--7 Dog ill Exile. 67 



ing and coughing' as if half-sufi'ocated, \ was sure 

 that if I ever got my flamingo at all it must be 

 hopelessly damaged. At length he appeared, so 

 exhausted with his excrtious that he could liardly 

 stand, and deposited the bird at luy feet. Never 

 had I seen such a splendid specimen ! It was au old 

 cock bird, excessively fat, weighiug sixteen pounds, 

 yet Major had brought it out through this slough 

 of despoud without breaking its skin, or soiling its 

 exquisitely beautiful crimson, rose-coloured, and 

 faintly-blushing white plumage ! Had he not him- 

 self been so plastered Avith mud and slime I should, 

 in gratitude, have taken him into n]y arms ; but he 

 appeared veiy well satisfied with the words of 

 approval I bestowed on him, and we started home- 

 ward in a happy frame of mind, each feeling well 

 pleased with the other — and himself. 



That evening as I sat by the fire greatly enjoying 

 my after-dinner coff^ee, and a pipe of the strongest 

 cavendish, I related the day's adventures, and 

 then for the first time heard from my host some- 

 thing of Llajor's antecedents and remarkable 

 history. 



He was a Scotch dog by birth, and had formerly 

 belono-ed to the Earl of Zetland, and as he proved 

 to be an exceptionally clever and good-looking 

 young dog, he was for a time thought much of ; 

 but there was a dro]) of black blood in Major's 

 heart, and in a moment of temptation it led him 

 into courses for which he was finally condemned to 

 au ignominious death ; he escaped to become a 



V 2 



