Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-09-30
FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.

The fire burns cheerily on the hearth, The
great logs crackle and flare up the wide
| chimney, up which it is nv won't to say yor
| could drive a coach-and-four. l draw my
chair nearer to it, with a SILVER. "What
night" l say.
| lis it still snowing?" asks my wife, who
sits opposite to me, her books and work Oh
the table beside her.
"Fast. Y GU can scarcely see yard be-
fore your
Heaven help any poor creature on the
moor to-nightP' says she.
"Who would venture out? 1t began
showing before dark, and all the seople
about know the danger of being benighted
J on the moor in snow storm"
Eyes. But have known people frozen
to death hereabouts before now.'
My wife is Scotch, and this pleasant
house in the Highlands is hers. We are
trying winter in it for the first time, and
1 find it excessively cold and somewhat
dull. Mentally, 1 decide that in the flu.
ture we will only grace it With our pres
ence during the shooting season. Pres
emily 60 to the window and look out; it
has ceased showing and through a rift in
the clouds see star.
1T Is beginning to clear,'' | tell my
wife and also inform her it is half-past II
O'Clock. AS she lights her candle at the
side-tabls / hear whining and scratching
at the frSSt door.
''There is Ealdie loose again." says she.
'Would you let him in, dear?''
1 did not like facing the cold wind but
could not refuse to let the poor animal in.
Strangely enough, when 1 opened the door
and called him he wouldn't come. He
runs up to the door and looks into my face
with dumb entreaty; then he runs back a
few steps, looking round to see if 1 am
following; and, finally he takes my coat in
his mouth and tries to draw me out.
''Laddie won't come in,'' 1 call out to
my wife. son the contrary, he seems to
want me to go out and have a game of
SNOWFALL with HIM.
She throws shawl around her and comes
to the door. The collie was here before
we were married, and she is almost as fond
OF him, tell her, as she is of Jack. our
eldest boy.
'Laddie, Laddie!" she calls; "come in
SIR" He comes obediently at her call, but
refuses to enter the house, and pursues
the same dumb pantomime he has already
tried on me.
II shall shut him out, JESSIE" 1 say
ga night in the snow WON'T hurt him."
and prepare to close the door.
"You will do nothing of the kind!' she
replies, with an anxious look, sDut you
will rouse the servants at once, and follow
him. Some one is lost in the snow and
Laddie knows it,
| laugh. "Really, Jessie, you are alb
surd. Laddie is sagacious animal, no
doubt, but [ cannot believe he is as 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.'
l cannot but own that the dog seems
ICo11Ooo c1uu udOdSy, duu Is oVluouGly 0Il-
deavoring to coax 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, snow you could
not rest while there was possibility of
fellow creature wanting your assistance
And am certain Laddie is not dece1ving
u.s."
What is poor hen-pecked man to do?
l grumble, and resist, and yield; as have
grumbled, and resisted, and yielded be.
fore, and as I doubtless often shall again.
''Laddie once found man in the snow
before, but he was dead Jennie says, as
she 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 exception
of Donald, the gardener, and [ can see
that they are scofingly skeptical of Lad
dies sagacity, and inwardly Disguised at