Rufus .' there are who hesitate to own 



Merits, they say, your master sees alone. 



They judge you stupid, for you show no bent 



To any poodle-dog accomplishment. 



Your stubborn nature never stooped to learn 



Tricks by which mumming dogs their biscuits 



earn. 

 Men mostly find you, if they change their seat, 

 Couchant obnoxious to their blundering feet ; 

 Then, when a door is closed, you steadily 

 Misjudge the side on which you ought to be ; 

 Yelping outside when all your friends are in, 

 You raise the echoes with your ceaseless din, 

 Or, always wrong, but turn and turn about, 

 Howling inside when all the world is out. 

 They scorn your gestures and interpret ill 

 Your humble signs of friendship and good will ; 

 Laugh at your gambols, and pursue with jeers 

 The ringlets clustered on your spreading ears ; 

 See without sympathy your sore distress 

 When Ray obtains the coveted caress, 

 And you, a jealous lump of growl and glare, 

 Hide from the world your head beneath a chair. 

 They say your legs are bandy — so they are : 

 Nature so formed them that they might go far, 

 They cannot brook your music ; they assail 

 I he joyful quiverings of your stumpy tail — 

 In ^liort, in one anathema confound 

 Shape, mind and heart, ami all my little hound. 



221 



