THE GUARDIANS OF THE HOUSEHOLD. 39 



12. " My peremptory small friend went under a shed, 

 and disappeared in a twinkling through the window of an 

 old coach-body, which had long ago parted from its wheels 

 and become sedentary. I remember the arms of the Fife 

 family were on its panel ; and I dare say this chariot with 

 its C-springs had figured in 1822 at the King's visit, 

 when all Scotland was somewhat Fifeish. I looked in, 

 and there was a female pointer with a litter of five pups ; 

 the mother like a ghost, and wild with maternity and hun- 

 ger ; her raging, yelling brood tearing away at her dry 

 dugs. 



13. " I never saw a more affecting or more miserable 

 scene than that family inside the coach. The poor be- 

 wildered mother, I found, had been lost by some sports- 

 man returning south, and must have slunk away there into 

 that deserted place, where she placed her young, rushing 

 out to grab any chance garbage, and running back fiercely 

 to them day after day and night after night. 



14. " What the relief was when we got her well fed 

 and cared for, and her children filled and silent, all cud- 

 dling about her asleep, and she asleep too, awaking up to 

 assure herself that this was all true, and that there they 

 were, all the five, each as plump as a plum 



4 All too happy in the treasure 

 Of her own exceeding pleasure ' 



what this is in kind, and all the greater in amount as 

 many outnumber one, may b'e the relief, the happiness, 

 the charity experienced and exercised in a homely, well- 

 regulated dog-home. 



15. "Nipper, for he was a waif, I took home that 

 night and gave him a name. He lived a merry life with 

 me, showed much pluck and zeal in killing rats, and in- 

 continently slew a cat which had unnatural brute, un- 



