CHAPTER XVIII 



" You did, old dog, the best you knew, 

 And that is better than most men do; 

 And if ever I get to the great just place, 

 I shall look for your honest, kind old face." 

 (By Permission.} WILL CARLETON. 



AJNT Mary, true to her promise, 

 would lay by everything else, and sit 

 and hold me by the hour, to cheer 

 and comfort me; and the doctor would tell 

 me such nice stories, in the long winter days, 

 about the rats and the mice. Old Spor- 

 tum, the big tan-and-white bull-dog, gave 

 up the best of everything to me. He never 

 touched the dainty dishes aunt Mary set 

 down for me, until I had eaten my fill, and 

 not then, till I ran and touched his ear with 

 my little nose. Aunt Mary used to wonder 

 just how I told him. 



Of a cold winter morning, when I thought 

 old Sportum had got his cushion in the 

 wicker chair nice and warm, I would run 

 up and whisper in his ear, and he would 



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