The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-02-16

across his mouth tense as bowstring; his
whole frame stiff With indignation and sur.
prise; his roar asking us all round, "Did you
ever see the like Of thisY" He looked statue
OF anger and establishment done in Aberdeen.
granite. t ~
We soon had crowd the Chicken held on :.
" A knife cried Bob; and cobbler gave
him his knife; you know the kind of knife,
worn away obliquely to point, and always
keen. put its edge to the tense leather it
ran before it; and then one sudden Jerk of
that enormous head, . sort of dirty mist about
has mouth, no noise-and the bright and fierce
little fellow Is dropped, limp, and dead. A SOL
emn pause this was more than any Of us had
bargained for. turned the little fellow over.
and saw he was quite dead the mastiff had
taken him by the small of the back, like raj,
and broken it.
He looked down at his victim appeased,
ashamed, and amazed snuHed him all over,
stared at him, and, taking a sudden thought,
turned round and trotted off. Bob took the
dead dog up, and said, John, well bury him
after tea" Yes" said I, and was off after the
mastif. He made up the Cowgate at a rapid
swing; he had forgotten some engagement.
He turned up the Candlemaker row, and stop.
ped at the Harrow Inn. s8 -
There was q carriers cart ready to start, and
| keen, thin, impatient, black a-vised little man,
his hand at his gray horses head, looking about
augrily for something. "Rab, ye theft" said
he, aiming kick at my great friend, who drew
cringing up, and avoiding the heavy shoe with
more agility than dignity, and watching HIS
masters eye skunk dismayed under the cart his
ears down, and as much as he had Of tail down,
too. @ q saa -
What a man this must be, thought /, to whom
my tremendous hero turns tail The carrier
fhn 10 hox r.
his neck, and / eagerly told him the story,
which Bob and / always thought, and still
| think, Homer, or King David, or Sir Walter,
alone were worthy to rehearse. The severe lit
| tie man was mitigated, and condescended to
| say, Rab, ma man, puir Rabbie," whereupon
the stump of a, tail rose up, the ears were cock
| ed, the eyes filled, and were comforted; the
two friends were reconciled. "Huppi" and
stroke of the whip were given to jess and off
| went the three.
| Bob and / buried the Game Chicken that
night, I've had not much of tea,) in the back
green Of his house in Melville street No. IT.,
with considerable gravity and silence; and be.
ing at the time in the Had, and, like all boys,
| Troians, we called him Hector, of course.
! Six years have passed. long time for boy
and dog-Bob Ainslie is off to the wars; I
am medical student, and clerk at Mimic House
Hospital.
Rab saw almost every week on the Wednes-
| day and we had much pleasant intimacy. l
found the way to his heart by frequent scratch
| ing OF his huge head, and an occasional bone.
| When did not notice him, he would plant
himself straight before me, and stand wagging
that bud of a tail, and looking up, with his
head a little to the one side. His master oc.
casionally saw; he used to call me Master
john" but was laconic as any Spartan.
| nDo Y
the hospital when saw the large gate open,
and in walked Rab, with that great and easy
saunter of his. He looked as if taking general
possession of the place like the Duke of We'll
lingtsn entering a subdued city, satated with
victory and peace. After him came Jess, now
white from age, with her cart, and in it wo-
mar, carefully wrapped up, the carrier leading
the horse anxiously, and looking back. When
he saw me. James (for his name was James
| Noble) made a curt and grotesque boo" and
said, Master John, this is the mistress she's
got a trouble in her breest-some kind O. an
income, we're thinkin'."
By this time saw the woman's face; she
was sitting on a sack filed with straw, her hus-
bands plaid round her, and his big-coat with
its large, white metal buttons, over her feet.
| / never saw a more unforgetable face, pale,
serious, tonely,* delicate, sweet, without being
at all what we call fine. She looked sixty, and
had on a mulch, white as snow, with its black
ribbon her silvery, smooth hair setting off her
| dark gray eyes-eyes such as one sees only
twice or thrice in lifetime, full of suffering,
full also of the overcoming of it; her eyebrows
black and delicate, and her mouth firm, patient
and contented, which few mouths ever are.
As / have said, never saw more beauti
full countenance, or one more subdued to set
tied quiet. "Ailie, said James, "this is Mails
1 Holm fha Roh
ken. We often speak ABBOTT you, DOCTOR" She
smiled, and made a movement, but said moth
ing and prepared to come down, putting her
plaid aside and rising. Had Solomon, in all
his glory, been handing down the Queen Of
Sheba at his palace gate, he could not have
done it more daintily, more tenderly, more like
a gentleman, than did James the Howgate car
rier when he lifted down Allie his wife.
The contrast of his small, swarthy, weather
beaten, keen, worldly face to hers, pale, sub
dued, and beautiful, was something Wonderful.
Rab looked on, concerned and puzzled, but
ready for anything that might turn up, were it
to strangle the nurse, the porter, or even me.
Allie and he seemed great friends.
"As / was sayin', she's got kind o. trouble
in her breest doctor; wull We TAX q look at
it?" We walked into the consulting room, all
four; Rab, grim and comic, willing to be hap
| by and confidential, if cause could be shown,
| willing also to be the reverse, on the same
terms. Allie sat down, undid her open gown
and her lawn handkerchiefround her neck, and,
without word, showed me her right breast.
looked at and examined it carefully, she and
James Watching nae, and Rab cycling all three
What could / say? There it was, that had
once been SO soft, SO shapely, so white, SO gra-
| cious and bountiful so full of all blessed con-
| ditions," hard as q stone, a centre of horrid
pain making that pale face, with its gray, lucid
| reasonable eyes, and Its sweet, resolved mouth,
express the full measure of suffering overcome.
Why was that gentle, modest, sweet woman,
clean and loveable, condemned by God to bear
such burden?
got her away to bed. May Rab and me
bide !" said james. Tou may; and Rab, if
he will behave himself" "I'se warrant he's
do that, doctor /" and in skunk the faithful
beast. wish you could have seen him. There
are no such dogs now. He belonged to a lost
tribe. As / have said, he was brindled, and
gray, like Rubislaw granite his hair short,
hard, and close, like lions; his body thick
set, like little bull-a sort of compressed Her
eules of a dog. He must have been ninety
pounds weight, at the least; he had large,
blunt head his muzzle black as night, his
mouth blacker than any night, tooth or two,
being all be had, cleaning out of his jaws of
darkness. His head was SCARED with the rec
ords of old wounds, sort Of series of fields of
battle all over it; one eye out, one ear cropped
as close as was Archbishop Leightons fathers
the remaining eye had the power of two and
above It, and in constant communication with
it, was tattered rag Of an ear, which was for
ever unfurling ITSELF like an old flag; and then
that bud of tail, about one inch long, if is
could in any sense be said to be long, being at
broad as long, the mobility, the instantaneous