RAB AND HIS FRIENDS 



there it was, that had once been so soft, so 

 shapely, so white, so gracious and bountiful, 

 so " full of all blessed conditions " hard as 

 a stone, a centre of horrid pain, making that 

 pale face, with its grey, lucid, reasonable 

 eyes, and its sweet resolved mouth, express 

 the full measure of suffering overcome. Why 

 was that gentle, modest, sweet woman, clean 

 and lovable, condemned by God to bear such 

 a burden ? 



I got her away to bed. " May Rab and 

 me bide?" said James. " You may; and 

 Rab, if he will behave himself." " I'se 

 warrant he's do that, doctor " ; and in slunk 

 the faithful beast. I wish you could have 

 seen him. There are no such dogs now. 

 He belonged to a lost tribe. As I have said, 

 he was brindled, and grey like Rubislaw 

 granite ; his hair short, hard, and close, like 

 a lion's ; his body thickset, like a little bull 

 a sort of compressed Hercules of a dog. 

 He must have been ninety pounds weight, 

 at the least ; he had a large blunt head ; his 



