138 OUR DOGS. 



he grew more careful, but still the unaccountable fascina- 

 tion seemed to continue ; still he would lie in ambush, and, 

 though forbidden to bark, would dart stealthily forward 

 when he saw her preparing to rise, and be under her dress 

 smelling in a suspicious manner at her heels. He would 

 spring from his place at the fire, and rush to the staircase 

 when he heard her leisurely step descending the stairs, 

 and once or twice nearly overset her by being under her 

 heels, bringing on himself a chastisement which he in 

 vain sought to avert by the most vigorous deprecatory 

 pawing. 



Grandmamma's favorite evening employment was to sit 

 sleeping in her chair, gradually bobbing her head lower 

 and lower, all which movements Wix would watch, giving 

 a short snap, or a suppressed growl, at every bow. What 

 he would have done, if, as John Bunyan says, he had been 

 allowed to have his " doggish way " with her, it is impos- 

 sible to say. Once he succeeded in seizing the slipper 

 from her foot as she sat napping, and a glorious race he 

 had with it, out at the front door, up the path to the 

 Theological Seminary, and round and round the halls con- 

 secrated to better things, with all the glee of an imp. At 

 another time he made a dart into her apartment, and 

 seized a turkey-wing which the good old lady had used 

 for a duster, and made such a regular forenoon's work of 

 worrying, shaking, and teasing it, that every feather in it 

 was utterly demolished. 



