Democratic messenger., 1881-09-17

everlasting heavens. Caleb's hands fell
down helplessly to his side. and Jach
crept out of corner and licked them
and then the parish people sent theil
undertakers to carry Matte away to the
same big cemetery where her mother
was sleeping.
All gone but Jack Well, dog is
something, after all, to have left one
and when one is old and blind and
poor, one doesn't expect great deal in
life, but is just thankful for crust OF
bread to eat, some straw or old clothes
to lie down on at night, and sunshiny
wall to lean against in the day time; so
the dog was altogether something extra
IN the way of mercies. How he do
live on is marvel" one to another
would wonder, watching the old man
creeping down stairs day after day to
take his stand in the streets; and,
"The dog is like child to him now,''
they would say, as they noted Jack sit
ting on his stump of tail, waiting for
a gap IN the crush of carts and car
riages before he would venture 10 lead
his master across the busy nigh-road.
1t was in those days that Jack first
began to "fend for himself" AS long
as the two Matties lived, there was al
ways a plate of odds and ends of some
sort-scrape it together how they might
waiting for him inside the door when
he came In from his mornings work /;
but after they were gone, things were
different. 1t was hard work enough for
Caleb to get his own daily bread and
collect the eighteen pennies which paid
for his miserable little cupboard (attic
it was supposed to be- at the top of the
house; so when he came in at o'clock
in the winters twilight with loaf of
bread and few pence, the cord was
unknotted from Jacks neck and the
poor animal let free to forage for him
self in the alleys and cutters. Jack in
this way became very punctu in his
habits. At four o'clock he was released
from duty; it took him about an hour to
find his dinner in the streets; and
punctually at five he might be seen
sneaking along some by-street with a
bone in his mouth or the remnant of
some fish, lodging skillfully between
passers-by till he reached home, where
at his masters feet he would finish in
calm enjoyment his hardly earned meal
to which, be it noted, Caleb never
failed to add some portion of his own.
however scanty it had been.
This winter of 1881 tried Jack and
Caleb sorely. In the summer things
had been a little better with them peo-
pie had little more money to spend,
and a few more halfpence would find
their way into Caleb's hat and Jack
also would sometimes get a pat on the
head and a biscuit or two thrown to
him but in the winter things began
to go very hardly with them. Not that
the people of the house were ever un-
kind to them Poor souls they were
kind enough, as far as they had the
wherewithal to be kind and one, who
the old mans wife, would
come in and clean his room for him !;
and another, who remembered the blue
eyed Matties, would patch up his old
clothes for him r.; and all would give a
kind word or pat to the faithful Jack,
now the old mans sole companion and
protector. More than this they couldn't t
do. You, see, when people have hard
work to keep their own and their chill.
dren's bodies and souls together, they
can't be expected to go about distrib-
uting loaves of bread, or have many
remnants of meals to put down in their
cutters to feed stray dogs and cats.
When the long frost set in IN Janu-
ary, many and many a night did Jack
and Caleb go dinnerless. and supperless
to bed. Chimes are little rough just
now, but we'll see them out together,
eh, old friend?" Caleb would say when
Jack came to lick his hand by way of
goodnight and to testify his opinion
that, whatever happened, his master
was in no sense to blame. Then they
would turn in together, Caleb on his
straw (the mattress had gone the way
of his bedstead now, with his head on
an old box for pillow, and the faithful
Jack huddled up on his feet.
Would the frost never come to an
end? 1t was all very well for ladies
wrapped in their sealskins and velvets
to say what a healthy winter it was, and
for young people with rosy cheeks, as
they looked out their skates and pulled
on their thick gauntlets, to descant on
the glories of ''fine frost :" Caleb and
Jack taking their stand against the wall
= -sunshiny, alas no longer = would
have told a different story. All, surely
never did east wind sweep down so ruth
lessly before, never before did snow
storm last so long, never before were
streets so forlorn and empty of passers-
by. Caleb and Jack went home one
terrible day at least one hour earlier
than usual-it was useless waiting there
any longer for alms-Caleb with one
halfpenny in his hat, and that the gift
of a poor frozen crossing-sweepef
who rightly judged the old man to be
worse off than himself.
Part of loaf was all Caleb's food that
day. ''Eh, old doggie, thou shalt have
thy bite of it," he said, feeding Jack
with crumbs in the hollow of his hand,
"for it's little enough that thoul't find
for thyself in the CUTTERS" Little
enough, indeed, anywhere save snow
and ice; and Jack may hunt high and
Jack may hunt low, and thrust his
patient old nose into all sorts of odd
corners that may seem to have faiut
scent of red herring or haddock, but
there's little enough of supper he'll get
tonight.
What was it made him so late on this
particular windy, frosty, snowy after
noon Hao he lost himself in a snow
drift thought Caleb, setting open wide
his door and listening in vain for the
patter and scramble of the four little