enjoy all the advantages ofa good ran, without going any appreciable distance away from wheremaster is. _Apropos_ of dogs gambolling and racing for the evidentpurpose of getting rid of an extra amount of animal electricity, I givean extract here from a recent book of mine [Note 1]. The sketch ispainted from real life.
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DOGS IN THE SNOW IN GREENLAND.
"The exuberance of great `Oscar's' joy when out with his master for awalk 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 youfeel young again to behold him. He knew while Allan was dressing thathe 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 wouldopen his mouth, and try to round a sentence in real verbal English, andtailing in this, fall back upon dog language, pure and simple, or hewould 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 hisbright 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 yourcoat a little--oh, _ever_ so little--faster? What can you want with amuffler? _I_ don't wear a muffler. And now you are looking for yourfur cap, and there it is right before your very eyes!'
"`And,' the dog would add, `I daresay we are off at last,' and he wouldhardly give his master time to open the companion door for him.
"But once over the side, `Hurrah!' he would seem to say, then away hewould bound, and away, and away, and away, straight ahead as crow couldfly, through the snow and through the snow, which rose around him infeathery clouds, till he appeared but a little dark speck in thedistance. This race straight ahead was meant to get rid of hissuper-extra steam. Having expended this, back he would come with arush, and a run, make pretence to jump his master down, but dive pasthim at the last moment. Then he would gambol in front of his master insuch a daft and comical fashion that made Allan laugh aloud; and, seeinghis master laughing, Oscar would laugh too, showing such a doubleregiment of white, flashing, pearly teeth, that, with the quickness ofthe dog's motions, they seemed to begin at his lips and go right awaydown both sides of him as far as the tail.
"Hurroosh! hurroosh! Each exclamation, reader, is meant to represent akind of a double-somersault, which I verily believe Oscar inventedhimself. He performed it by leaping off the ground, bending sideways,and going right round like a top, without touching the snow, with aspring 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 beable to get up again for laughing; then away Oscar would rush wildlyround and round in a complete circle, having a radius of some fiftyyards, with Allan McGregor on his broad back for a centre."
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Theodore Nero was as full of sauciness and _chique_ as ever was an Etonboy home for the holidays, or a midshipman on shore for a cruise. Thefollowing anecdote will illustrate his merry sauciness and Aileen'sgood-natured simplicity at the same time.
Nero was much quicker in all his motions than Aileen, so that althoughshe never failed to run after my walking-stick, she was never quickenough to find first. Now one day in throwing my stick it fell among abed of nettles. Nero sprang after it as light as a cork, and brought itout; but having done so, he was fain to put it down on the road till heshould rub his nose and sneeze, for the nettles had stung him in atender part. To see what he would do, I threw the stick again among thenettles. But mark the slyness of the dog: he pretended not to see whereit had fallen, and to look for it in quite another place, until poorsimple Aileen had found it and fetched it. As soon as she got on to theroad she must needs put down the stick to rub her nose, when, laughingall over, he bounded on it and brought it back to me. I repeated theexperiment several times, with precisely the same result. Aileen wastoo simple and too good-natured to refuse to fetch the stick from thenettle-bed.
About five minutes afterwards the fun was over. Nero happened to lookat 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, andget 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'smental 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 allover her, sit on her head while washing their faces, and go asleep underher chin.
I saw her one day looking quite unhappy. She wanted to get up from theplace where she was lying, but two piebald rats had gone to sleep in thebend of her forearm, and she was afraid to move, either for fear ofhurting the little pets or of offending me.
Seeing the situation, I at once took the rats away and put them in thecage; then Aileen got up, made a low and grateful bow, and walked out.
The following is the life-story of one of Aileen's especialfavourites:--
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"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 nameof "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 anordinary 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 hadnever seen one of the same breed before, you would hardly take Mary tobe a rat at all. Children are exceedingly fond of her; gentlemen admireher; old ladies dote on her, and young ones love her. I think even myblack tom-cat is especially fond of her, judging from the notice hetakes of her; he will sit for hours, and hardly ever take his green eyesoff her cage.
Black Tom once paid Mary a domiciliary visit, by way of appearingneighbourly. It was a grand spring, but missed by an inch, so Tomreturned, looking inglorious.
Having so far introduced my Mary, and confident you will like her betteras you read on, let me try to describe the winsome wee thing. Mary--myrodent, let me call her--is smaller than a rat, and not quite the samein shape, for Mary's symmetry is elegance itself. Her eyes round,protrusive, but loving withal, are living burning garnets--garnets thatspeak. Her whole body is covered with long snowy fur, far richer thanthe finest ermine, and with an almost imperceptible golden tint at thetips, this tint being only seen in certain lights. Her tail is perhapsone of her principal points of beauty--long, sweeping, and graceful; shepositively seems to talk with it. The forearms are very short anddelicate, the hind-legs strong and muscular. Sitting on one end isMary's almost constant position--kangaroo-like; then she holds up herlittle hands beseechingly before her. These latter are almost human inshape, and when she gives you her delicate, cold, transparent paw, youmight easily fancy you were shaking hands with a fairy; and thus she isoften called "Fairy Mary." Mary's hands are bare and pink, and thewrists are covered with very short downy fur, after which the coatsuddenly elongates, so much so, that when she stands on end to watch afly on the ceiling, you would imagine she wore a gown tight at thewrist, 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'sskin is as clean and white and pure as mother-of-pearl. It only remainsto say of this little pet, that in all her ways and manners she is ascleanly as the best-bred Persian cat, and her fur has not the faintestodour, musky or otherwise.
Fai
ry 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 catone 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 timeafter this Mary was missing. She was seen at times, of an evening,flitting ghost-like across the kitchen floor, but she persistentlyrefused to return to her desolated cage-home. She much preferredleading a free and easy vagrant kind of life between the cellar, thepantry, and the kitchen. She came out at times, however, and took herfood when she thought nobody was looking, and she was known to havetaken up her abode in one corner of the pantry, where once a mouse hadlived. When she took this new house, I suppose she found it hardlylarge enough for her needs, because she speedily took to cleaning itout, and judging from the shovelfuls of rags, paper, shavings, andlitter of