The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1893-06-30
miscellanenus.
MY KLEPTOMANIAC.

| what IL try whether it may not be
interested also in the little bowwow :?
The little bowwow took an immense
interest in me at first sight. He was
such poor and friendless creature,
and it was such cold and clustering
night that had not the heart to shut
the door in his face as he stood wag-
ging his tail in the stream of light
from the open hall and looking upon
me appealingly, with big, innocent
brown eyes, from under a silky fringe
of hair that appeared to hint of Skye
descent, though rather more than less
remote.
Yes, he is certainly mongrel, this
Artful Dodger of mine. Perhaps if
| he had been of good honest Skye
strain this tale could never have been
told of him.
However, in he came with me that
night. and out he went with me next
evening for the first of our walks
abroad.
1t was only round a couple of corners
ON an GRAND to the green grocer's
about the morrow's list, which had
not properly been made up, but when
| | pulled my glove off at the home door
to grapple the better with the Difficult
| ties of the latch key, felt u cold nose
thrust into my hand-nay, more than
cold nose, an apple, which so red
and glossy us it was, was quite sure
| my provident friend had selected from
the very basket of apples l had just
ordered home from under the green
! grocer's counter.
That was excusable enough, perhaps.
But what followed day by day ex-
hausted all my stock of apologies for
my poor kleptomaniac.
Day by day there was something of
my neighbors' goods laid at my door
| One morning it would be prime beef
steak fresh from the butchers stall :;
another, it would be Il dainty hand
kerchief thrust into my hand as we
walked together along Chestnutgtreet.
| l soon learned to eschew the shopping
| quarter, however, when we were out
together. But my Artful Dodger was
too much for me. One snowy cay all
| the neighbors' doormats were piled
| up in our vesitbule, and my poor little
| fellow crept out from among them
wagging his tail with delighted con-
seriousness of merit as l came up the
| steps.
Some Fagin had trained him. There
was not a doubt of that. 1t was the
part of Christian moralist to reclaim
| him, not to turn him adrift in his evil
way, argued. l seemed, however,
| to be the only Christian in the house,
or, indeed, in the whole block. l
fancy they would have left my poor
little fellow to go to the bad altogeth-
err in another neighborhood remote
| from theirs. But then he never look
ed up at them with his big, innocent
brown eyes, trimming with love and
| trust, as he did at Inc.
| "'Love Inc, love my dog" said
| to Hugh one evening as | stood with
him in the vestibule, and the Artful
| Dodger whined so piteously ON the
| other side of the closed door that [
| was obliged to let him out to walk
| with us. Then l could feel myself
blush furiously, for though Cousin
| Hugh and l were-well, it is hard to
| say what we were, but this unlucky
| speech of mine was certainly the first
word of love that had passed between
us.
was glad to go down on my knees
to the little fellow leaping about me
to escape the eyes Of the big fellow
standing over me, for felt sure there
was a laugh in them.
when your dog is as honest as you
are, Kitty" said Hugh, 81 may per-
haps begin to love him as''--
| "As do p l answered, my dog and
1 springing down the steps together
gaily.
munications corrupt good manners, to
quote still another proverb, and my
! Artful Dodger may teach Inc as much
as have failed in teaching him, poor
boy!''
"At that rate it is as well | am tax
l ing you both to a poor quarter Of the
city, said Hugh. And indeed l felt
that the dog might help to cheer the
| little crippled lad he was taking me to
see.
1t was not the first time DR. Hugh
had carried me off to see some patient
of his Elizabeth had u malicious way
of limiting that he had me on proba-
ton as a model doctors wife. But
Cousin Hugh and had been comrades
ever since / could remember, and
when ] was out of reach of Elizabeth )
sharp tongue there was seldom any
thing to remind me that we had not
been boys together, instead of girl and
boy.
The one step from the sublime to
the ridiculous is a short one i'll my
neighborhood, and we had taken 1t in
| u TURN dTOullu Tic COIH0I lIOlu bLlC
stately terraced street where was my
home. The absurd little boxes in
which the people here were housed
might be an improvement on the great
tenements of other cities, but to take
them seriously as homes was rather
difficult. THAT one yonder is a mere
geranium pot" said /, nodding with
gesture toward tiny red bow win
dow filled with those great red and
and green plants.
OF course there was "dressmaking''
on the modest placard ON the door,
and equally of course there was the
dressmakers small, pale face at the
window, where the fiorid, round
punches of blossoms seemed to have
drained all life and color from her.
sit is case of Rappaccini's daugh,
ter reversed" said. Instead of Civ
ing her their bloom the flowers have
taken all hers to themselves. | never
see a big coarse hedgerow like that
one without knowing there is fading
lily of woman behind it stitching
and stitching her heart out. Cannot
you make an excuse, DIR. Hugh? Mis-
take the house or something, and lei
. us knock and see if my faded lily
won't come out
But Just then the door opened the
! dressmaker was letting out custom
J er. Who or what that was l never
needed, for from where we stood ovel