Year: 1874

Though but dumb companion and
friend. | must devote a few lines to the
memory and affection and sense of my dog
:" Bob. who, living often at the foot of the
pulpit stairs, occupied place on Sundays
nearly as conspicuous as myself. He was
a magnificent Scotch dog, of great size;
brave rs OF rather braver than lion. He
expressed his respect for decent and we'll
conditioned visitors by rushing to the gate
as if he We're bent on devouring them. and
gave them welcome both with tail and
tongue. BeggarS, and all odd characters,
he wasted no wind on; but maintaining
an ominOus silence, stuck close to their
heels. showing beautiful set of teeth, and
occasionally using them-only, however,
to warn the gangrels to be on their good
behavior


He had but one bad habit when had
him-to see a cat was to fly at it. This
ended in his worrying to death favorite
grimalkin belonging to a neighbor, and
the catastrophe raised formidable commo-
ton. | saw must part with Bob or i'm
pair my usefulness; so, with many regrets,
l sent him to Brechin, fifteen miles off.


There, early on the following Sunday
morning. Bob was observed with head and
tail erect, and a resolute promise in every
look and movement, taking his way from
my brothers house. My brothers wife,
struck with his air, said to one of her
daughters, who laughed at the idea,
There is Bob, and III wager he is off TO
Aroiriot" Whether he had kept the road,
or gone by some mysterious path across
the country straight as the crow flies, l
know not: but when l was leaving the
church, about one O'Clock, l was met by
the beadle. with his old face lighted up
with an unusual expression of glee, and
eXclaiming-for my dog and Johnny had
always been fast friends" You mamma
put him ava, minister, though he should
worry a the cats in the parish"


On going to the manse, found Bob out
side the gate, as flat, PROSTATE and motion-
less as if he had been stone dead. 1t was
plain he knew as well rs did that he had
been banished. and had returned without
leave and was liable to be hanged, drown
ed, shot, or otherwise punished at my will.
| went up to him, and stood over him for
u while in ominous silence. No wagging
lof his tail, or movement in any limb; but
there he lay, as if he had been killed and
flattened bv a heavy roller, only that with
his large beautiful eyes half shut, he kept
winking and looking up in my face with
+ lllc HlOSi pIbilul anu picduiiS cApicoSiOi
in his own.


Though | might not go the length of old
Johnny Bowman in making him free Of all
the cats in the parish, there was no resist
ing the dumb but eloquent appeal, gave
way and exclaimed, in cheerful tones, " Is
this you, Bob?n In an instant, knowing
that he was forgiven and restored, he rose
at one mighty bound into the air, circling
round me, and ever and anon, in the power
and fullness of his JOY, leaping nearly over
my head,


/ What his ideas ofright and wrong were,
dare not say; but he certainly had a
sense of shame, apparently also of guilt.
Once for example-and the only occasion
on which we ever knew him to steal-Mrs.
Guthrie came unexpectedly on Bob sneak
ing out of the kitchen with a sleeps head
between his teeth. His jail-like and timor-
Gus look displayed conscious guilt, and
still more, before she had time to speak q
word, what he did The moment he saw
her, as if struck With paralysis, he drops
the sleeps head on the floor, and with his
tail between his legs he makes off with al
haste, not to escape a beating, for she never
ventured or that, but to hide his shame
autobiography of DR.. Thomas Gathrie-