238 FACT AGAIKST FICTION. , 



liapj)y. The inliabitants of tlic hotel, not wishing 

 to keej) poor Badger, then gave him to a gentleman 

 resident about Kseventeen miles off; hut by the 

 next day Badger had returned, and lay down at 

 the door as resolutely as ever. Perhaps deeming 

 that Badger had a ^^ selection" for a particular class 

 of society, the next place of his banishment was 

 to a farmer, who lived only ten miles off, from 

 which scene of rural life Badger returned the 

 same day, when, as it seemed impossible to be 

 rid of him, he was then tacitly adopted as '^ the 

 dog of the hotel." He seemed to own no master, 

 nor to be attached to one person ■ more than 

 another. An hotel for himself, not '^ Ireland for 

 the Irish," is his motto; and I am haj)py to say 

 that all the inmates of the hotel treat him with 

 kindness, and at night a stable is his lodging, in 

 which he bids defiance to the roughest weather* 

 Alas ! Time, that tenacious tyrant over every living 

 thing, is making the usual inroad on jooor Badger's 

 constitution. His pace is slower, and his teeth 

 are wearing out. The one sole thing with him 

 — but, alas ! with very few others, bipeds and 

 all, that defies the touch of time — is, the love of 

 his heart to the one treasured place that has 



