The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1896-01-31
SMisccltalcuuS.
''BOSS."

\ rough, brown dog sat at the very
edge of the tumbie-down break water.
| He was looking steadily seward. He
was evidently old. and he was SCARED
by many fights, but his sunkcn
mouth from which he had lost many
teeth, showed that he would not fight
again. VIGOROUSLY.
He was gaunt from life of INSULT
cient food, but yet he had the air of IL
dog who is loved.
| Sometimes he turned from his gaze
at the sea ard glanced behind him at
a child who was sitting ina wheelbar-
row few feet away. Every time he
| glanced thus he slightly wagged his
stump of tail, and the child smiled
or she said III a soft voice:
Good Boss -
And then Boss wagged harder but
! he could not give much attention 10
his companion, for his whole heart
was with that bent old woman who
was up to her waist in the water by
the OutermoSt ledge 1t was there
| that the Irish moss grew, and at low
! tide the woman could gather it. She
| thrust her arm down to the shoulder
each time for her handful of moss
! She was wet. sodden wet, save for II
small place across ner back.
| She had Il mans straw hat fastened
by Il small rope tightly under her
| chin. Her lace looked hundred
wears old, it was i'll truth seventy-old,
| scanned and leathery and it was Il
| face YOU loved to look at.
Every few moments she raised her
head and put her dripping hand up
over her eyes as she turned toward
the land she was at first dazzled by
the glare of the water. When she
looked up thus the little girl in the
wheelbarrow always waved her hat :
then a dim, beautiful smile would
come in the faded eyes.
Its Jest Il dom of her lots of good, =
she would say aloud. I'm awful
glad | wheeled her down. wish now
| I'd brought her down oftener this sum
mer."
Twice as she looked shoreward, she
called out shrlly:
Boss, you take care of her; won't
you, Boss -
Then Boss priclled up his ears and
shook his tail, and the girl laughed
aud said she guessed she n Boss
could git along tirst-rate.
Were use't TO it, amt we, Boss -
When she said this the dog got up,
came to her side, gave her swift lick
across the cheek, then hurried back
and sat down on the edge of the planks
again.
Once the woman out in the water
slipped and fell splashing. and Boss
jumped up, whining in a piteous qua
yer, and would not be cOmfOrted even
when the child said smoothingly :
Never mind, old fellow -
I,n Hnnn,lnrnI In,
her feet again and cried "all right -
the dog sat down. Still he frequently
gave a little whine under his breath.
He was thinking that this was the first
summer when he mad gone out moss
ing with his dearest friend, and he
could not understand why he was so
stiff and clumsy that he was unable
to run over the slippery rocks and
keep close to her, nOSing the moss she
picked up, poking over Holsters and
| crabs, and seeing that nothing hap
pened to her. Something was the
matter with his legs, and with the
whole of him, somehow, and he could
not get over the rocks. Was it the
same thing that kept him from gnaw-
| ing bones And he liked them just
as well us ever. He noticed that the
young dog who lived down the road
could crack bones without any trouble.
| 1t was all very mysterious.
When he lay i'll the sun near where
| the moss was drying, doing and snap
ping at the flies, he often looked as if
he were thinking Of all these things.
And what did the girls grandmoth
er mean ouly yesterday when she had
stroked his head and said
Poor old Boss You're gittin' Old,
Jess l be. 'Twon't be no kind of Il
place round this house 'th out Boss. =
He had muzzled his head under her
hand when she had spoken thus, bat
he didn't understand.
How pleasant this bright day was
with its sunny, gentle east wind
wind that brought sweet, salt smells
| from the ocean.
| The child shifted the bracing odor
and stretched out her hands, smiling
happily.
To be sure, she couldn't walk, but
granny wheeled her to the breakwater,
where she could see the moss gather
ed.
1t was a low course OF tides, and
now the water had gone far out so
that one could get to one of the lodges
where the moss grew.
|
mossers had-there were some boats
now further along, and little Mollie
could see the men put their long han
died ropes down and draw them up
full. She knew that those men made
more money than her grandmother,
but then, she didn't know much about
money Some of the neighbors often
said that they themselves couldn't af-
ford to keep ii dog. When they said
this granny shut her lips tight, and
the first chance she had she would
stroke the dogs head.
Il guess they don't know much
about a dog" she told Molly, IN |
guesss longs we got anything to eat,
BossNl have some OF it ell, old feller?'
Molly sank back on her pillow in the
barrow. She amused herself by al
most closing her eyes so that the sea
seemed to come up nearer, and crimple
in sparks of fire. Then SHE would
open her lids wide, and the great
stretch of water would flash binding
" on her vision She played at this
for ii long time and always in front
of her was the dog she had grown NJ
in the conviction that all was well il
he was near.
Soon everything grew deliciously
dim and then clear, and thc salt smell
was sweeter, and she was walking
over the hard sand itS straight as any
body, holding her head up strongly
She did not know she was asleep. II
was real to her that she was walking
Suddenly she sat upright in hel
wheelbarrow, clutching the sides of it
Boss was not there Had he barked