The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1881-09-14
FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.

The fire burrs cheerily on the hearth
the great logs crackle and flare up the
wide chimney, up which it is my
wont to say You could drive q coach-and-
four. I draw my chair nearer to it,
with a SILVER. "What a nightT I
say. . .
els it still showing" asks my wife,
who sits opposite to me, her books and
work on the table beside her. .
"Fast. You can scarcely see a yard
before you"
uHeayen help any poor creature on
the moor tonight !" says she.
aWho would venture out? It began
snowing before dark, and all the people
about know the danger of being be-.
nighted ca the moor in a snowstorm."
eyes. But I have known people
frozen to death hereabouts before now"
nv wife is Scotch, and this pleasant
house in the Highlands is hers. We
ARE trying a winter in it for the first
time, and I find it excessively cold and
somewhat dull. Mentally, l decide
that in the future we will only grace it
with our presence during the shooting
season. Presently I 60 to the window
and look out it has ceased showing
and through a rift in the clouds I see a
star.
at is beginning to clear" I tell my
wife, and also inform her it is half-past
II o'clock. As she lights her candle at
the side-table 7 hear a whining and
ecretcbinp at the front door.
"There is Laddie loose again." says
she. "Would you let him in dearT
I did not like facing tie cold wind,
but could not refuse to let the poor ami.
NAL in. Strangely enough, when I
opened the door and called him, he
wouldn't come. He uns up to the
door and looks into my face with dumb
~entreaty; then he run back a few
steps, looking round to see if I I'M fol-
lowing and, finally, he takes my coat
in his mouth and tries to draw me out.
"Laddie won't come in" I call out to
my wife. "On the contrary, he seems
to want me to go out and have a game
of SNOWFALL with him."
She throws a shawl around her and
comes to the door. The collie was
here before We were married, and she is
almost as fond of him, I tell her, as she
is of Jack, our eldest boy.
"Laddie. Laddie |" she calls; "come
in, sir" He comes ebediently at her
call, but refuses to enter the housf, and
pursues the same dumb pantomime he
has already tried on me.
81 shall shut him out, JESSIE" / say.
ga night in the snow won't hurt him."
and I prepare to close the door.
"You will do nothing of the kind!'
s she replies, with an anxious look, "but
you will rouse the servants at once, and
follow him. Some one is lost in the
snow and Laddie knows it."
I laugh. Greatly, Jessie, you are
absurd. Laddie is q sagacious animal,
= no doubt, but l cannot believe he is rs
. clever as that. How can he possibly
know whether any one is lost in the
snow or not"
because he has found them, and
come back to us for help. Look at him
now"
cannot but own that the dog seems
restless and uneasy, and is evidently
endeavoring to cos US to follow him;
he looks at US with pathetic entreaty in
his eloquent eyes. "Why don't you
believe me-" he seems to ask.
"Come," she continues, "you know
you could not rest while there was g
possibility of a fellow creature wanting
your assistance. And I am certain
Laddie is not deceiving u.s."
What is q poor hen-pecked man to
do? I grumble, and resist, and yield;
as I have grumbled, and resisted, and
yielded before, and as I doubtless often
shall again.
. .'Laudie once found q man in the
FL vw before, but he was dead" Jennie
SAYS, as che hurries off to fill a flask
with brandy, and get ready some
blankets for US to take with us. In the
meantime I rouse the servants.
They are all English, with the e1cep-
tion of Donald, the gardener, and I can
9 that they are scofingly skeptical of
Laddie's sagacity, and inwardly dis
gusted at having to turn out of their
warm beds and face the bitter winters
blast.
"Dinna trouble yoursels," I hear old
Donald Say. "The mistress is right
enough. Aud Laddie is cleverer than
mony a Christian, and will find ONE
thing in the snaw this night"
"Don't sit up, JESSIE" I say, as we
start; "we may be out half the night
on this wild goose chase"
"Follow Laddie closely" is all the
answer she makes.
The dog springs forward with a JOY
Gus bark, constantly looking back to see
if we are following. As we pass
through the avenue gates and emerge
on the moor the moon struggles for a
moment through the driving clouds
and lights up with a sickly CLEAN the
snow clad country before us.
cts like looking for a needle in a
bundle of hay, sir" says John, the
coachman, co%nfdentially; "to think rs
We should find anybody on such a night
as this. Why, in some places the snow
is more than a couple O feet thick, and
It goes agin' reason to think that dumb
animal would have the sense to come
home and ask for help"
4 "Bide a wee, bide a vice." says old
Donald. CT dinna ken what your
English dogs a do, but a collie,
though it has ma been pleasing to Prov
idence to give the creature the gift O
speech, can do mony mair things than
them wad deride it,"
~ amt a deridin' of 'em," says John.
81 only says as how if they be so very
clever I've never seen it."
eye wull, though, We wull," says old
Donald, IS he hurries forward after
Iaddie, who has 10Y settled down into
a swinging trot, and is taking his way
straight across the loneliest part of the
bleak moor.
The cold wind almost cuts us in two,
and whirls the snowinto our faces, nearly
binding US. My finger tips are be-
coming numbed, icicles hanging from
my mustache and beard, and my feet
and legs are soaking wet, even through
my shooting boots and stout leather
leggings.
The moon has gone in again, and the
light from the lantern We carry is barely
sufficient to show us the inequalities in
the height of the snow, by which we
are guessing at u path. I begin to
wish I had staid at heme. "L'homme
propose, mais Ia femme dispose" I sigh
to myself, and I begin to consider
whether I may venture to give up the
search (which I have undertaken purely
to satisfy my wife, for I am like John,
and won't believe in Laddie(, when,
suddenly, I hear q shout in front of me,
and see Donald, who has all the time
been keeping closeto Laddie, drop on
his knees and begin digging wildly in the
snow with his hands. We all rush for
ward. Laddie has stopped at what ap-
to be the foot of a stunted tree,
and after scratching and whining for a
nonoont s;ts down and watches, leaving