2 
BIZZ AND HER FOES. 
Nature and Art, January 1, 1867. 
meat : it was very sad and very wrong to tell that 
untruth, more especially as the genuine love of her 
country would break forth naturally. Sometimes she 
would come to me with a tale of Irish distress which 
brought tears into her fine grey eyes, and apologize 
in this way : — “ Sure, the craythurs are in such 
misery, that my heart aches fit to breaking, at the 
way they’re in ; and you, madam, are so fond of 
your own country people, that though I have no call 
to the Irish, I thought you would like to know the 
trouble that’s on them.” There is a strong pre- 
judice against Irish servants in England, but that 
was no excuse for cook’s untruth ; it was the blot in 
her character. 
I was always glad to catch her tripping on this 
subject, and the allusion to the mode of warfare 
practised on “ the fair green of Ballynatrent,” was 
evidence of country so decided, that, very mali- 
ciously, I asked her to tell me “ where the fair 
green of Ballynatrent was situated,” upon which 
she blushed and turning away answered, — • 
“ It’s a, place I heard tell of once, ma’am dear — a 
place, and its ways, my grandmother often discoursed 
about ; but sure any place would do, if I could only 
get a good throw at him, the lazy sneering scamp 
adding “ and now, if you plase, I’ll go on with 
my trouble : — 
“All this time, Folly was leaping her heart out 
after that ugly Mag., that kept on whistling with 
its eye cocked on the top of the great toll-board. 
Ninon the Wise, who well knew the differ between 
her master’s Avhistle, and the whistle of a Brompton 
magpie, stood as grave as a judge inside the rails. 
At the minute, a cart came out of the great gate at 
Eagle Lodge, and my heart was in my mouth, for I 
saw no escape for Folly, and I could have spitted 
the poleese man as I would a goose, and he standing 
twisting a straw in his mouth. 
“ ‘ Can’t you run ? ’ I says, ‘ and not see the dog 
massacreed in the sight of your eyes 1 what’s the 
like of you for 1 ’ I says ; I could not stii’, for all 
the breath was gone out of my body, and my heart 
leaping like a fish after a fly. Well ! the words 
wer.e taken out of my mouth as much as the breath, 
I may say, by seeing Ninon, the stately crature, 
make one bound like a stag across the road, and 
seize Folly by the ‘ scruff’ of her neck, from among 
the horses’ feet, and drop her inside the gate, and 
the magpie whistling all the time, not caring if the 
poor foolish dumb animal had been scrunched under 
the cart wheels ; and if she had, I’d have wrung the 
head off her, or my name’s not Mary Ogi’eman ! ” 
Here was a tangle ! Mary Ogreman, our rosy 
cook, two Italian greyhounds, a magpie, and a 
policemen, all about a yard-dog ! 
“ And what did the policeman say to Ninon’s 
sagacity 1 ” 
“Well, I don’t know, ma’am; I don’t think he 
understood it at once, only his two eyes grew like 
the bull’s eye of his own lantern, and he standin’ in 
the middle of the road, until the carter cries, ‘ Lave 
the way, will ye, or I’ll be over you as well as the 
dog,’ and he not over the dog at all ! who was 
squealing and grumbling at her presarver, like many 
a one else in the world, who don’t know when they 
are sarved or saved. But what put me past myself 
intirely, was that more than two hours after, as I 
was hindering the white sauce from coming to a 
bile, a tattering ring shakes the back gate. I 
thought it was the Wenham Lake, which runs to 
waste before you can look round you, so I takes my 
sauce m my fist, and makes a rush at the gate, and 
sorra a thing was there, but that aggravating 
poleeseman. ‘ I beg your pardon, madam ’ (that 
was his word), ‘ madam ’ he says, ‘ but I am curious 
to know if the big thin dog is mother to the little 
thin one.’ I don’t know how I kept the sauce off 
him, the great omadawn, and me so busy ! ” 
“ What a good, wise creature that Ninon is,” I 
exclaimed ; “ another reason, Mary, why we should 
not have a vard-dog.” 
“ Oh, as you plase, ma’am,” said cook, exchanging 
the air narrative, for the air dignified, and preparing 
to jiass from the verandah to the kitchen ; “ as you 
plase, ma’am, of course ; it ’s just as you and the 
master jilazes, only if all I’ve said this very half- 
minute don’t prove what cruel want we are in of a 
yard-dog, why it don’t, that’s all ! I suppose I must 
lose mee bits of clothes, and the little property in 
mee box, the caddy spoon, and punch-ladle that 
belonged to me grate grandfather, who was a man ! 
As sure as the sun shines, we shall be all murdered; 
the dark nights too, and the end of the world so 
nigh.” 
I made no answer. Cook lingered, twisting up a 
refractory honeysuckle, still anxious to carry her 
point. 
“ I really do not want any more dogs, cook ; it 
was only yesterday you said ‘ the house was poisoned 
with them.’ ” 
“Oh, then, ma’am dear, sure I don’t want 
another in the house, only outside, to purtect the 
property. Sure, I’ve shown you this very minute, 
how exposed the corner and stable is, and the 
poleese dear at a brass farthing a piece ! and that 
whistling magpie, distracting one’s mind with its 
nonsense, and the carts going the road, as if it be- 
longed to them, and that poor darlin’ Ninon 
obleeged to take police duty on herself, or see her 
comrade massacreed.” 
“ And is a yard-dog to cure all these unpleasant- 
nesses, cook 1 ” 
“ Oh, ma’am, if it’s laughing at me ye are, I’m 
done ; I’ll say to Hatchment, ‘ Don’t talk to me 
about your dog, sir, if you plaze, though you have 
been so good as to offer her to my mistress, and she 
such a Avonderful Avatch.’ ” 
“No, Mary,” I interrupted, Avitli admirable 
gravity, “ I am by no means a good Avatch.” 
“ You ;, ma’am ! oh, ma’am dear, sure I never 
evened the like of that to you, — you indeed 1 ” 
“You have just said I Avas a Avonderful watch.” 
“I’d not contradict you, ma’am, but if the words ' 
came out of my mouth, it was not me that said them ; 
it was Hatchment’s dog Bizz, the baste, I meant 
was the watch, and a wonderful Avatch intirely she 
certainly is — by all accounts.” 
“ I am very glad to hear it.” 
