Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-05-25
NO. 1873
Mistellaaepns.
TOBY.
By JOHN BROWN, NJ. d.


When with my mother at Moffat Wells, be-
ing three years of age, and / have re-
manned "bltten" ever since in the matter
oil dogs. remember that little dog, and
can at this moment not only recall my
pam and terror-1 have no doubt / was to
blame but also her face; and were I al
lowed to search among the shades inthe
klysian fields. could pick her out still.
All my life have been familiar with these
faithful creatures, making friends of them,
and speaking to them and the only time
ever addressed the public, about q year
AFTER being bitten, wat at the farm of
hlrkiaw Hill, near Biggar, when the text.
gwen out from an empty cart in which the
ploughman had placed me, was~'Jacob 8
dog" and my entire sermon was as fol-
lows :-"Some say that Jacob had black
dog (the very long) and some say that
Jacob had white dog, but l Gmagine
the presumption of four years y say Jacob
had brown dog, and a brown dogsit
shall be-" ~
had many intimacies from this tin 9
onward-Bawtie. OF the inn; Keeper, Il Q
carriers bull-terrier; Tiger, a huge tawny
mastiff from Edinburg, which think must
have been an uncle OF Rab S all the sheep
dogs at Cafands-Spring, Mavis, Yarrow,
Swallow, Cheviot, ETC.; but it was not
till was at college, and my brother at
the High Scool, that we possessed dog.
Toby was the most utterly shabby. vul-
gar, mean-looking cur ever beheld :; in
one word, a tyke. He had not one good
feature except his teeth and eyes, and his
bark, if that can be called feature. He
was not ugly enough to be interesting;
his color black and white, his shape sleggy
and clumsy; altogether what Sydney
Smith would have called an extraordinary
ordinary dog; and, as have said, not
even greatly ugly, or, as the Aberdonians
have it, bonnie Ui' lfauredness. My
brother William found him the centre Of
attraction to multitude of small black
guards who were drowning him slowly in
Lochend Lock, doing their best to length
EN- out the process, and secure the great
est amount of fun with the nearest ap-
proach to death. Even then Toby showed
his great intellect by pretending to be
dead, and thus gaining time and inspira-
ton. William bought him for two-pence,
and, as he had it not, the boys accom-
panied him to Pilrig street, when / hap
pened to meet him, and giving twopcnce
to the biggest boy, had the satisfaction of
seing general engagement OF much
severity during which the twopenee dis
appeared-one penny going off with
very small and swift boy, and the other
vanishing hopelessly into the grating of
drain. Htas
Toby was for weeks in the house unbe-
known to any one but ourselves, two, and
the cook, and, for my grandmother's love
of tidyness and hatred of dogs and dirt,
believe she would have expelled .'him
we saved from drowning" had not he, in
his straightforward way, walked into my
fathers bedroom one night when he was
bathing his feet, and introduced himself
with wag of his tail. intimating gen.
eral willingness to be happy. My father
laughed most heartily, and at last Toby,
having got his way to his bare feet, and
having begun to lick his soles and between
his toes with his small rough tongue, my
father gave such an unwonted shout OF
laughter, that grandmother, sisters,
and all of us-went in. Grandmother
might argue with all her energy and skill,
but as surely rs the pressure of Tom
Jones iniantle fist upon Mr.. Allworthys
fore finger undid all the arguments of his
sister, SO did Toby's tongue and fun prove
too many tor grandmother's eloquence.
somehow think Toby must have been up
to all this, tor think he had peculiar
love for my father ever after, and regard
ed grandmother from that hour with
careful and cool eye.
Toby, when full grown, was strong,
coarse dog; coarse in shape, in counte-
nance, in hair, and in manner. used to
think that, according to the Pythagorean
doctrine, he must have been, or been 60
ing to be Il Gilmerton carter. He was of
the bull. terrier variety. coarsened through
much mongreliSm and doubious and va
ried ancestry. His teeth were good, and
he had Il large skull, and rich bark as of
Il dog three times his size, and 4 tail which
never saw equalled-indeed. ii was 4
tail per Sc; it was of immense girt and
not short, equal throughout like police
mans baton; the machinery for working
it was of great power, and acted in way,
as far as have been able to discover, quite
original. We called it his ruler.
When he wished to get into the house,
he first whined gently, then growled then
gave a sharp bark, and then came re-
sounding, mighty stroke which shook the
house; this, after much study and watch
ing, we found was done by his bringing
the entire length of his solid tail fiat upon
the door, with q sudden and vigorous
stroke; 1t was quite tour de force co,tp de
queue, and he was perfect in it at once,
his first bang authoritative having been as
mastery and telling us his last.
With all this inbred vulgar air, he was
a dog of great moral eXcellence-afTection
ate, faithful, honest up to his light, with
an odd humor as peculiar and as strong as
his tail. My father in his reserved way,
was very fond of him. and there must
have been very funny scenes with them,
for we heard bursts of laughter issuing
from his study when they two were by
themselves; there was something in him
that took that grave, beautiful, melancholy
face, One can fancy him in the midst OF
his books, and sacred work and thoughts,
pausing and looking at the secula- Toby,
who was looking out for a smile to begin
his rough fun, and about to end by cours-
ing and gurria round the room, upsetting
my fathers books, laid out on the floor for
consultation, and himself nearly at times,
as he stood watching him. and off his
guard and shaking with laughter. Toby