16 BRUTUS AND THE FEMALE HAND. 



mingling one with the other, till at last there seemed in 

 the central sky, immediately over the ship, the top or spot 

 whence a bell-like tent of varied light began, and its 

 delicately-tinted walls fell all around us, even to the 

 horizon's verge. This aurora borealis was seen and re 

 marked on all over America ; and to me nothing could be 

 more lovely. 



One darling incident occurred in regard to my retriever 

 Brutus, which must not be passed over. All my dogs 

 were, of course, in their more gentle feelings, outraged j . 

 and distressed by confinement ; they wondered, naturally 

 enough, why they were, on board the ship, denied that 

 association with me which they had in their own nice 

 home. On a fine day during the voyage, when all the 

 passengers were resuscitated and in possession of the due 

 application of their legs to the motionless deck of our 

 smoothly-going ship, a very nice young lady from the 

 United States took my arm to pay a visit to my four- 

 footed companions, and she had on a coloured dress, 

 whose hue I was doomed to see remembered by Brutus 

 as well as myself. When we approached, Brutus was ly 

 ing like a sphinx, with his head between his fore arms, and 

 his nose between the bars of his cage or kennel. The 

 instant he caught sight of the young lady on my arm 

 there was no mistaking whom he took her for. The soul 

 by man denied to the dog was in his eyes, and in affec 

 tion and expectation to be set at large, trembling all over, 

 he met the hand the young lady put to the bars that con 

 fined him, but what a revulsion in his manner ! He, on. 

 the instant, knew it was not the hand of happier hours, 

 and, with a growl, he drew back to the rear of his hutch, 

 while my pretty companion asked me wliy he was so 



