Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-03-20
DAILY COMMERCIAL.
BALTIMORE, MD,
Doc AND barry

| \ family dog had incidentally mad. tbe
| acquaintance of little bandy-IegUed, sunnv.
haired toddling, the young daTlng Of q
| neIghbor on the other side of the street.
| While lying on the door stone, with his dreamy
| eyes peering out this way and that in short
| speculatlons, he had noticed this little thine
sometimes at the chamber window, and some,
times on the pavement, extemporizng those
small entertainments which infant minds en-
JOY Now, from time immemorial, there has
been a spontaneous affinity Of fellowship be.
tween children and large, shaggy, honeste eyed
dogs, generally commencing when both 20 on
| ali tours. Whoever has watched the counte-
nance of a great Newfoundlander or St.
Bernarder, while looking from the hearthside
to chubby, chirpy, perky baby, wriggling
across the floor on its hands and feet, in those
frog-like hitchings which the first and last
| children born into the world have begun to
walk it in; whoever has thoughtfully looked
INTO such dog 5 face at such sight so proud
and joyful to mothers, young and old, must
have noticed an expression of intelligence and
| sympathy more than human. That is the dogs
day OF honor and gladness in the family circle.
There he Is on the floor with his masters
youngest child on an equal footing. He sees
and teels 1t; let no one doubt that Here and
| now they are both quaarupeds in faculties and
| manner of motion.
lie loves to see the mother take the little
being from her bosom and place it, back up-
ward on the carpet, and bubble over with
inarticulate raptures to see it work itself along
from one figure to another. Don't put a selfish
thought into that dogs mind. Don't say that
he feels an unworthy pleasure in the proof
that every grand emperor, and every man who
ever walked the earth since Adam, had to
serve his apprenticeship on the floor on all
tours and move over it in q fashion which
might well move the sympathy of puppy of
the same age, or any other little quadruped of
benevolent disposition. No. real Newfound-
lander is too generous for comparisons so
derogatory to his masters humanity 1t Is
not with the sympathy of pity but of love. that
he watches the movements of the little being
on the carpet or in its mothers arms. He
longs and loves to take part in bringing it on.
lie loves to feel its little short, fat arms buried
IN the long hair of its neck; his soft, white
fingers casping his long ears What Juggling
and touzling, and pinching and pulling at the
tail he will take, all in the fun and froic of
the daily gambol, and never whine or vince
even with pain that would make the father
OF the child cry out and put bitten finger to
his mouth And what member of the family
Is prouder or happier than he when that child
finishes his long apprenticeship as a quadruped,
and stands fer the first time upright ON what
were once his hind feet, and makes two stems
forward before It's limpsy body loses its balance,
and It comes down again to its original CON
dlton IN Squashy conclusion with its fore
head against the floor?
''Doesn' he, with all the ineligible speech
of eye and tail, say Just what the father saws
with more fun in his face? Don't crv,
Teddy! up and try it again! p With what
tenderness and delight he turns saddle-horse
and carrage-horSe for the little thing when it
IS ilrst taken out doors to see the birds and
hear them sing, and be introduced to the old
Mully in her crumpled horns, to Jenny the
pony, and to the teathered bpeds of the barn
yard circle! Of ell the eyes watching that
child up to bOyhood whose are fixed on hiro
ottener, longer and iondlier than those Low
beginning to look out dimly from under the
grey eyebrows Of that old housedorr The
youth, full OF life and yigor, does not remember
the time when he crcpt on his hands and feet
across the floor; but that Old dog, mapping
longer at the fireside now than then. remembers
1t, and follows him with all his first love and
truthtulnesS; follows MIN often, hesitatingly
and Wlstlully at a distance, even when told to
go back, IL tone that goes to his heart.
! hat eye follows him last as he recedes from
sight, and greets him first on his return. Its
look at its last closing is full of its first love;
and II 1t were permitted to open again in
paradise it would gliSten there in the light of
that love unquenched by the grave.
This dog was endowed with the nature that
does honor to his kind and good to a higher
race. Lyingthere by the door-stone, ormakioo
short morning trots up and down the sideyyaIk7
he espied this little child on the oth or side
of the street. If the truth were kr. own. | am
sure that it would be found th,t the cbiId,s
father had no dog for his hor,e. and the DOS
owner had no child for his,. This was proba6lv
the secret Of their fist acquaintance. Their
sympathles and atlinities worked in them to
thG same lThpulse. The dog, in one Of his
walks Cit that side of the street, met the baby
rn-Out, and looked over the rim of the little
basket carriage, and looked, as loving dog
can look, straight into a pair of baby eyes,
peernG upward with querYlng wonder at the
blue world above. 1t was the face he had
seen against the nursery window from the
opposite side. Of course, seeing such hairy
face, with its tender eyes, come suddenly be
tween its own and the sun, the child cooked
up fat foot, crowed, bit a thumb, smiled, and
said good morningr' as well as it could.
The dog understood it, anyway.
Human friendships and loves as long as
eternity have often commenced on as small
beginning of incident; and SO began the beaut-
full sympathy and companionship between this
intelligent, aiiecGonate creature and the infant
child Of its owners neighbor Just where the
line OF demarCatiOn between the two races Of
beings is the thinnest and most obscure. Little
by little, day by day and week by week, this
cOmpanionShip went on, growing with the.
growth and strengthening with the strength of
the little one. The dog, doubtless because
the master had no young child of his own,
came at last to transfer frequently his watch
and ward to the dOor-stOne on the other side
of the street; to follow as a guard of honor the
babys carriage on its daily airings, darling
proud and warning looks to all the breed Of
barkers on the way mat seemed impertinent or
mqulsltlve. He assisted at the inauguration
OF It's first perpendicular footing Of two yards
OF the garden walk. He led the way down the
aisle, barking his great round banks Of Joy,
and waving the little one on with the proudly
curved standard of his tail.
With what delight he gave himself up to all
the pcttngs, pinchings and pullngs and little
rude rompings and rough-and- tumblings that
those baby-hands could dsport themselves
with. Thus grew their mutual attachments
And to this it had grown, when one day, as
the dog lay in watch and ward by the door
stone, the child peerng out of the window
above, lost its balance and fell head foremost
upon the stone pavement below. 1t never
breathed again. 1t was then taken up out of
the puddle Of blood with fractured skull,
mohonlesS and dead, The red drops of the
young life had despatched the feet and face of
the dog as he sprang to the rescue. His heart
died out within him, in one long, winning moan
Of grief From that moment he refused to eat.
He refused to be comforted by his masters
home, Day by day, and night by night, he
lay upon the spot where the child fell, with his
shaggy throat pressed closely to the pavement,
as if he would warm to life again the t,lood
rl,ot hoo ,t,o cd II LrJ;h,, p,,,..;tt