of his-- +things he would have liked to have stopped to look at, things he would +have liked to have chased? Many a dog, I have no doubt, invited him to +stop and play, but the dog's answer must have been, `Nay, nay, not +to-day; I have a poor sick master in bed, and I know not what might +happen to him in this strange place, and among so many strange people. +I must hurry and get home.' + +"When he did return, he did so as joyfully and made as much fuss over me +as if he had been away for a week. + +"`I didn't stop long, _did_ I, master?' he would always say, when he +returned. + +"But wasn't he a happy dog when he got me up and out again? Weak enough +I was at first, but he never went far away from me, just trotted on and +looked about encouragingly and waited. I allowed him to take me where +he chose, and I have reason to believe he led me on his own round, the +round he had taken all by himself every day for weeks before that. + +"`Nero, old boy,' I said to him one day, some time after this sickness, +`come here.' + +"The dog got up from his corner, and laid his saucy head on my lap. + +"`I'm all attention, master,' he said, talking with his bonnie brown +eyes. + +"`I don't believe there are two better Newfoundlands in England than +yourself, Nero.' + +"`I don't believe there is one,' said Nero. + +"`Don't be saucy,' I said. + +"`Didn't I take a cup at the Crystal Palace?' + +"`Yes, but it was only second prize, old boy.' + +"`True, master, but nearly every one said it ought to have been first. +I'm only two years old and little over, and isn't a second prize at a +Crystal Palace show a great honour for a youngster like myself?' + +"`True, Nero, true; and now I've something to propose.' + +"`To which,' said the dog, `I am willing to listen.' + +"`Well,' I said, `there are dozens of dog-shows about to take place all +over the country. I want a change: suppose we go round. Suppose we +constitute ourselves show folk. Eh?' + +"`Capital.' + +"`And you'll win lots of prize-money, Nero.' + +"`And you'll spend it, master. Capital again.' + +"`There won't be much capital left, I expect, doggie, by the time we get +back; but we'll see a bit of England, at all events.' + +"So we agreed to start, and so sure of winning with the dog was I that I +bought that splendid red patent leather collar that you, Ida, sometimes +wear for a waist-belt. The silver clasps on it were empty then, but +each time the dog won a prize, the name of the town was engraved on one +of the clasps." + +"They are pretty well filled up now," said Ida. + +"Yes, the dog won nineteen first prizes and cups in little over three +months, which was very fair for those days. He was then dubbed +champion. There was not a Newfoundland dog from Glasgow to Neath that +would have cared to have met Nero in the show ring. + +"He used to enter the arena, too, with such humour and dash, with his +grand black coat floating around him, and the sun glittering on it like +moonbeams on a midnight sea. That was how Nero entered the judging +ring; he never slunk in, as did some dogs. He just as often as not had +a stick in his mouth, and if he hadn't, he very soon possessed himself +of one. + +"`Yes, look at me all over,' he would say to the judges; `there is no +picking a fault in me, nor in my master either for that matter. I'm +going to win, that's what I'm here for.' + +"But when I was presented with the prize card by the judge, Nero never +failed to make him a very pretty bow. + +"The only misfortune that ever befell the poor fellow was at Edinburgh +dog-show. + +"On the morning of the second day--it was a three or four day +exhibition--I received a warning letter, written in a female hand, +telling me that those who were jealous of the dog's honours and winnings +were going to poison him. + +"I treated the matter as a joke. I could not believe the world +contained a villain vile enough to do a splendid animal like that to +death, and so cruel a death, for the sake of pique and jealousy. But I +had yet to learn what the world was. + +"The dog was taken to the show, and chained up as usual at his place on +the bench. Alas! when I went to take him home for the night I found his +head down, and hardly able to move. I got him away, and sat up with him +all night administering restoratives. + +"He was able to drink a little milk in the morning, and to save his +prize-money I took him back, but had him carefully watched and tended +all the remaining time that the show was open. + +"We went to Boston, Lincoln, Gainsborongh, and all over Yorkshire and +Lancaster and Chester, besides Scotland, and our progress was a triumph +to the grand and beautiful dog. Especially was he admired by ladies at +shows. Wherever else they might be, there was always a bevy of the fair +sex around Nero's cage. During that three months' tour he had more +kisses probably than any dog ever had before in the same time. It was +the same out of the show as in it--no one passed him by without stopping +to admire him. + +"`Aren't we having a splendid time, master?' the dog said to me one day. + +"`Splendid,' I replied; `but I think we've done enough, my doggie. I +think we had better retire now and go to sea for a spell.' + +"`Heigho!' the dog seemed to say; `but wherever your home is there mine +is too, master.'" + +"There is a prize card hanging on the wall of the wigwam," said Ida, "on +which Nero is said to have won at a life-saving contest at Southsea." + +"Yes, dear, that was another day's triumph for the poor fellow. He had +won on the show bench there as well, and afterwards proved his prowess +in the sea in the presence of admiring thousands. + +"Your honest friend there, Ida, has been all along as fond of human +beings and other animals as he is now. In their own country +Newfoundlands are used often as sledge dogs, and sometimes as +retrievers, but I do not think it is in their nature to take life of any +kind, unless insect life, my gentle Ida. They don't like blue-bottles +nor wasps, I must confess, but Nero has given many proofs of the +kindness of heart he possesses that are really not easily forgotten. + +"Tell you a few? I'll tell you one or two. The first seems trivial, +but there is a certain amount of both pathos and humour about it. Two +boys had been playing near the water at Gosport, and for mischiefs sake +one had pitched the other's cap into the tide and ran off. The cap was +being floated away, and the disconsolate owner was weeping bitterly on +the bank, when we came up. Nero, without being told, understood what +was wrong in a moment; one glance at the floating cap, another at the +boy, then splash! he had sprang into the tide, and in a few minutes had +laid the rescued article at the lad's feet; then he took his tongue +across his cheek in a rough kind of caressing way. + +"`There now,' he appeared to say, `don't cry any more.' + +"Nero ought to have made his exit here, and he would have come off quite +the hero; but no, the spirit of mischief entered into him, and he shook +himself, sending buckets of water all over the luckless lad, who was +almost as wet now as if he had swam in after his cap himself. Then Nero +came galloping up to me, laughing all over at the trick he had played +the poor boy. + +"This trick of shaking himself over people was taught him by one of my +messmates; and he used to delight to take him along the beach on a +summer's day, and put him in the water. When he came out, my friend +would march along in front of the dog, till the latter was close to some +gay lounger, then turn and say, `Shake yourself, boy.' The _denouement_ +may be more easily imagined than described, especially if the lounger +happened to be a lady. I'm ashamed of my friend, but love the truth, +Ida." + +"How terribly wicked of Nero to do it!" said Ida. + +"And yet I saw the dog one day remove a drowning mouse from his water +dish, without putting a tooth in it. He placed it on the kitchen floor, +and licked it as tenderly over as a cat would her kitten. He looked up +anxiously in my face, as much as to say, `Do you think the poor thing +can live?' + +"Hurricane Bob there, his son, does not inherit all his father's finest +qualities; he would not scruple to kill mice or rats by the score. In +fact, I have reason to believe he rather likes it. His mother was just +the same before him; a kindly-hearted dog she was, but as wild as a +wolf, and full of fun of the rough-and-tumble kind." + +"Were you never afraid of losing poor Nero?" + +"I did lose him one dark winter's night, Ida, in the middle of a large +and populous city. Luckily, I had been staying there for some time--two +weeks, I think--and there were different shops in different parts of the +city where I dealt, and other places where I called to rest or read. +The dog was always in the habit of accompanying me to the shops, to +bring home the purchases, so he knew them all. The very day on which I +lost the dog I had changed my apartments to another quarter of the city. + +"In the evening, while walking along a street, with Nero some distance +behind me, it suddenly occurred to me to run into a shop and purchase a +magazine I saw in the window. I never thought of calling the dog. I +fancied he would see me entering the book-shop and follow, but he +didn't; he missed me, and thinking I must be on ahead, rushed wildly +away up the street into the darkness and rain, and I saw him no more +that night. + +"Only those who have lost a favourite dog under such circumstances can +fully appreciate the extent of my grief and misery. I went home at long +last to my lonely lodgings. How dingy and dreadful they seemed without +poor Nero's honest form on the hearthrug! Where could he be, what would +become of him, my only friend, my gentle, loving, noble dog, the only +creature that cared for me? You may be sure I did not sleep, I never +even undressed, but sat all night in my chair, sleeping towards morning, +and dreaming uneasy dreams, in which the dog was always first figure. + +"I was out and on my way to the police offices ere it was light. The +weather had changed, frost had come, and snow had fallen. + +"Several large black dogs had been found during the night; I went to see +them all. Alas! none was Nero. So after getting bills printed, and +arranging to have them posted, I returned disheartened to my lodgings. +But when the door opened, something as big as a bear flew out, flew at +me, and fairly rolled me down among the snow. + +"`No gentler caress, master,' said Nero, for it was he, `would express +the joy of the occasion.' + +"Poor fellow, I found out that day that he had been at every one of the +places at which I usually called; I daresay he had gone back to our old +apartments too, and had of course failed to find me there. As a last +resort he turned up at the house of an old soldier with whom I had had +many a pleasant confab. This was about eleven o'clock; it was eight +when he was lost. Not finding me here, he would have left again, and +perhaps found his way to our new lodgings; but the old soldier, seeing +that something must be amiss, took him in, kept him all night, found my +rooms in the morning, and fetched him home. You may guess whether I +thanked the old man or not. + +"When Dolls (_see_ page 76) came to me first, he was in great grief for +the loss of his dear master [Note 1]. Nero seemed to know it, and +though he seldom made much of a fuss over dogs of this breed, he took +Dolls under his protection; indeed, he hardly knew how kind to be to +him. + +"I ought to mention that Mortimer Collins and Nero were very great +friends indeed, for the poet loved all things in nature good and true. + +"There was one little pet that Nero had long before you knew him, Ida. +His name was Pearl, a splendid Pomeranian. Perhaps Pearl reminded Nero +very much of his old favourite, Vee-vee. At all events he took to him, +used to share his bed and board with him, and protected him from the +attacks of strange dogs when out. Pearl was fat, and couldn't jump +well. I remember our coming to a fence one day about a foot and a half +high. The other dogs all went bounding over, but Pearl was left to +whine and weep at the other side. Nero went straight back, bounded over +and re-bounded over, as if showing Pearl how easy it was. But Pearl's +heart failed, seeing which honest Nero fairly lifted him over by the +back of the neck. + +"I was going to give a dog called `Pandoo' chastisement once. Pandoo +was a young Newfoundland, and a great pet of Nero, whose son he was. I +got the cane, and was about to raise it, when Nero sprang up and +snatched it from my hand, and ran off with it. It was done in a +frolicsome manner, and with a deal of romping and jumping. At the same +time, I could see he really meant to save the young delinquent; so I +made a virtue of necessity, and pardoned Pandoo. + +"But Nero's love for other animals, and his kindness for all creatures +less and weaker than himself, should surely teach our poor humanity a +lesson. You would think, to see him looking pityingly sometimes at a +creature in pain, that he was saying with the poet-- + + "`Poor uncomplaining brute, + Its wrongs are innocent at least, + And all its sorrows mute.' + +"One day, at the ferry at Hotwells, Clifton, a little black-and-tan +terrier took the water after a boat and attempted to cross, but the tide +ran strong, and ere it reached the centre it was being carried rapidly +down stream. On the opposite bank stood Nero, eagerly watching the +little one's struggles, and when he saw they were unsuccessful, with one +impatient bark--which seemed to say, `Bear up, I'm coming'--he dashed +into the water, and ploughed the little terrier all the way over with +his broad chest, to the great amusement of an admiring crowd. + +"On another occasion some boys near Manchester were sending a +Dandie-Dinmont into a pond after a poor duck; the Dandie had almost +succeeded in laying hold of the duck, when Nero sprang into the water, +and brought out, not the duck, but the Dandie by the back of the neck. + +"I saw one day a terrier fly at him and bite him viciously behind. He +turned and snapped it, just once. Once was enough. The little dog sat +down on the pavement and howled piteously. Nero, who had gone on, must +then turn and look back, and then _go_ back _and lick the place he had +bitten_. + +"`I really didn't intend to hurt you so much,' he seemed to say; `but +you did provoke me, you know. There! there! don't cry.'" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Now then, Ida, birdie, let us have one good scamper through the pine +wood and meadow, and then hie for home. Come on, dogs; where are you +all? Aileen, Nero, Bob, Gipsy, Eily, Broom, Gael, Coronach? Hurrah! +There's a row! There's music! That squirrel, Ida, who has been cocking +up there on the oak, listening to all we've been saying, thinks he'd +better be off. There isn't a bird in the wood that hasn't ceased its +song, and there isn't a rabbit that hasn't gone scurrying into its hole, +and I believe the deer have all jumped clean out of the forest; the hare +thinks he will be safer far by the river's brink; and the sly, wily old +weasel has come to the conclusion that he can wait for his dinner till +the dogs go home. The only animal that doesn't run away is the +field-mouse. He means to draw himself up under a burdock leaf and wait +patiently till the hairy hurricane sweeps onward past him. Then he'll +creep out and go nibbling round as usual. Come." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. The poet Mortimer Collins. He came into my possession shortly +after his death. + +CHAPTER THIRTY. + +IDA'S ILLNESS--MERCY TO THE DUMB ANIMALS. + + "Then craving leave, he spake + Of life, which all can take but none can give; + Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep, + Wonderful, dear, and pleasant unto each, + Even to the meanest; yea, a boon to all + Where pity is, for pity makes the world + Soft to the weak and noble to the strong." + + E. Arnold's "Light of Asia." + +It was sadly changed times with all of us when Ida fell ill. + +Her illness was a very severe one, and for many weeks she literally +hovered 'twixt death and life. Her spirit seemed like some beautiful +bird of migration, that meditates quitting these cold intemperate shores +and flying away to sunnier climes, but yet is loath to leave old +associations and everything dear to it. + +There was little done during these weeks, save attending to Ida's +comforts, little thought about save the child. + +Even the dogs missed their playmate. The terriers went away to the +woods every day by themselves. Eily, the collie, being told that she +must make no noise, refrained from barking even at the butcher, or +jumping up and shaking the baker by his basket, as had been her wont. + +Poor Aileen Aroon went about with her great head lower than usual, and +with a very apologetic look about her, a look that, beginning in her +face, seemed to extend all the way to the point of her tail, which she +wagged in quite a doleful manner. + +Nero and she took turn and turn about at keeping watch outside Ida's +room door. + +Ida's favourite cat seldom left her little mistress's bedside, and +indeed she was as often in the bed as out of it. + +It was winter--a green winter. Too green, Frank said, to be healthy; +and the dear old man used to pray to see the snow come. + +"A bit of a frost would fetch her round," he said. "I'd give ten years +of my life, if it is worth as much, to see the snow on the ground." + +The trees were all leafless and bare, but tiny flowers and things kept +growing in under the shrubs in quite an unnatural way. + +But Frank came in joyfully one evening, crying, "It's coming, Gordon, +it's coming; the stars are unspeakably bright; there is a steel-blue +glitter in the sky that I like. It's coming; we'll have the snow, and +we'll have Ida up again in a month." + +I had not quite so much faith in the snow myself, but I went out to have +a look at the prospect. It was all as Frank had said; the weird +gigantic poplars were pointing with leafless fingers up into a sky of +frosty blue, up to stars that shone with unusual radiance; and as I +walked along, the gravel on the path resounded to my tread. + +"I'll be right; you'll see, I'll be right," cried Frank, exultant. "I'm +an older man than you, Gordon, doctor and all though you be." + +Frank _was_ right. He was right about the snow, to begin with. It came +on next morning; not all at once in great flakes. No, big storms never +begin like that, but in grains like millet-seed. This for an hour; then +mingling with the millet-seed came little flakes, and finally an +infinity of large ones, as big as butterflies' wings. It was a treat to +gaze upwards, and watch them coming dancing downwards in a dazzling and +interminable maze. + +It was beautiful! + +It wanted but one thing at that moment to make me happy. That was the +presence of our bright-faced, blue-eyed little pet, standing on the +doorstep as she used to, gazing upwards, with apron outstretched to +catch the falling flakes. + +Frank was so overjoyed, he must needs go out and walk about in the snow +for nearly an hour. I was in the kitchen engaged in some mysterious +invalid culinary operation when Frank came in. He always came in +through the kitchen now, instead of the hall, lest he might disturb the +child. + +Frank's face was a treat to look at; it was redder, and appeared rounder +than usual, and jollier. + +"There's three inches of snow on the ground already," he remarked, +joyfully. "Mary, bring the besom, my girl, to brush the snow off my +boots. That's the style." + +Strange as it may appear, from that very morning our little patient +began to mend, and ere the storm had shown signs of abatement--in less +than a week, in fact--Ida was able to sit up in bed. + +Thin was her face, transparent were her hands; yet I could see signs of +improvement; the white of her skin was a more healthful white; her +great, round eyes lost the longing, wistful look they had before. + +I was delighted when she asked me to play to her. She would choose the +music, and I must play soft and low and sweet. Her fingers would deftly +turn the pages of the book till her eyes rested on something she loved, +and she would say, with tears in her eyes-- + +"Play, oh, play this! I do love it." + +I managed to find flowers for her even in the snowstorm, for the +glass-houses at the Manor of D--are as large as any in the country, and +the owner was my friend. + +I think she liked to look at the hothouse fruit we brought her, better +than to eat them. + +The dogs were now often admitted. Even Gael and Broom were not entirely +banished. + +My wife used to sew in the room, and sometimes read to Ida, and Frank +used to come in and sit at the window and twirl his thumbs. His +presence seemed to comfort the child. + +I used to write beside her. + +"What is that you are writing?" she said one day. + +"Nothing much," I replied; "only the introduction to a `Penny Reading' +I'm going to give against cruelty to animals." + +"Read it," said Ida; "and to-morrow, mind, you must begin and tell me +stories again, and then I'm sure I shall soon get well, because whatever +you describe about the fields or the woods, the birds or the flowers I +can see, it is just like being among them." + +I had to do as I was told, so read as follows:-- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Mercy to the Dumb Animals. + +"`I would give nothing for that man's religion whose cat and dog are not +the better for it.'--_Dr Norman McLeod_. + +"`We are living in an enlightened age.' This is a remark which we hear +made almost every day, a remark which contains just one golden grain of +truth. Mankind is not yet enlightened in the broad sense of the term. +From the night of the past, from the darkness of bygone times, we are +but groping our way, as it were, in the morning-glome, towards a great +and a glorious light. + +"It is an age of advancement, and a thousand facts might be adduced in +proof of this. I need point to only one: the evident but gradual +surcease of needless cruelty to animals. Among all classes of the +community far greater love and kindness is now manifested towards the +creatures under our charge than ever was in days gone by. We take +greater care of them, we think more of their comfort when well, we tend +them more gently when sick, and we even take a justifiable pride in +their appearance and beauty. All this only shows that there is a spirit +of good abroad in the land, a something that tends to elevate, not +depress, the soul of man. I see a spark of this goodness even in the +breast of the felon who in his prison cell tames a humble mouse, and who +weeps when it is cruelly taken from him; in the ignorant costermonger +who strokes the sleek sides of his fat donkey, or the rough and unkempt +drover-boy, who shares the remains of a meagre meal with his faithful +collie. + +"Religion and kindness to animals go hand in hand, and have done so for +ages, for we cannot truly worship the Creator unless we love and admire +His works. + +"The heavenly teaching of the Mosaic law inculcates mercy to the beasts. +It is even commanded that the ox and the ass should have rest on one +day of the week--namely, the Sabbath; that the ox that treadeth out the +corn is not to be muzzled; that the disparity in strength of the ass and +ox is to be considered, and that they should not be yoked together in +one plough. Even the wild birds of the field and woods are not +forgotten, as may be seen by reading the following passage from the Book +of Deuteronomy:--`If a bird's nest be before thee in any tree, or on the +ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the +young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: but +thou shalt in any way let the dam go.' + +"The Jews were commanded to be merciful and kind to an animal, even if +it belonged to a person unfriendly to them. + +"`If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, +and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.' + +"That is, they were to assist even an enemy to do good to a fallen +brute. It is as if a man, passing along the street, saw the horse or +ass of a neighbour, who bore deadly hatred to him, stumble and fall +under his load, and said to himself-- + +"`Oh! yonder is So-and-so's beast come down; I'll go and lend a hand. +So-and-so is no friend of mine, but the poor animal can't help that. +_He_ never did me any harm.' + +"And a greater than even Moses reminds us we are to show mercy to the +animals even on the sacred day of the week. + +"But it is not so very many years ago--in the time when our grandfathers +were young, for instance--since roughness and cruelty towards animals +were in a manner studied, and even encouraged in the young by their +elders. It was thought manly to domineer over helpless brutes, to pull +horses on their haunches, to goad oxen along the road, though they were +moving to death in the shambles, to stone or beat poor fallen sheep, to +hunt cats with dogs, and to attend bull-baitings and dog and cock +fights. And there are people even yet who talk of these days as the +good old times when `a man was a man.' But such people have only to +visit some low-class haunt of `the fancy,' when `business' is being +transacted, to learn how depraving are the effects of familiarity with +scenes of cruelty towards the lower animals. Even around a rat-pit they +would see faces more revolting in appearance than those of Dore's +demons, and listen to jests and language so ribald and coarse as +positively to pain and torture the ear and senses. Goodness be praised +that such scenes are every day getting more rare, and that the men who +attend them have a wholesome terror of the majesty of human laws at +least. + +"Other religions besides the Christian impress upon their followers +rules relating to kindness to the inferior animals. Notably, perhaps, +that of Buddha, under the teachings of which about five hundred millions +of human beings live and die. The doctrines of Gautama are sublimely +beautiful; they are akin to those of our own religion, and I never yet +met any one who had studied them who did not confess himself the better +and happier for having done so. One may read in prose sketches of the +life and teachings of Gautama the Buddha, in a book published by the +Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, or he may read them in verse +in that splendid poem by Edwin Arnold called `The Light of Asia.' +Gautama sees good in all things, and all nature working together for +good; he speaks of-- + + "`That fixed decree at silent work which will + Evolve the dark to light, the dead to life, + To fulness void, to form the yet unformed, + Good unto better, better unto best, + By wordless edict; having none to bid, + None to forbid; for this is past all gods + Immutable, unspeakable, supreme, + A Power which builds, unbuilds, and builds again, + Ruling all things accordant to the rule + Of virtue, which is beauty, truth, and use. + So that all things do well which serve the Power + And ill which hinder; nay, the worm does well [Note 1] + Obedient to its kind; the hawk does well + Which carries bleeding quarries to its young; + The dewdrop and the star shine sisterly, + Globing together in the common work; + And man who lives to die, dies to live well, + So if he guide his ways by blamelessness + And earnest will to hinder not, but help + All things both great and small which suffer life.' + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Those among us who have tender hearts towards the lower animals cannot +help day after day witnessing acts of cruelty to them which give us +great pain. We are naturally inclined to feel anger against the +perpetrators of such cruelty, and to express that anger in wrathful +language. By so doing I am convinced we do more harm than good to the +creatures we try to serve. Calmness, not heat or hurry, should guide us +in defending the brute creation against those who oppress and injure it. +Let me illustrate my meaning by one or two further extracts from +Arnold's poem. + +"It is noontide, and Gautama, engrossed in thought and study, is +journeying onwards-- + + "`Gentle and slow, + Radiant with heavenly pity, lost in care + For those he knew not, save as fellow-lives.' + + "When,-- + + "`Blew down the mount the dust of pattering feet, + White goats, and black sheep, winding slow their way, + With many a lingering nibble at the tufts, + And wanderings from the path where water gleamed, + Or wild figs hung. + But always as they strayed + The herdsman cried, or slung his sling, and kept + The silly crowd still moving to the plain. + A ewe with couplets in the flock there was, + Some hurt had lamed one lamb, which toiled behind + Bleeding, while in the front its fellow skipped. + And the vexed dam hither and thither ran, + Fearful to lose this little one or that. + Which, when our Lord did mark, full tenderly + He took the limping lamb upon his neck, + Saying: "Poor woolly mother, be at peace! + Whither thou goest, I will bear thy care; + 'Twere all as good to ease one beast of grief, + As sit and watch the sorrows of the world + In yonder caverns with the priests who pray." + So paced he patiently, bearing the lamb. + Beside the herdsman in the dust and sun, + The wistful ewe low-bleating at his feet.' + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Sorely this was a lesson which the herdsman, ignorant though he no +doubt was, never forgot; farther comment on the passage is needless. +Precept calmly given does much good, example does far more." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. A fact which Darwin in his treatise on earthworms has recently +proved. + +CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. + +MIRRAM: A SKETCH FROM THE LIFE OF A CAT--ABOUT SUMMER SONGS AND +SONGSTERS. + + "The mouse destroyed by my pursuit + No longer shall your feasts pollute, + Nor rats, from nightly ambuscade, + With wasteful teeth your stores invade." + + Gay. + + "Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife, + Come and hear the woodland linnet; + How sweet his music! On my life + There's more of wisdom in it." + + Wordsworth. + +Ida continued to improve, and she did not let me forget my promise to +resume my office of story-telling, which I accordingly did next evening, +bringing my portfolio into Ida's bedroom for the purpose. + +Ida had her cat in her arms. The cat was singing low, and had his +round, loving head on her shoulder, and his arms buried in her beautiful +hair. So this suggested my reading the following:-- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +MIRRAM: A SKETCH FROM THE LIFE OF A CAT. + +"Mirram: that was the name of pussy. It appears a strange one, I admit; +but you see there is nobody accountable for it except the little cat +herself, for she it was who named herself Mirram. I don't mean to say +that pussy actually came to her little mistress, and said in as many +words, `Mirram is a pretty name, and I should like to be called Mirram. +Call me Mirram, please, won't you?' + +"For cats don't talk nowadays, except in fairy tales; but this is how it +was. She was the most gentle and kindly-hearted wee puss, I believe, +that ever was born, and if you happened to meet her anywhere, say going +down the garden walk, she would look lovingly and confidingly up in your +face, holding her tail very erect indeed, and `Mirram' she would say. + +"You see, `Mirram' was the only English word, if it be English, that +pussy could speak, and she made it do duty on every occasion; so no +wonder she came to be called Mirram. + +"If she were hungry she would jump upon your knee, and gently rub her +shoulders against you and say, `Mirram.' + +"`Mirram' in this case might be translated as follows: `Oh, please, my +dear little mistress, I am _so_ hungry! I've been up ever since five +o'clock this morning. With the exception of a bird which I found and +ate, feathers and all, and a foolish little mouse, I've had no +breakfast. Do give me a little milk.' + +"This would be an appeal that you couldn't resist, and you would give +her a saucerful of nice new milk, telling her at the same time that it +was very naughty of her to devour poor birds, who come and cheer us with +their songs both in winter and in summer. + +"Another morning she would come hopping in through the open window, when +you least expected her, and say `Mirram' in the most kindly tone. This +would, of course, mean, `Good-morning to you. I'm glad to see you +downstairs at last. I've been up and out ever since sunrise. And, oh! +such fun I've been having. You can't conceive what a fine morning it +is, and what a treat it is to rise early.' + +"And now, having introduced this little puss to you by name, I must tell +you something about her playmates, and say a word or two about the place +she lived in, and her life in general, and after that show you how pussy +at one time came to grief on account of a little fault she had. Of +course, we all have our little faults, which we should strive to +conquer, and I may as well confess at once what Mirram's was. Well, it +was--_thoughtlessness_. + +"The first and the chief of pussy's playmates, then, was her +child-mistress. Would you like to know what her name was? I will tell +you with pleasure; and when you hear it I'm sure you will say it is a +strange one. She had two Christian names--the first was Fredabel, the +second was Inez--Fredabel Inez--the latter being Spanish. + +"`But,' you will say, `is "Fredabel" Spanish too, because I never heard +of such a name before?' + +"No, I am quite sure you never did; for this reason: no child was ever +called by that name before, the fact being that her papa invented the +name for her, as it was the only way he could see to get out of a +dilemma, or difficulty. And here was the dilemma. When pussy's +mistress was quite a baby, her two aunts came to see her, and they had +no sooner seen her than they both loved her very much; so they both went +one morning into her papa's study, and the following conversation took +place:-- + +"`Good-morning, brother,' said one aunt. `I love your baby very, _very_ +much, and I want you to call her after me--her first name, mind you--and +when she grows up she won't lose by it.' + +"`Good-morning, brother,' said the other aunt. `I also love your dear +baby very much, and if you call her first name after mine, when she +grows up she'll gain by it.' + +"Well, when baby's papa heard both the aunts speak like this, he was +very much perplexed, and didn't know what to do, because he didn't want +to offend either the one aunt or the other. + +"But after a great deal of cogitation, he possessed himself of a happy +thought, or rather, I should say, a happy thought took possession of +him. You see the name of the one aunt was Freda, and the name of the +other was Bella, so what more natural than that baby's papa should +compound a name for her between the two, and call her Fredabel. + +"So he did, and both aunts were pleased and merry and happy. + +"But at the time our tale begins baby hadn't grown up, nor anything like +it; she was just a little child of not much over four years old. + +"Now, as the one aunt always called her Freda and the other Bella, and +as everybody else called her Eenie, I think we had better follow +everybody else's example, and call her Eenie, too. + +"Was Eenie pretty, did you ask? Yes, she was pretty, and, what is still +better than being pretty, she was very kind and good. So no wonder that +everybody loved her. She had a sweet, lovely face, had Eenie. Her +hair, that floated over her lair shoulders, was like a golden sunbeam; +her eyes were blue as the bluest sky, and large and liquid and +love-speaking, and when she looked down her long dark eyelashes rested +on cheeks as soft as the blossom of peach or apricot. + +"Yet she was merry withal, merry and bright and gay, and whenever she +laughed, her whole face was lighted up and looked as lovely as sunrise +in May. + +"I have said that Eenie was good and kind, and so she was; good and kind +to every creature around her. She never tormented harmless insects, as +cruel children do, and so all creatures seemed to love her in return: +the trees whispered to her, the birds sang to her, and the bees told her +tales. + +"That was pussy Mirram's mistress then; and it was no wonder Mirram was +fond of her, and proud to be nursed and carried about by her. Mind you, +she would not allow any one else to carry her. If anybody else had +taken her up, puss would have said--`Mirram!' which would mean, `Put me +down, please; I've got four legs of my own, and I much prefer to use +them.' And if the reply had been--`Well, but you allow Eenie to handle +and nurse you,' pussy would have answered and said-- + +"`Isn't Eenie my mistress, my own dear mistress? Could any one ever be +half so kind or careful of me as she is? Does she ever forget to give +me milk of a morning or to share with me her own dinner and tea? Does +she not always have my saucer filled with the purest, freshest water? +and does she forget that I need a comfortable bed at night? No; my +mistress may carry me as much as she pleases, but no one else shall.' + +"Now Mirram was a mighty hunter, but she was also very fond of play; and +when the dogs were in their kennels on very bright sunshiny days, and +her little mistress was in the nursery learning her lessons, as all good +children do, Mirram would have to play alone. _She_ wasn't afraid of +the bright sunshine, if the dogs were; she would race up into a tall +apple-tree, and laying herself full length on a branch, blink and stare +at the great sun for half an hour at a time. Then-- + +"`Oh!' she would cry, `this resting and looking at the sun is very lazy +work. I must play. Let me see, what shall I do? Oh! I have it; I'll +knock an apple down--then hurrah! for a game of ball.' + +"And so she would hit a big apple, and down it would roll on the broad +gravel-path; and down pussy would go, her face beaming with fun; and the +game that ensued with that apple was quite a sight to witness. It was +lawn-tennis, cricket, and football all in one. Then when quite tired of +this, she would thrust the apple under the grass for the slugs to make +their dinner of, and off she would trot to knock the great velvety bees +about with her gloved paws. She would soon tire of this, though, +because she found the bees such serious fellows. + +"She would hit one, and knock it, maybe, a yard away; but the bee would +soon get up again. + +"`It is all very well for you, Miss Puss,' the bee would say; `your life +is all play, but I've got work to do, for I cannot forget that, brightly +though the sun is shining now, before long cold dismal winter will be +here, and very queer I should look if I hadn't laid up a store of nice +honey to keep me alive.' + +"And away the bee would go, humming a tune to himself, and Mirram would +spy a pair of butterflies floating high over the scarlet-runners, but +not higher than Mirram could spring. She couldn't catch them, though. + +"`No, no, Miss Puss,' the butterflies would say; `we don't want you to +play with us. We don't want any third party, so please keep your paws +to yourself.' + +"And away they would fly. + +"Then perhaps Mirram would find a toad crawling among the strawberry +beds. + +"`You're after the fruit, aren't you?' pussy would say, touching it +gently on the back. + +"`No, not at all,' the toad would reply. `I wouldn't touch a strawberry +for the world; the gardener put me here to catch the slugs; he couldn't +get on without me at all.' + +"`Well, go on with your work, Mr Toad,' pussy would reply; `I'm off.' + +"And what a glorious old garden that was for pussy to play in, and for +her mistress to play in! A rambling old place, in which you might lose +yourself, or, if you had a companion, play at hide-and-seek till you +were tired. And every kind of flower grew here, and every kind of fruit +and vegetable as well; just the kind of garden to spend a long summer's +day in. Never mind though the day was so hot that the birds ceased to +sing, and sat panting all agape on the apple-boughs--so hot that the +very fowls forgot to cackle or crow, and there wasn't a sound save the +hum of the myriads of insects that floated everywhere around, you +wouldn't mind the heat, for wasn't there plenty of shade, arbours of +cool foliage, and tents made of creepers?--and oh! the brilliancy of the +sunny marigolds, the scarlet clustered geraniums, the larkspurs, purple +and white, and the crimson-painted linums. No, you wouldn't mind the +heat; weren't there strawberries as large as eggs and as cold as ice? +And weren't there trees laden with crimson and yellow raspberries? And +weren't the big lemon-tinted gooseberries bearing the bushes groundwards +with the weight of their sweetness, and praying to be pulled? A +glorious old garden indeed! + +"But see, the dogs have got out of their kennels, and have come down the +garden walks on their way to the paddock, and pussy runs to meet them. + +"`What! dogs in a garden?' you cry. Yes; but they weren't ordinary +dogs, any more than it was an ordinary garden. They were permitted to +stroll therein, but they were trained to keep the walks, and smell, but +never touch, the flowers. They roamed through the rosary, they rolled +on the lawn, they even slept in the beautiful summer-houses; but they +never committed a fault--but in the autumn, when pears and apples +dropped from the trees, they were permitted, and even encouraged, to eat +their fill of the fruit. And they made good use of their privilege, +too. These were pussy's playmates all the year round--the immense black +Newfoundlands, the princely boarhounds, the beautiful collies, and the +one little rascal of a Scottish terrier. You never met the dogs without +also meeting Mirram, whether out in the country roads or at home, on the +leas or in the paddock; she pulled daisies to throw at the dogs in +summer, and in winter she used to lie on her back, and in mere +wantonness pitch pellets of snow at the great boar hound himself. + +"The dogs all loved her. Once, when she was out with the dogs on a +common, a great snarly bulldog came along, and at once ran to kill poor +Mirram. You should have seen the commotion that ensued. + +"`It is our cat,' they all seemed to cry, in a kind of canine chorus. +`Our cat--_our_ cat--our cat!' And all ran to save her. + +"No, they didn't kill him, though the boarhound wanted to; but the +biggest Newfoundland, a large-hearted fellow, said, `No, don't let us +kill him, he doesn't know any better; let us just refresh his memory.' + +"So he took the cur, and trailed him to the pond and threw him in; and +next time that dog met Mirram he walked past her very quietly indeed! + +"Mirram loved all the dogs about the place; but I think her greatest +favourite was the wee wire-haired Scottish terrier. Perhaps it was +because he was about her own size, or perhaps it was because he was so +very ugly that she felt a kind of pity for him. But Mirram spent a deal +of time in his company, and they used to go trotting away together along +the lanes and the hedges, and sometimes they wouldn't return for hours, +when they would trot home again, keeping close cheek-by-jowl, and +looking very happy and very funny. + +"`Broom' this little dog had been called, probably in a frolic, and from +some fancied resemblance between his general appearance and the +hearth-brush. His face was saucy and impudent, and sharp as needles; +his bits of ears cocked up, and his tiny wicked-looking eyes glanced +from under his shaggy eyebrows, as if they had been boatman-beetles. I +don't think Broom was ever afraid of anything, and very important the +little dog and pussy looked when returning from a ramble. They had +secrets of great moment between them, without a doubt. Perhaps, if her +mistress had asked Mirram where they went together, and what they did, +Mirram would have replied in the following words-- + +"`Oh! you know, my dear mistress, we go hunting along by the hedgerows +and by the ponds, and in the dark forests, and we meet with such +thrilling adventures! We capture moles, and we capture great rats and +frightful hedgehogs, and Broom is so brave he will grapple even with a +weasel; and one day he conquered and killed a huge polecat! Yes, he is +so brave, and nothing can ever come over me when Broom is near.' + +"Now, no one would have doubted that, in such a pretty, pleasant country +home as hers, with such a kind mistress, and so many playmates, pussy +Mirram would have been as happy as ever a pussy could be. So she was, +as a rule; but not always, because she had that one little fault-- +thoughtlessness. Ah! those little faults, how often will they not lead +us into trouble! + +"I don't say that pussy ever did anything very terrible, to cause her +mistress grief. She never did eat the canary, for instance. But she +often stopped away all night, and thus caused little Eenie much anxiety. +Pussy always confessed her fault, but she was so thoughtless that the +very next moonlight night the same thing occurred again, and Mirram +never thought, while she was enjoying herself out of doors, that Eenie +was suffering sorrow for her sake at home. + +"On the flat roof of a house where Mirram often wandered, in the +moonlight was a tiny pigeon-hole, so small she couldn't creep in to save +her life even, but from this pigeon-hole a bonnie wee kitten used often +to pop out and play with Mirram. Where the pigeon-hole led to, or what +was away beyond it, pussy couldn't even conjecture, though she often +watched and wondered for hours, then put in her head to have a peep; but +all was dark. + +"Perhaps, when she was quite tired of wondering, and was just going to +retire for the night, the little face would appear, and Mirram would +forget all about her mistress in the joy of meeting her small friend. + +"Then how pleased Mirram would look, and how loudly she would purr, and +say to the kitten-- + +"`Come out, my dear, do come out, and you shall play with my tail.' + +"But it was really very thoughtless of Mirram, and just a little selfish +as well, not to at once let kittie have her tail to play with; but no. + +"`Sit there, my dear, and sing to me,' she would say. + +"Kittie would do that just for a little while. Very demure she looked; +but kittens can't be demure long, you know; and then there would +commence the wildest, maddest, merriest game of romps between the two +that ever was seen or heard of; but always when the fun got too exciting +for her, kittie popped back again into her pigeon-hole, appearing again +in a few moments in the most provoking manner. + +"What nights these were for Mirram, and how pleasantly they were spent, +and how quickly they passed, perhaps no one but pussy and her little +friend could tell. When tired of romping and running, like two feline +madcaps, Mirram would propose a song, and while the stars glittered +overhead, or the moon shone brightly down on them, they would seat +themselves lovingly side by side and engage in a duet. Now, however +pleasant cats' music heard at midnight may appear to the pussies +themselves, it certainly is not conducive to the sleep of any nervous +invalid who may happen to dwell in the neighbouring houses, or very +soothing either. + +"Mirram found this out to her cost one evening, and so did the kitten as +well, for a window was suddenly thrown open not very far from where they +sat. + +"`Ah!' said Mirram, `that is sure to be some one who is delighted with +our music, and is going to throw something nice to us.' + +"Alas! alas! the something _did_ come, but it wasn't nice. It took the +shape of a decanter of water and an old boot. + +"One night pussy Mirram had stayed out very much longer, and Eenie had +gone to bed crying, because she thought she would never, never see her +Mirram more. + +"Thoughtless Mirram! At that moment she was once again on the roof, and +the kittie's face was at the pigeon-hole. Mirram was sitting up in the +most coaxing manner possible. + +"`Come out again,' she was saying to kittie, `come out again. Do come +out to--' + +"She didn't see that terrible black cat stealing up behind; but she +heard the low threatening growl, and sprang round to confront her and +defend herself. + +"The fight was fierce and terrible while it lasted, and poor Mirram got +the worst of it. The black cat had well-nigh killed her. + +"`Oh!' she sobbed, as she dropped bitter, blinding tears on the +roof,--`oh, if I had never left my mistress! Oh, dear! oh, dear! +whatever shall I do?' + +"You see Mirram was very sad and sorrowful now; but then, unfortunately, +the repentance came when it was too late." + +"Thank you," Ida said, when I had finished; "I like the description of +the garden ever so much. Now tell me something about birds; I'll shut +my eyes and listen." + +"But won't you be tired, dear?" said my wife. + +"No, auntie," was the reply; "and I won't go to sleep. I never tire +hearing about birds, and flowers, and woods, and wilds, and everything +in nature." + +"Here is a little bit, then," I said, "that will just suit you, Ida. It +is short. That is a merit. I call it--" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +ABOUT SUMMER SONGS AND SONGSTERS. + +"Sweet is the melody that at this season of the year arises from every +feathered songster of forest, field, and lea. I am writing to-day out +in the fields, seated, I might say, in the very lap of Nature--my county +is the very wildest and prettiest in all mid-England--and I cannot help +throwing down my pen occasionally to watch the motions or listen to the +singing of some or other of my wild pets. Nothing will convince me that +I am not as well known in the woods as if I were indeed a denizen +thereof. The birds, at all events, know me, and they do not fear me, +because I never hurt or frighten them. + +"High overhead yonder, and dimly seen against the light grey of a cloud, +is the skylark. He is at far too great a height for me to see his head +with the naked eye, so I raise the lorgnettes, and with these I can +observe that even as he sings he turns his head earthwards to where, in +her cosy grass-lined nest among the tender corn, sits his pretty +speckled mate. He is singing to his mate. Yonder, perched on top of +the hedgerow, is my friend the yellow-hammer. He is arrayed in pinions +of a deeper, brighter orange now. Is it of that he is so proud? is it +because of that that there comes ever and anon in his short and simple +song a kind of half-hysterical note of joy? Nay, _I_ know why he sings +so, because I know where his nest is, and what is in it. + +"In the hollow of an old, old tree, bent and battered by the wind and +weather, the starling has built, and the male bird trills his song on +the highest branch, but in a position to be seen by his mate. Not much +music in his song, yet he is terribly in earnest about the matter, and +I've no doubt the hen admires him, not only for the green metallic gloss +of his dark coat, but because he is trying to do his best, and to her +his gurgling notes are far sweeter than the music of merle, or the song +of the nightingale herself. + +"But here is something strange, and it may be new to our little folk. +There are wee modest mites of birds in the woods and forests, that +really do not care to be heard by any other living ears than those of +their mates. I know where there is the nest of a rose-linnet in a bush +of furze, and I go and sit myself softly down within a few feet of it, +and in a few minutes back comes the male bird; he has been on an errand +of some kind. He seats himself on the highest twig of a neighbouring +bush. He is silent for a time, but he cannot be so very long; and so he +presently breaks out into his tender songlet, but so soft and low is his +ditty, that at five yards' distance methinks you would fail to hear it. +There are bold singers enough in copse and wild wood without him. The +song of the beautiful chaffinch is clear and defiant. The mavis or +speckled thrush is not only loud and bold in his tones, but he is what +you might term a singer of humorous songs. His object is evidently to +amuse his mate, and he sings from early morning till quite late, trying +all sorts of trick notes, mocking and mimicking every bird within +hearing distance. He even borrows some notes from the nightingale, +after the arrival of that bird in the country; a very sorry imitation he +makes of them, doubtless, but still you can recognise them for all that. + +"Why is it we all love the robin so? Many would answer this question +quickly enough, and with no attempt at analysis, and their reply would +be, `Oh, because he deserves to be loved.' This is true enough; but let +me tell you why I love him. Though I never had a caged robin, thinking +it cruel to deprive a dear bird of its liberty, I always do all I can to +make friends with it wherever we meet. I was very young when I made my +first acquaintance with Master Robin. We lived in the country, and one +time there was a very hard winter indeed; the birds came to the lawn to +be fed, but one was not content with simple feeding, and so one colder +day than usual he kept throwing himself against a lower pane in the +parlour window--the bright, cheerful fire, I suppose, attracted his +notice. + +"`You do look so cosy and comfortable in that nice room,' he seemed to +say; `think of my cold feet out in this dreary weather.' + +"My dear mother--she who first taught me to love birds and beasts, and +all created things--did think of his cold feet. She opened the window, +and by-and-by he came in. He would have preferred the window left open, +but being given to understand that this would interfere materially with +family arrangements, he submitted to his semi-imprisonment with charming +grace, and perched himself on top of a picture-frame, which became his +resting-place when not busy picking up crumbs, or drinking water or +milk, through all the livelong winter. We were all greatly pleased when +one day he threw back his pert wee head and treated us to a song. And +it was always while we were at dinner that he sang. + +"`I suppose,' he seemed to say, `you won't object to a little music, +will you?' Then he would strike up. + +"But when the winter wore away he gave us to understand he had an +appointment somewhere; and so he was allowed to go about his business. + +"My next adventure with a robin happened thus. I, while still a little +boy, did a very naughty thing. By reading sea-stories I got enamoured +of a sea life, and determined to run away from my old uncle, with whom I +was residing during the temporary absence of my parents on the +Continent. The old gentleman was not over kind to me--_that_ helped my +determination, no doubt. I did not get very far away--I may mention +this at once--but for two nights and days I stayed in the heart of a +spruce-pine wood, living on bread-and-cheese and whortleberries. My bed +was the branches of the pines, which I broke off and spread on the +ground, and all day my constant companion was a robin. I think he +hardly ever left me. I am, or was, in the belief that he slept on me. +Be this as it may, he picked up the crumbs I scattered for him, and +never forgot to reward me with a song. While singing he used to perch +on a branch quite close overhead, and sang so very low, though sweetly, +that I fully believed he sang for me alone. After you have read this +you will readily believe, that there may have been a large foundation of +truth in the beautiful tale of `The Babes in the Wood.' Before nor +since my childish escapade, I never knew a robin so curiously tame as +the one I met in the spruce-pine wood. + +"Birds take singular fancies for some people. I know a little girl who +when a child had a great fancy for straying away by herself into the +woods. She was once found fast asleep and almost covered with wild +birds. Some might tell me the birds were merely keeping their feet warm +at the girl's expense. I have a very different opinion on the subject. + +"Robins usually build in a green bank at the foot of a large tree, and +lay four or five lightish yellow or dusky eggs; but I have found their +nests in thorn-bushes. In the romantic Isle of Skye all small birds +build in the rocks, because there are no trees there, and few bushes. +In a cliff, for example, close to the sea, if not quite overhanging it, +you will find at the lower part the nests of larks, finches, linnets, +and other small birds; on a higher reach the nests of thrushes and +blackbirds; higher still pigeons build; and near the top sea-gulls and +birds of prey, including the owl family. + +"There is a short branch line not far from where I live, which ends five +miles from the main artery of traffic. In the corner of a truck which +had been lying idle at the little terminus for some time, a pair of +robins built their nest, and the hen was sitting on five eggs when it +became necessary to use the truck. + +"`Don't disturb the nest,' said the kindly station-master to his men; +`put something over it. But I daresay the bird will forsake it; she's +sure to do so.' + +"But the bird did nothing of the kind, and although she had a little +railway journey gratis, once a day at least, to the main line and back, +she stuck to her nest, and finally reared her family to fledglings. + +"Robins are early astir in the morning; their song is the first I hear. +They sing, too, quite late at night; they also sing all the year round; +and it is my impression, on the whole, that they like best to trill +forth when other birds are silent. + +"The song-birds of our groves are neither jealous of each other nor do +they hate each other. Down at the foot of my lawn I have a large +shallow pan placed, which is kept half-filled with water in summer. I +can see it from my bedroom window, and it is very pleasant to watch the +birds having a bath in the morning. There is neither jealousy nor +hatred displayed during the performance of this most healthful +operation. I sometimes see blackbirds, thrushes, and sparrows all +tubbing at one time, and quite hilarious over it. + +CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. + +HARRY'S HOLIDAY--KING JOHN; OR, THE TALE OF A TUB--SINDBAD; OR, THE DOG +OF PENELLAN. + + "Country life,--let us confess it, + Man will little help to bless it, + Yet, for gladness there + We may readily possess it + In its native air. + + "Rides and rambles, sports and farming, + Home, the heart for ever warming, + Books and friends and ease, + Life must after all be charming, + Full of joys like these." + + Tupper. + +"I'm not sure, Ida, that you will like the following story. There is +truth in it, though, and a moral mixed up with it which you may unravel +if you please. I call it--" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +HARRY'S HOLIDAY. + +"The hero of my little story was a London boy. Truth is, he had spent +all the days and years of his young life in town. I do not think that +he had ever, until a certain great event in his life took place, seen +even the suburbs of the great city in which it was his lot to reside. +His whole world consisted of stone walls, so to speak, of an +interminable labyrinth of streets and lanes and terraces, for ever +filled with a busy multitude, hurrying to and fro in the pursuit of +their avocations. I believe he got to think at last that there was +nothing, that there _could_ be nothing beyond this mighty London; and of +country life, with all its joys and pleasures, he knew absolutely +nothing. A tree to him was merely a dingy, sooty kind of shrub, that +grew in the squares; flowers were gaudy vegetables used in window +decorations; a lark was a bird that spent all its life in a box-cage, +chiefly, in the neighbourhood of Seven Dials. As to trees growing in +woods and in forests where the deer and the roe live wild and free; as +to flowers carpeting the fields with a splendour of bloom; as to larks +mounting high in air to troll their happy songs--he had not even the +power of conception. True, he had read of such things, just as he had +read of the moon as seen through a telescope, and the one subject was +just as vague to him as the other. + +"Harry at this time was, I fear, just a little sceptical. He lacked in +a great measure that excellent quality, without which there would be +very little real happiness in this world--I mean faith. He only +believed in what he really saw and could understand, from which, of +course, you will readily infer that his mind was neither a very +comprehensive nor a very clever one. And you are right. + +"Harry was not a strong boy; his face was pale, his eyes were large and +lustrous, his poor little arms and legs were far from robust, and you +could have found plenty of country lads who measured twice as much round +the chest as Harry. Well, his parents, who really did all they could +for their boy, were very pleased when one morning the postman brought +them a letter from the far north, inviting their little son to come and +spend a long autumn holiday at the farm of Dunryan, in the wilds of +Aberdeenshire. He was to go all alone in the steamboat, simply in care +of the steward, who promised to be very kind to him and look well after +his comforts. And so he did, too; but I think that from the very moment +that the great ship began to drop down the river, leaving the city +behind it, with all its smoke and its gloom, Harry began to be a new +boy. A new current of life seemed to begin to circulate in his veins, a +better state of feeling to take possession of his soul. There was no +end to the wonders Harry saw during his voyage to Aberdeen. The sea +itself was a sight which until now he could not have imagined--could not +have even dreamed of. Then there was the long line of wonderful coast. +He had seen a panorama, but that couldn't have been very large, because +it was contained within the four stone walls of a concert-room. But +here was a panorama gradually unrolling itself before his astonished +gaze hundreds and hundreds of miles in extent. No wonder that his eyes +dilated as he beheld it: the black, beetling cliffs that frowned over +the ocean's depths; the beautiful sandy beaches; the broad bays, with +cities slumbering in the mists beyond; the green-topped hills; the +waving woods; the houses; the palaces; and the grey old ruined castles +that told of the might and strength of ages past and gone. All and +every one of these seemed to whisper to Harry--seemed to tell him that +there were more wonderful things even in this world than he had ever +before believed in. + +"When night came on, the stars shone out--stars more beautiful than he +had ever seen before--so clear, so large, so bright. And they carried +his thoughts far, far beyond the earth. In their pure presence he felt +a better boy than ever he had felt before, but at the same time he could +not help feeling ashamed of that feeling of unbelief that had possessed +him in London. He was beginning to have faith already--a little, at all +events. Were I to tell you of all Harry's adventures, and all the +strange sights he saw ere he reached Aberdeen, I would have quite a long +story to relate. His uncle met him at the pier with a dog-cart, into +which he helped him, the handsome, spirited horse giving just one look +round, to see who was getting up. When he saw this mite of a hero of +ours,-- + +"`Oh,' said the horse to himself, `he won't make much additional weight. +I'd trot along with a hundred of such as he is.' + +"So away they went. Now Harry had been taught to look upon London as +the finest and prettiest town in the world; but when he rattled along +the wide and magnificent streets of the capital of the north, he found +ample reason to alter his opinion. Here was no smoke--here was a sun +shining down from a sky of cerulean hue, and here were houses built +apparently of the costliest and whitest of marble. On went the +dog-cart, and the closely-built streets gave place to avenues and +terraces, and rows of palatial buildings peeping up through the greenery +of trees. + +"Harry was a little tired that night before he reached the good farm of +Dunryan; but his aunt and cousins were kindness itself, and after a +bigger and nicer supper than ever he had eaten before in his life, he +was shown to his snow-white couch, and the next thing he became +conscious of was that the sun was shining broad and clearly into his +chamber, and there was a perfect babel of sounds right down under his +window, sounds that a country boy would easily have understood, but +which were worse than Greek to Harry. He soon jumped out of bed, +however, washed and dressed, and then opened the casement and looked +down. I have already told you that Harry's eyes were large, but the +sight he now witnessed made him open them considerably wider than he had +done for many a day. A vast courtyard crowded with feathered bipeds of +every kind that could be imagined. Harry hurried on with his toilet, so +that he might be able to go downstairs and examine them more closely. + +"Everybody was glad to see him, but he had to eat his breakfast all +alone nevertheless, for his cousins had been up and had theirs hours and +hours before. One of his relatives was a pretty little auburn-haired +lass of some nine or ten summers, with blue, laughing eyes, and modest +mien. She volunteered to show Harry round the farm. But Harry felt +just a little afraid nevertheless, and considerably ashamed for being +so, when he found himself in the great yard quite surrounded by hens and +ducks and gobbling geese and turkeys. I think the animals themselves +knew this, and did all they could to frighten him. The hens were +content with cackling and grumbling, evidently trying to incite the +cocks to acts of open hostility against our trembling hero. The cocks +crew loudly at him, or defiantly approached him, looking as if they +meant to imply that he owed it entirely to their generosity that his +life was spared. The turkey-cocks put themselves into all sorts of +queer shapes--tried to look like fretful porcupines, elevated the red +rag that Harry was astonished to see depending from their noses, and +made terrible noises at him. The ducks were content with standing on +tiptoe, clapping their snow-white wings, and crying, `What! what! what!' +at the top of their voices. The peahens were merely curious and +impertinent; but the geese were alarmingly intrusive. They stretched +out their necks to the longest extent, approached him thus, and gave +vent to hissings unutterable by any other creature than a goose. + +"`They won't bite or anything, will they?' faltered our hero, feeling +very small indeed. + +"But his little companion only laughed right merrily. Then taking +Harry's hand, she ran him off to show him more wonders--great horses +that looked to the London boy as big as elephants; enormous oxen as big +as rhinoceroses; donkeys that looked wiser than he could have believed +it possible for a donkey to look; and goats that looked simply +mischievous and nothing else. What a blessing it was for Harry that he +had such a wise little guardian and mentor as his Cousin Lizzie. She +went everywhere with him, and explained away all his doubts and +difficulties. Ay, and she chaffed him not a little either, and laughed +at all his queer mistakes; but I think she pitied him a good deal at the +same time. `Poor boy,' Lizzie used to think to herself, `he has never +been out of London before. What can he know?' + +"Little Lizzie had the same kind pity on Harry's physical weakness as +she had for his mental. Her cousin couldn't climb the broom-clad hills +as she could--not at first, at all events; but after one month's stay in +this wild, free country, new life and spirit seemed to be instilled into +him. He could climb hills now fast enough; and he was never tired +wandering in the dark pine forests, or over the mountains that were now +bedecked in the glorious purple of the heather's bloom. + +"Harry's uncle gave him many a bit of good advice, which went far to +dispel both his doubts and fears, and that means his ignorance; for only +the very ignorant dare to doubt what they cannot understand. `There are +more things in heaven and earth,' said his uncle one day, `than we have +dreamed of in our philosophy. What would you think of my honest dog +there if he told you the electric telegraph was an impossibility, simply +because _he_ couldn't understand it? Have faith, boy, have faith.' + +"But would it be believed that this boy, this London boy, didn't know +where chickens came from? He really didn't. Very little things +sometimes form the turning-point in the history of great men, and lead +them to a better train of thought. For remember that our mighty rivers +that bear great navies to the ocean, like mighty thoughts, have very +small beginnings. + +"Harry observed a hen one day in a very great blaze of excitement. Her +chickens were hatching. One after another they were popping out of the +shell, and going directly to seek for food. One little fellow, who had +just come out, was clapping his wings and stretching himself as coolly +as if he had just come by train, and was glad the journey was over. +This was all very wonderful to Harry; it led him to think; the thought +led to wisdom and faith. + +"Harry took a long walk that day in his favourite pine forest, and for +the first time in his life, it struck him that every creature he saw +there had some avocation; flies, beetles, and birds, all were working. +Says Harry to himself, `I, too, will be industrious. I may yet be +something in this great world, in which I am now convinced everything is +well ordained.' + +"He kept that resolve firmly, unflinchingly; he is, while I write, one +of the wealthiest merchants in London city; he is happy enough in this +world, and has something in his breast which enables him to look +beyond." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Now one other," said Ida; "I know you have lots of pretty tales in that +old portfolio." + +"Well," I said, smiling, "here goes; and then you'll sleep." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +KING JOHN; OR, THE TALE OF A TUB. + +"King John, he called himself, but every human being about the farm of +Buttercup Hill called him Jock--simply that, and nothing else. But +Jock, or King John, there was one thing that nobody could deny--he was +not only the chief among all the other fowls around him, but he thought +himself a very important and a very exalted bird indeed; and no wonder +that he clapped his wings and crowed defiance at any one who chanced to +take particular notice of him, or that he asked in defiant tones, `Kok +_aik_ uk uk?' with strong emphasis on the `_aik_,' and which in English +means, `How dare you stand and stare at _me_?' + +"King John's tail was a mass of nodding plumage of the darkest purple, +his wattles and comb were of the rosiest red, his wings and neck were +crimson and gold, and his batonlike legs were armed with spurs as long +as one's little finger, and stronger and sharper than polished steel. +Had you dared to go too near any one of his feathered companions--that +is, those whom he cared about--you would have repented it the very next +minute, and King John's spurs would have been brought into play. But +Jock wouldn't have objected to your admiring them, so long as you kept +at a respectable distance, on the other side of the fence, for instance. +And pretty fowls they were--most of them young too--golden-pencilled +Hamburgs, sprightly Spaniards, and sedate-looking Dorkings, to say +nothing of two ancient grand hens of no particular breed at all, but +who, being extremely fat and imposing in appearance, were admitted to +the high honour of roosting every night one on each side of the king, +and were moreover taken into consultation by him, in every matter likely +to affect the interests of his dynasty, or the welfare of the junior +members of the farmyard. + +"Now Jock was deeply impressed with the dignity of the office he held. +He was a very proud king--though, to his credit be it said, he was also +a very good king. And never since he had first mounted his throne--an +old water-tub, by the way--and sounded his shrill clarion, shouting a +challenge to every cock or king within hearing--never, I say, had he +been known to fill his own crop of a morning until the crops of all the +hens about him were well packed with all good comestibles. Such then +was Jock, such was King John. But, mind you, this gallant bird had not +been a king all his life. No, and neither had he been born a prince. +There was a mystery about his real origin and species. Judging from the +colour of the egg from which he was hatched, Jock _ought_ to have been a +Cochin. But Jock was nothing of the sort, as one glance at our picture +will be sufficient to convince you. But I think it highly probable that +the egg in question was stained by some unprincipled person, to cause it +to look like that of the favourite Cochin. Be that as it may, Jock was +duly hatched, and in course of time was fully fledged, and one day +attempted to crow, for which little performance he was not only pecked +on the back by the two fat old hens, but chased all round the yard by +King Cockeroo, who was then lord and master of the farmyard. When he +grew a little older he used to betake himself to places remote from +observance, and study the song of chanticleer. But the older he grew +the prettier he grew, and the prettier he grew the more King Cockeroo +seemed to dislike him; indeed, he thrashed him every morning and every +evening, and at odd times during the day, so that at last Jock's life +became most unbearable. One morning, however, when glancing downwards +at his legs, he observed that his spurs had grown long and strong and +sharp, and after this he determined to throw off for ever the yoke of +allegiance to cruel King Cockeroo; he resolved to try the fortune of war +even, and if he lost the battle, he thought to himself he would be no +worse off than before. + +"Now on the following day young Jock happened to find a nice large +potato, and said he to himself, `Hullo! I'm fortunate to-day; I'll have +such a nice breakfast.' + +"`Will you indeed?' cried a harsh voice quite close to his ear, and he +found himself in the dread presence of King Cockeroo, a very large +yellow Cochin China. `Will you indeed?' repeated his majesty. `How +dare _you_ attempt to eat a _whole_ potato. Put it down at once and +leave the yard.' + +"`I won't,' cried the little cock, quite bravely. + +"`Then I'll make you,' roared the big one. + +"`Then I shan't,' was the bold reply. + +"Now, like all bullies, King Cockeroo was a coward at heart, so the +battle that followed was of short duration, but very decisive for all +that, and in less than five minutes King Cockeroo was flying in +confusion before his young but victorious enemy. + +"When he had left the yard, the long-persecuted but now triumphant Jock +mounted his throne--the afore-mentioned water-butt--and crew and crew +and crew, until he was so hoarse that he couldn't crow any longer; then +he jumped down and received the congratulations of all the inhabitants +of the farmyard. And that is how Jock became King John. + +"The poor deposed monarch never afterwards dared to come near the yard, +in which he had at one time reigned so happily. He slept no longer on +his old roost, but was fain to perch all alone on the edge of the garden +barrow in the tool-house. He found no pleasure now in his sad and +sorrowful life, except in eating; and having no one to share his meals +with him, he began to get lazy and fat, and every day he got lazier and +fatter, till at last it was all he could do to move about with anything +like comfort. When he wanted to relieve his mind by crowing, he had to +waddle away to a safe distance from the yard, or else King John would +have flown upon him and pecked him most cruelly. + +"And now those very fowls, who once thought so much of him, used to +laugh when they heard him crowing, and remark to young King John-- + +"`Just listen to that asthmatical old silly,' for his articulation was +not so distinct as it formerly was. + +"`Kurr-r-r!' the new king would reply, `he'd better keep at a +respectable distance, or cock-a-ro-ri-ko! I'll--I'll eat him entirely +up!' + +"`I think,' said the farmer of Buttercup Hill one day to his wife--`I +think we'd better have t'ould cock for our Sunday's dinner.' + +"`Won't he be a bit tough?' his good wife replied. + +"`Maybe, my dear,' said the farmer, `but fine and fat, and plenty of +him, at any rate.' + +"Poor Cockeroo, what a fall was his! And oh! the sad irony of fate, for +on the very morning of this deposed monarch's execution, the sun was +shining, the birds singing, the corn springing up and looking so green +and bonny; and probably the last thing he heard in life was King John +crowing, as he proudly perched himself on the edge of his water-tub +throne. One could almost afford to drop a tear of pity for the dead +King Cockeroo, were it possible to forget that, while in life and in +power, he had been both a bully and a coward. + +"But bad as bullying and cowardice are, there are other faults in many +beings which, if not eradicated, are apt to lead the possessors thereof +to a bad end. I have nothing to say against ambition, so long as it is +lawful and kept within due bounds, but pride is a bad trait in the +character of even old or young; and if you listen I will tell you how +this failing brought even brave and gallant King John to an untimely +end. + +"After the death of King Cockeroo the pride of Jack knew no bounds. His +greatest enemy was gone, and there was not--so he thought--another cock +in creation who would dare to face him; for did they not all prefer +crowing at a distance, and did he not always answer them day or night, +and defy them? His bearing towards the other fowls began to change. He +still collected food for the hens, it is true, but he no longer tried to +coax them to eat it. They would doubtless, he said, partake of it if +they were hungry, and if they were not hungry, why, they could simply +leave it. + +"Jack had never had much respect for human beings--_they_! poor helpless +things, had no wings to clap, and they couldn't crow; _they_ had no +pretty plumage of their own, but were fain to clothe themselves in +sheep's raiment or the cocoons of caterpillars; and _now_ he wholly +despised them, and showed it too, for he spurred the legs of Gosling the +ploughboy, and rent into ribbons the new dress of Mary the milkmaid, +because she had invaded his territory in search of eggs. Even the death +of the two favourite hens I have told you of, which took place somewhat +suddenly one Saturday morning, failed to sober him or tone down his +rampant pride. He installed two other very fat hens in their place on +the perch, and then crowed more loudly than ever. + +"He spent much of his time now on his old throne; for it was always well +filled with water, which served the purpose of a looking-glass, and +reflected his gay and sprightly person, his rosy comb, and his nodding +plumes. He would sometimes invite a favourite fowl to share the honours +of his throne with him, but I really believe it was merely that its +plainer reflection might make his own beautiful image the more apparent. + +"`Oh!' he would cry, `don't I look lovely, and don't you look dowdy +beside _me_? Kurr! Kurr-r-r! Am I not perfection itself?' + +"Of course no one of the fowls in the yard dared to contradict him or +gainsay a word he spoke, but still I doubt whether they believed him to +be altogether such a very exalted personage as he tried to make himself +out. + +"And now my little tale draws speedily to its dark, but not, I trust, +uninstructive close. + +"The sun rose among clouds of brightest crimson one lovely summer's +morning, and his beams flooded all the beautiful country, making every +creature and everything glad, birds and beasts, flowers and trees, and +rippling streams. Alas! how often in this world of ours is the sunrise +in glory followed by a sunset in gloom. Noon had hardly passed ere +rock-shaped clouds began to bank up in the south and obscure the sun, +the wind fell to a dead calm, and the stillness became oppressive; but +it was broken at length by a loud peal of thunder, that seemed to rend +the earth to its very foundations. Then the sky grew darker and darker; +and the darker it grew, the more vividly the lightning flashed, the more +loudly pealed the thunder. Then the rain came down, such rain as +neither the good farmer of Buttercup Hill nor his wife ever remembered +seeing before. King John was fain to seek shelter for himself and his +companions under the garden seat, but even there they were drenched, and +a very miserable sight they presented. + +"`Oh I what a terrible storm!' cried a wise old hen. + +"`Who is afraid?' said the proud King John, stepping out into the midst +of it. `Behold my throne; it shall never be moved.' + +"Dread omen! at that very moment a hoop suddenly sprang up with a loud +bang, the staves began to separate, and the water came pouring out +between them, deluging all the place, and well-nigh drowning one of the +two hens which had bravely tried to share Jock's peril with him! + +"`Kur-r-r!' cried the king, astonishment and rage depicted on every +lineament of his countenance. `Kurr! kurr! what trickery is this? But, +behold, I have but to mount my throne and crow, and at once the thunder +and the rain will cease, and the sun will shine again!' + +"He suited the action to the word, but, alas! the sun never shone again +for him. His additional weight completed the mischief, and the +tottering throne gave way with a crash. + +"There was woe in the farmyard that day, for under the ruins of his +throne lay the lifeless body of Jock--the once proud, the once mighty +King John." + +"Oh!" cried Ida, "but that is _too_ short. Pray, just one little one +more, then I will sleep. You shall play me to sleep. Let it be about a +dog," she continued. "You can always tell a story about a dog." + +I looked once more into the old portfolio, and found this-- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +SINDBAD; OR, THE DOG OF PENELLAN. + +"Unless you go far, very far north indeed, you will hardly find a more +primitive place than the little village of Penellan, which nestles quite +close to the sea on the southern coast of Cornwall. I say it _nestles_, +and so it does, and nice and cosy it looks down there, in a kind of +glen, with green hills rising on either side of it, with its pebbly +beach and the ever-sounding sea in front of it. + +"It was at Widow Webber's hostelry that there arrived, many years ago, +the hero, or rather heroes, of this short tale. Spring was coming in, +the gardens were already gay with flowers, and the roses that trailed +around the windows and porches of the pilchard fishermen's huts were all +in bud, and promised soon to show a wealth of bloom. + +"Now, not only Widow Webber herself, but the whole village, were on +tiptoe to find out who the two strangers were and what could possibly be +their reason for coming to such a little outlying place--fifteen miles, +mind you, from the nearest railway town. It appeared they were not +likely soon to be satisfied, for the human stranger--the other was his +beautiful Newfoundland retriever, `Sindbad'--simply took the widow's +best room for three months, and in less than a week he seemed to have +settled down as entirely in the place, as though he had been born there, +and had never been out of it. The most curious part of the business was +that he never told his name, and he never even received a letter or a +visitor. He walked about much out of doors, and over the hills, and he +hired a boat by the month, and used to go long cruises among the rocks, +at times not returning until sun was set, and the bright stars twinkling +in the sky. He sketched a great deal, too--made pictures, the pilchard +fishermen called it. Was he an artist? Perhaps. + +"The `gentleman,' as he was always called, had a kind word and a +pleasant smile, for every one, and his dog Sindbad was a universal +favourite with the village children. How they laughed to see him go +splashing into the water! And the wilder the sea, and the bigger the +waves, the more the dog seemed to enjoy the fun. + +"Being so quiet and neighbourly, it might have been thought that the +gentleman would have been as much a favourite with the grown-up people +as Sindbad was with the young folk. Alas! for the charity of this +world, he was not so at first. Where, they wondered, did he come from? +Why didn't he give his name, and tell his story? It couldn't possibly +be all right, they felt sure of that. + +"But when the summer wore away, and winter came round, and those +policemen, whom they fully expected to one day take the gentleman away, +never came, and when the gentleman seemed more a fixture than ever, they +began to soften down, and to treat him as quite one of themselves. +Sindbad had been one of them for a very long time, ever since he had +pulled the baker's little Polly out of the sea when she fell over a +rock, and would assuredly have been drowned except for the gallant dog's +timely aid. + +"So they were content at last to take the gentleman just as they had +him. + +"`Concerts!' cried Widow Webber one evening, in reply to a remark made +by the stranger. `Why, sir, concerts in our little village! Whoever +will sing?' + +"But the stranger only laid down his book with a quiet smile, and asked +the widow to take a seat near the fire, and he would tell her all about +it. + +"With honest Sindbad asleep on the hearthrug, and pussy singing beside +him, and the kettle singing too, and a bright fire in the grate, the +room looked quite cosy and snug-like. So the poor widow sat down, and +the stranger unfolded all his plans. + +"And it all fell out just as the stranger wished it. He was an +accomplished pianist, and also a good performer on the violin. And he +had good-humour and tact, and the way he kept his class together, and +drew them out, and made them all feel contented with their efforts and +happy, was perfectly wonderful. The first concert was a grand success, +a crowded house, though the front seats were only sixpence and the back +twopence. And all the proceeds were handed over to the clergyman to buy +books and magazines. + +"So the winter passed more quickly and cheerfully than any one ever +remembered a winter to pass before, and summer came once more. + +"It would need volumes, not pages, to tell of all poor Sindbad's clever +ways. Indeed, he became quite the village dog; he would go errands for +any one, and always went to the right shop with his basket. Every +morning, with a penny in his mouth, he went trotting away to the +carrier's and bought a paper for his master; after that he was free to +romp and play all the livelong day with the children on the beach. It +might be said of Sindbad as Professor Wilson said of his beautiful +dog--`_Not_ a child of three years old and upwards in the neighbourhood +that had not hung by his mane and played with his paws, and been +affectionately worried by him on the flowery greensward.' + +"Another winter went by quite as cheerily as the last, and the stranger +was by this time as much a favourite as his dog. The villagers had +found out now that he was not by any means a rich man, although he had +enough to live on; but they liked him none the less for that. + +"The Easter moon was full, and even on the wane, for it did not, at the +time I refer to, rise till late in the evening. A gale had been blowing +all day, the sea was mountains high, for the wind roared wildly from off +the broad Atlantic. One hundred years ago, if the truth must be told, +the villagers of Penellan would have welcomed such a gale; it might +bring them wealth. They had been wreckers. + +"Every one was about retiring for rest, when boom boom! from out of the +darkness seaward came the roar of a minute gun. Some great ship was on +the rocks not far off. Boom! and no assistance could be given. There +was no rocket, no lifeboat, and no ordinary boat could live in that sea. +Boom! Everybody was down on the beach, and ere long the great red moon +rose and showed, as had been expected, the dark hull of a ship fast on +the rocks, with her masts gone by the board, and the sea making a clean +breach over her. The villagers were brave; they attempted to launch a +boat. It was staved, and dashed back on the beach. + +"`Come round to the point, men,' cried the stranger. `I will send +Sindbad with a line.' + +"The point was a rocky promontory almost to windward of the stranded +vessel. + +"The mariners on board saw the fire lighted there, and they saw that +preparations of some kind were being made to save them, and at last they +discerned some dark object rising and falling on the waves, but steadily +approaching them. It was Sindbad; the piece of wood he bore in his +mouth had attached to it a thin line. + +"For a long time--it seemed ages to those poor sailors--the dog +struggled on and on towards them. And now he is alongside. + +"`Good dog!' they cry, and a sailor is lowered to catch the morsel of +wood. He does so, and tries hard to catch the dog as well. But Sindbad +has now done his duty, and prepares to swim back. + +"Poor faithful, foolish fellow! if he had but allowed the sea to carry +him towards the distant beach. But no; he must battle against it with +the firelight as his beacon. + +"And in battling _he died_. + +"But communication was effected by Sindbad betwixt the ship and the +shore, and all on board were landed safely. + +"Need I tell of the grief of that dog's master? Need I speak of the +sorrow of the villagers? No; but if you go to Penellan, if you inquire +about Sindbad, children even yet will show you his grave, in a green +nook near the beach, where the crimson sea-pinks bloom. + +"And older folk will point you out `the gentleman's grave' in the old +churchyard. He did not _very_ long survive Sindbad. + +"The grey-bearded old pilchard fisherman who showed it to me only two +summers ago, when I was there, said-- + +"`Ay, sir! there he do lie, and the sod never hid a warmer heart than +his. The lifeboat, sir? Yes, sir, it's down yonder; his money bought +it. There is more than me, sir, has shed a tear over him. You see, we +weren't charitable to him at first. Ah, sir! what a blessed thing +charity do be!'" + +CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. + +A SHORT, BECAUSE A SAD ONE. + + "Why do summer roses fade, + If not to show how fleeting + All things bright and fair are made, + To bloom awhile as half afraid + To join our summer greeting?" + +"Now," said Frank one evening to me, "a little change is all that is +needed to make the child as well again as ever she was in her life." + +"I think you are right, Frank," was my reply; "change will do it--a few +weeks' residence in a bracing atmosphere; and it would do us all good +too; for of course you would be of the party, Frank?" + +"I'll go with you like a shot," said this honest-hearted, blunt old +sailor. + +"What say you, then, to the Highlands?" + +"Just the thing," replied Frank. "Just the place-- + + "`My heart's in the Hielans. + My heart is not here; + My heart's in the Hielans, chasing the deer; + Chasing the wild deer and following the roe-- + My heart's in the Hielans, wherever I go.'" + +"Bravo! Frank," I cried; "now let us consider the matter as practically +settled. And let us go in for division of labour in the matter of +preparation for this journey due north. You two old folks shall do the +packing and all that sort of thing, and Ida and I will--get the +tickets." + +And, truth to tell, that is really all Ida and myself did do; but we +knew we were in good hands, and a better caterer for comfort on a +journey, or a better baggage-master than Frank never lived. + +He got an immense double kennel built for Aileen and Nero; all the other +pets were left at home under good surveillance, not even a cat being +forgotten. This kennel, when the dogs were in it, took four good men +and true to lift it, and the doing so was as good as a Turkish bath to +each of them. + +We had a compartment all to our four selves, and as we travelled by +night, and made a friend of the burly, brown-bearded guard, the dogs had +water several times during the journey, and we human folks were never +once disturbed until we found ourselves in what Walter Scott calls-- + + "My own romantic town." + +A week spent in Edinburgh in the sweet summer-time is something to dream +about ever after. We saw everything that was to be seen, from the +Castle itself to Greyfriars' Bobby's monument, and the quiet corner in +which he sleeps. + +Then onward we went to beautiful and romantic Perth. Then on to +Callander and Doune. At the latter place we visited the romantic ruin +called Doune Castle, where my old favourite Tyro is buried. In +Perthshire we spent several days, and once had the good or bad fortune +to get storm-stayed at a little wayside hotel or hostelry, where we had +stopped to dine. The place seemed a long way from anywhere. I'm not +sure that it wasn't at the back of the north wind; at all events, there +was neither cab nor conveyance to be had for love nor money, and a +Scotch mist prevailed--that is, the rain came down in streams as solid +and thick as wooden penholders. So we determined to make the best of +matters and stay all night; the little place was as clean as clean could +be, and the landlady, in mutch of spotless white, was delighted at the +prospect of having us. + +She heaped the wood on the hearth as the evening glome began to descend; +the bright flames leapt up and cast great shadows on the wall behind us, +and we all gathered round the fire, the all including Nero and Aileen; +the circle would not have been complete without them. + +No, thank you, we told the landlady, we wouldn't have candles; it was +ever so much cosier by the light of the fire. But, by-and-by, we would +have tea. + +Despite the Scotch mist, we spent a very happy evening. Ida was more +than herself in mirth and merriment; her bright and joyous face was a +treat to behold. She sang some little simple Highland song to us that +we never knew she had learned; she said she had picked it up on purpose; +and then she called on Frank to "contribute to the harmony of the +evening"--a phrase she had learned from the old tar himself. + +"Me!" said Frank; "bless you, you would all run out if I began to sing." + +But we promised to sit still, whatever might happen, and then we got the +"Bay of Biscay" out of him, and he gave it that genuine, true sea-ring +and rhythm, that no landsman, in my opinion, can imitate. As he sang, +in fact, you could positively imagine you were on the deck of that +storm-tossed ship, with her tattered canvas fluttering idly in the +breeze, her wave-riddled bulwarks, and wet and slippery decks. You +could see the shivering sailors clinging to shroud or stay as the green +seas thundered over the decks; you could hear the wind roaring in the +rigging, and the hissing boom of the breaking waters, all about and +around you. + +He stopped at last, laughing, and-- + +"Now, Gordon, it is your turn at the wheel," he said. "You must either +sing or tell a story." + +"My dear old sailor man," I replied, "I will sing all the evening if you +don't ask me to tell a story." + +"But," cried Ida, shaking a merry forefinger at me, "you've got to do +_both_, dear." + +There were more stories than mine told that night by the "ingleside" of +that Highland cot, for Frank himself must "open out" at last, and many a +strange adventure he told us, some of them humorous enough, others +pathetic in the extreme. Frank was not a bad hand at "spinning a yarn," +as he called it, only he was like a witness in a box of justice: he +required a good deal of drawing out, and no small amount of +encouragement in the shape of honest smiles and laughter. Like all +sailors, he was shy. + +"There's where you have me," Frank would say. "I am shy; there's no +getting over it; and no getting out of it but when I know I'm amusing +you, then I could go on as long as you like." + +I have pleasing reminiscences of that evening. As I sit here at my +table, I have but to pause for a moment, put my hands across my eyes, +and the Rembrandt picture comes up again in every feature. Yonder sits +Frank, with his round, rosy face, looking still more round and rosy by +the peat-light. Yonder, side by side, with their great heads pointing +towards the blaze, lie the "twa dogs," and Ida crouched beside them, her +fair face held upwards, and all a-gleam with happiness and joy. + +When lights were brought at last, it was plain that the honest old +landlady, bustling in with the tea-things, had dressed for the occasion, +and from the pleased expression on her face I felt sure she had been +listening somewhere in the gloom behind us. + +The cottage where we went at last to reside in the remote Highlands was +a combination of comfort and rusticity, and Ida especially was delighted +with everything, more particularly with her own little room, half +bedroom, half boudoir, and the rustic flowers which old Mrs McF-- +brought every day were in her eyes gems of matchless beauty. + +Then everything out of doors was so new to her, and so beautiful and +grand withal, that we did not wonder at her being happy and pleased. + + "When I roved a young Highlander o'er the dark heath--" + +So sings Byron. Well, _he_ had some kind of training to this species of +progression. Ida had none. _She_ was a young Highlander from the very +first day, and a bold and adventuresome one too. Nor torrent, cataract, +nor cliff feared she. And no bird, beast, or butterfly was afraid of +Ida. + +Her chief companion was a matchless deerhound, whom we called Ossian. + +Sometimes, when we were all seated together among the heather, Ossian +used to put his enormous head on her lap and gaze into her face for +minutes at a time. I've often thought of this since. + +Nero, I think, was a little piqued and jealous when Ossian went +bounding, deer-like, from rock to rock. Ah! but when we came to the +lake's side, then it was Ossian's turn to be jealous, for in the days of +his youth he had neglected the art of swimming, in which many of his +breed excel. + +Two months of this happy and idyllic life, then fell the shadow and the +gloom. + +There was nothing romantic about Ida's illness and death. She suffered +but little pain, and bore that little with patience. She just faded +away, as it were; the young life went quietly out, the young barque +glided peacefully into the ocean of eternity. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Poor Frank had an accident in the same year, and ere the winter was over +succumbed to his injuries. He died on such a night as one seldom sees +in England. The bravest man dared not face that terrible snowstorm +unless he courted death. Therefore I could not be with Frank at the +end. + +The generous reader will easily understand why I say no more than these +few words about my dear friend's death. Alas! how few true friends +there are in this world, and it seems but yesterday he was with us, +seems but yesterday that I looked into his honest, smiling face, as I +bade him good-bye at my garden gate. + +CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR. + +THE LAST. + + "Once more farewell! + Once more, my friends, farewell!" + + Coleridge. + +I have never mentioned Frank's dog, this for the simple reason that I +hope one day ere long to write a short memoir of her. + +Meggie was a collie, a Highland collie, and a very beautiful one too. +So much for her appearance. As for her moral qualities, it is +sufficient to say that she was Frank's dog--and I myself never yet saw +the dog that did not borrow some of the mental qualities of the master, +whose constant companion he was, especially if that master made much of +him. + +Frank loved his dog, and she loved but him. She _liked_ but few. _We_ +were among the number of those she liked, but, strange creature that she +was, she was barely civil to any one else in the world. She had one +action which I never saw any other dog have, but it might have been +taught her by Frank himself. She used to stand with her two paws on his +knees, and lean her head sideways, or ear downwards, against his breast, +just like a child who is being fondled, and thus she would remain for +half an hour at a time, if not disturbed. + +When my friend was ill in bed, poor loving Meggie would put her paws on +the edge of it, and lay her head sideways on his breast, and thus remain +for an hour. What a comfort this simple act of devotedness was to +Frank! + +When Frank died, Meggie fell into the best of hands, that of a lady who +had a very great regard for her, and so was happy; but I know she never +forgot her master. + +She died only a few months ago. Her owner--she, may I say, who held her +in trust--brought her over for me to look at one afternoon. I +prescribed some gentle medicine for her, but told Miss W--she could only +nurse her, that her illness was very serious. Meggie's breath came very +short and fast, and there was a pinched and anxious look about her face +that spoke volumes to me. So when Miss W--was in the house I took the +opportunity of going back to the carriage, and patting Frank's dog's +head and whispering, "Good-bye." + +I cannot help confessing here, although many of my readers may have +guessed it before, that I believe in immortality for the creatures, we +are only too fond of calling "the lower animals." + +I have many great-souled men on my side in the matter of this belief, +but if I stood alone therein, I would still hold fast thereto. + +I have one firm supporter, at all events, in the person of my friend, +the Rev J.G. Wood [Note 1]. + +Nay, but my kindly poet Tupper, whose face I have never seen, but whose +verses have given me many times and oft so much of real pleasure, have I +not another supporter in you? + +Aileen Aroon left us at last, dying of the fatal complaint that had so +long lain dormant in her blood. + +We had hopes of her recovery from the attack that carried her off until +the very end. She herself was as patient as a lamb, and her gratitude +was invariably expressed in her looks. + +There are those reading these lines who may ask me why I did not +forestall the inevitable. Might it not have been more merciful to have +done so? These must seek for answer to such questions in my other +books, or ask them of any one who has ever _loved_ a faithful dog, and +fully appreciated his fidelity, his affection, and his almost human +amount of wisdom and sagacity. + +The American Indians did use to adopt this method of forestalling the +inevitable; in fact, they slew their nearest and dearest when they got +old and feeble. Let who will follow their example, I could not _if the +animal had loved me and been my friend_. + +Theodore Nero lived for years afterwards, but I do not think he ever +forgot Aileen Aroon--poor simple Sable. + +I buried her in the garden, in a flower border close to the lawn, and I +did not know until the grave was filled in that Nero had been watching +the movements of my man and myself. + +A fortnight after this I went to her grave to plant a rosebush there, +Nero following; but when he saw me commencing to dig, a change that I +had never seen the like of before passed over his face; it was wonder, +blended with joy. He thought that I was about to bring her back to life +and him. + +In his last illness, poor Nero's mattress and pillow were placed in a +comfortable warm room. He seldom complained, though suffering at times; +and whenever he did, either myself or my wife went and sat by him, and +he was instantly content. + +I had ridden down with the evening letters, and was back by nine +o'clock. It was a night in bleak December, 'twixt Christmas and the New +Year. When I went to the poor patient's room I could see he was just +going, and knelt beside him, after calling my wife. In the last short +struggle he lifted his head, as if looking for some one. His eyes were +turned towards me, though he could not see; and then his head dropped on +my knee, and he was gone. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Down at the foot of our bird-haunted lawn, in a little grassy nook, +where the nightingales are now singing at night, where the rhododendrons +bloom, and the starry-petalled syringas perfume the air, is Nero's +grave--a little grassy mound, where the children always put flowers, and +near it a broken, rough, wooden pillar, on which hangs a life-buoy, with +the words--"Theodore Nero. Faithful to the end." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Author of "Man and Beast." Two volumes. Messrs. Daldy and +Isbister. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Aileen Aroon, A Memoir, by Gordon Stables + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AILEEN AROON, A MEMOIR *** + +***** This file should be named 37330.txt or 37330.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/3/37330/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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