DOBEEN SUFFERS AN INTERRUPTION. 217 



" You are right, Dobeen," said the Professor. " Put 

 a wise dog, and a foolish, vicious master together. 

 The brute exhibits more tenderness and thoughtful- 

 ness than the man. In the latter, even the mantle of 

 our largest charity is insufficient to cover his multitude 

 of sins, while the skin of his faithful animal wraps noth- 

 ing but honest virtue. The dog, having once suffered 

 from poison, avoids tempting pieces of meat thencefor- 

 ward, when proffered by strange hands, but the man 

 steeps his brain in poison again and again — or as often 

 as he can lay hold of it. While grasping the deadly 

 thing, he sees, stretching out from the bar room door, 

 a down grade road, with open graves at the end, and 

 frightened madmen, chased by the blue devils and mur- 

 der and misery, rushing madly toward them. These 

 swallow their victims, as the hatches of a prison ship 

 do the galley slave, and close upon them to give them 

 up only when the jailer, the angel of the resurrection, 

 shall unlock the tombs, and calls their occupants to 

 judgment. Does the sight appall and bring him to his 

 senses ? No, he crowds among the terrors, and takes 

 to his bosom the same venomous serpent that he has 

 seen sting so many thousands to death before him. 

 And yet people give to the brute's wisdom the name 

 of instinct, and call man's madness wisdom." 



" But, your honors," interposed Dobeen, " I shall be 

 after losing my dog entirely, unless yez lave off inter- 

 ruptin' me, an' let me finish my story." 



"Go mi, Shamus, go on ! " we all cried with one 

 breath. 



" Well, then, when Goblin came to me in his infan- 

 cy, he wore a silver collar with his name all beauti- 



