AUNT ESTHERS STORIES. 159 



member of society than many of us youngsters. Prince 

 used to be a grave, sedate dog, that considered himself put 

 in trust of the farm, the house, the cattle, and all that was 

 on the place. At night he slept before the kitchen door, 

 which, like all other doors in the house in those innocent 

 days, was left unlocked all night ; and if such a thing had 

 ever happened as that a tramper or an improper person of 

 any kind had even touched the latch of the door, Prince 

 would have been up attending to him as master of cere- 

 monies. 



At early dawn, when the family began to stir, Prince 

 was up and out to superintend the milking of the cows, 

 after which he gathered them all together, and started out 

 with them to pasture, padding steadily along behind, dash- 

 ing out once in a while to reclaim some wanderer that 

 thoughtlessly began to make her breakfast by the roadside, 

 instead of saving her appetite for the pastures, as a prop- 

 erly behaved cow should. Arrived at the pasture-lot, 

 Prince would take down the bars with his teeth, drive in 

 the cows, put up bars, and then soberly turn tail and pad 

 off home, and carry the dinner-basket for the men to the 

 mowing lot, or the potato-field, or wherever the labors of 

 the day might be. There arrived, he was extremely useful 

 to send on errands after anything forgotten or missing. 

 " Prince ! the rake is missing : go to the barn and fetch 

 it ! " and away Prince would go, and come back with his 



