The Westerly echo, & Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1854-1858, 1856-08-21
From the Independent.
The Dog Noble and the Empty
Hole.
BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

The first Summer which we spent in
Lsnox, we had along a very intelligent
dog named Noble He was learned in
many things, and by bis dog lore excited
the undying admiration OF all the chill
dren. But there were some things which
Noble could never learn. Having on
one occasion seen red squirrel run
ints a hole in stone wall, he could not
be persuaded that he was not there for
evermore.
Several red squirrels lived close to
the house and had become familiar, bnt
not tame. They kept up regular
romp with Noble. They would come
down from the maple trees with provok
ing coolness they would run along the
fence almost within reach they would
cock their tails and sail across the road
to the barn and yet there was such a
we'll timed calculation under all this ap-
parent rashness, that Noble invariably
arrive at the critical spot just as the
squirrel left it.
On one occasion, Noble was so close
upon his ed-backed friend that, unable
to get up the maple tree, he lodged in
to hole in the wall, ran through the
chinks, emerged at little distance,
and sprang intc the tree. The intense
enthusiasm Of the dog at that hole can
hardly be described He filled it full of
parking. He paved and scratched as
if undermining a bastion. Standing off
at little distance he would pierce the
hole with gaze as intense and fixed as
if he were trying magnetism on it
Then, with tail extended, and every
hair thereon electrified, he would rush
at the empty hole with prodigious on
slaught.
This imaginary squirrel haunted
Noble night and day. The very squirrel
himself would run up before his face in
to the tree, and, crouched in a crotch,
would sit silently watching the whole
process Of bombarding the empty hole,
with great sobriety and relis. But
noble would allow of no doubts. His
conviction that that hole had squirrel
in, continued mistaken for six weeks.
When all other occupations failed, this
hole remained to him. When there
were no more chickens to harry, no pigs
to bite, no cattle to chase, no children
to romp with, no expeditions to make
with the folks, and when he had slept
all that his dog skin would hold, he
would walk out of the yard, yawn and !,
stretch himself, and then look wistfully |
at the hole, as if thinking to himself,
Well, as there is nothing else to do
may as we'll try that hole agaan
We had almost forgotten this little
trait, until the conduct Of the New York
Express, in respect to Col. Fremont's
religion brought it ludicrously to mind
again. Col. Fremont is, and always
has been, as sound Protestant as John
Knox ever was. He was bred in the
Protestant faith and has never changed
He is unacquainted with the doctrines
and ceremonies Of the Catholic Church,
and has never attended the services Of
that church, with two or three excep-
tions, when curiosity, or some other ex-
trinsic reason, led him as a witness,--
We do not state this upon vague belief.
We know what we say. We say it
upon our own personal honor and proper
knowledge. Col. Fremont never was,
and is not now Roman Catholic. He
has never been won't to attend that
church. Nor has be in any way, d.
rectly or indirectly, given occasion for
this report.
1t is a gratuitous falsehood, utter,
barran, absolute and unqualified. The
story has been got up for political effect
1t is still circulated for that reason, and
like other political lies, it is a sheer,
unscrupulous falsehood from top to bot
tom, from the core to the skin, and
from the skin back to the core again
In all its parts, in pulp, tegument, rind,
cell and seed, it is through and total
untruth, and they who spread it bear
false witness. And as to all the stories
Of the Fulmer, ect., as to supposed con-
versation with Fremont, in which he
defended the mass, and what not, they
are pure fictions. They never happend.
The authors of them are slanderes the
men to believe them are dupes the
men whe spread them become endorsers
OF willful and corrupt libellers.
But the Express like Noble has
opened on this hole in the wall, and can
never be done barking at it. Day after
day it resorts to this empty hole. When
every thing else fails, this resource re
mains. There they are, indefatigable
the Express and NoJh-a church
without Fremont, and hole without
squirrel in it
In some respects, however, the dog
had the advantage. Sometimes we
thought that he really believed that
Aluso 4 al n -