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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Fairy and her Mistress

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Yours

With all My Heart

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AS TOLD BY THE BEAUTIFUL
ITALIAN GAZELLE-HOUND

FAIRY

By ESTHER M. BAXENDALE

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" And still, wherever ihou art, I must be,

My beautiful ! Arise in might and mirth
For we were tireless travelers from our birth,

Arise against thy narrow door of earth,
And keep the watch for me ! "

LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY.

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BOSTON

L. C. Page & Company

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1904

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Copyright 1904 by
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY

(INCORPORATED)

All rights reserved

THE NEV/ YORK

AND
FOUNDATIONS

Published August 1904

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Plimpton Press Norwood Mass,

Those loving household pets,

16aftp, JFairp,

Who have made life sweeter, brighter, and

better for me, and

to all of their race, the ivorld over, would

I sincerely inscribe these true stories,

drawn from their gentle lives,

and

commend them to the Little

Children whom they

loved.

PREFACE

1

"AHIS autobiography of Fairy was
undertaken as a labor of love and
remembrance for her beautiful life,
which she lived among us with such sweet-
ness and grace that it has lain upon my
conscience to tell her story to the chil-
dren, that it may move them to a closer
observance of, and a greater compassion
toward, all dumb animals, so mutely de-
pendent upon their sympathies.

And in all little Fairy's experiences, as
well as those of other dogs which she cites,
I have not allowed myself to depart from
the truth; my whole motive has been to
so conscientiously mirror her loving life of

irteen years, that all my readers may know
and feel that they are perusing true annals.

I am deeply indebted to many of our
noblest poets for the stanzas I have so
freely drawn upon; and especially am I in-
debted to the author of the poem dedicated
to the closing scene of that gentle life, -
"Fairy's Requiem.'1

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fairy and her Mistress Frontispiece

" Turned hastily around with flushed cheeks" 3

Fairy 7

' Then I took the neat little bonnet in hand" 23

"High over the dasher, into mamma's arms!" 35

" The big hen would scold ' 42

"Gyp threw his weak, weary little body down under

the birch" 52

"With a glad, half -wailing cry of recognition and

relief" 65

Babe . 71

' The monster old favorite, with his tiny escort,

swaggered by" 79

"Brave little Frowzelly . . . sprang to the rescue" . . 93

"Fixed his keen eyes again on Inez" 109

The Island Home 139

"7 would sit for hours in the rocking rowboat" 140

"Stalking through the shallow water" 141

Fairy and her little Chum 145

"Cousin Elsie stooped down, in all her lovely lace and

-flowers and long, fleecy veil" 147

"We dipped our chubby hands into the great bins". 151

"Put my little fore paws on the arm of her vacant

chair" 155

"Away off in the sky-country" 157

Don and Dora 160

The old Wind-mill 165

"/ was duly arrayed in it" 179

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

" The little bluebirds . . . singing their sweetest, glad-
dest songs" IS.'}

"7 started down the hill, fast as my fleet little fed

would carry me" 187

"All was rout and confusion ' 201

Owl 206

"In front of the Hebe of the fountain" 208

k The poor irh ite lady who stood on a boat-load of

flowers" 209

"7 would . . . rush in between them * 211

' Tony was up on the arm of his chair" 219

Foxy 225

Little Corea 231

"If> all grew to love the pretty little creature" 233

"As they gathered round the festive sylvan board" . . 241

Friends 245

"Down by the big lily-pond'' 248

"7 would overturn the old shields and curios" 253

"We drifted out under the full moon" 261

"She looks at me with such great pleading eyes" . . . 267

"7 crept in and crossed my fore paws" 271

Old Sportum 275

Jimmy and his Friends 280

"Flitted around us" 283

"7 few through Aunt Mary's palms and ferns" . . . 285

"7 sat in one of the old Damascus chairs" 288

"She could see a sad, mysterious something in my

brown eyes" 291

' The blue shimmering sea" 293

Old Sportum and Donnie 298

Fairy 299

• •

xn

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Look out on the lonely sea" 301

" Under the great crimson-rambler" 302

" Welded into a perfect cross" 303

"Into the Unknown Country" 304

"Laid the last pale roses of summer on that little

grave" 307

"Trilling forth so close beside that little mound" . . . 309

Head of Fairy 314

Xlll

NEW

Tours With All My Heart

..

CHAPTER I

I LOOK into your great brown eyes,

Where love and loyal homage shine,
And wonder where the difference lies

Between your soul and mine!
For all of good that I have found

Within myself or human kind,
Hath royally informed and crowned

Your gentle heart and mind."

J. G. HOLLAND.

IMOGENS, what do you think of this
for a birthday present ? '
My new master stood me proudly
down in the midst of the lively group, in
the big family sitting-room.

The lady addressed, a fair, golden-haired
young woman, was trying to put a little
chubby, sweet-looking baby, with pink
fingers and toes, down on the carpet too,
but he held up his little dimpled hands and
made up a pitiful face every time she tried
to take her hands away.

1

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

4 Oh, dear, dear - whatever shall I do!'
mother Golden-Hair was just exclaiming to
herself as the master came through the door
with me. She looked despairingly from
the baby to another sturdy little felllow who
could barely toddle, and wrho, clutching at
the lace edge of the table-cover, brought a
china vase and her well-filled work-basket
all down with a crash, while the toddler,
buried beneath, added his lusty voice to the
swelling chorus, and the two saucy little
black-and-tans we had passed on the lawn
came yapping through the veranda door,
and chased the rolling spools and balls about
the floor, tangling the silks and delicate
laces.

I wriggled my little tail and my little self
all over, at being thus presented, even at
this unlucky moment, and kissed the crying
baby on his sweet pink toes, but he only
screamed the more; and my heart gave a
great thump, then almost stood still, as
mother Golden-Hair turned hastily around
with flushed cheeks and her big blue eyes
full of tears and cried out at sight of me* :

'O, John, how could you do such a
thing as to bring me home another puppy ?

Turned hastily around with flushed cheeks.

Tr^

- '••

-0

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Here I am, almost distracted with babies
and dogs already; but that's just like a

man!'

'And it's just like a woman to be un-
grateful when a man's spent his money to
try to please her; and never get so much as
'thank you' for it. There are plenty who
would be glad enough to get such a beauti-
ful little creature, and you ought to be!'
retorted my new master, disappointed at
my reception, while I stood trembling at
sound of their voices and felt I was un-
welcome.

I looked appealingly to him, and wagged
my slender tail feebly and timorously now.
He had called me a 'beautiful little crea-
ture'; others had called me so before, with
a note of pity in their voices, and I wondered
why. Oh, how I wished I could run away,
back to my own dear mamma, if I could
only find her for here I stood rejected.

But mother Golden-Hair was kind and
tender at heart; she dearly loved her babies
and her husband and the little black-and-
tans, Pansy and Skippum. She would soon
have loved me, only, poor, tired young
mother, in a world of fret and fuss and

5

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

fashion, she was utterly wearied and con-
fused, and couldn't see her way clear that
moment to properly love or care for another
little live thing.

My young master half realized this, in
his man's way, as he looked at his pretty
girl wife, and began to relent; so he said
more kindly, while I listened, looking
anxiously from one to the other:

' Well, Imogene, don't feel so distressed
about it. I know you are over-taxed, but
what are we to do with the little thing? I
am not going to take her back, that's cer-
tain!' My heart sank; I wrould never see
my sweet mamma again.

' Can I do what I please with her ? '
asked Golden-Hair, wiping away her tears.
Yes, yes; do what you will with her,
only remember that it will be some time
before I shall try to bring you another
present!' but he accompanied his words
with a forgiving smile.

I wondered what would become of me
next, when the young mistress arose reso-
lutely, and throwing a bright shawl around
her girlish figure, took me under her arm,
dangling my slender length adown her side,
6

Fairy

THE NTW Y«;PK
PUBLIC

*
'1LDEN

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and walked out of the cottage, across the
lawn, to the big white house next door.

The great white house sat back from the
street, and shrubs and vines gave it a
homelike air.

Ting-a-ling-ling! I heard the bell ring
inside the hall, as the young woman laid her
hand on the bell-pull with an air of nervous
decision. How much that call meant for
my weal or woe I knew when I was older
and wiser.

I heard a quick, light step, and the door
opened; a large, fair lady stood before us,
with red cheeks, and blue eyes that looked
kindly down upon me, as I kicked and wrig-
gled, in my haste to enter; she was dressed in
blue, the first color I learned to know and
love, for they called it my color; she smiled,
and said in a neighborly way:

"Come in, Imogene! Where did you get
that lovely little creature ? '

I was happy at sound of her voice, which
was low-keyed and soothing, and I tried to
reach over to kiss her plump little hand, as
it rested on the door. There was a jeweled
ring on the third finger, with a deep blue
stone, set around with white, shining ones

9

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

that sparkled like dew-drops; I could just
reach the ring with my long, slim tongue,
and kissed it.

"Oh, no, Stella,' answered the young
woman, ' ' I can't come in, I have left the
babies in the middle of the floor, there's
no knowing what they'll get into next,
and \vhat do you suppose I have come for ? '

' I don't know, I am sure - something I
can do for you, I hope," and Stella laughed

a comforting little laugh, as she caught
the note of weariness in the young mother's
voice.

; Well, John Wakeman has brought home
this poor little puppy, and I am half dis-
tracted already, with two babies that can't
walk, two black-and-tans, and two girls in
the kitchen, who refuse point:blank to be
bothered with anything, and I expect every
day will go and leave me! And Stella, I've
come to see if you'll not take this little thing
as a gift; she is really a very rare and val-
uable dog. I know you'll be kind to her,
and since you have lost Flossie, and given up
that little runaway Babe of yours, I thought
you might be glad to have her!'

Golden-hair caught a long, anxious breath,
10

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

as the lady's face grew serious, and she
answered :

'Why, Imogene, I have said, over and
over, that I must not learn to love another
dog. I am not situated to - I have to go to
an office; and then, worst of all, it is such a
terrible thing to learn to love them, and then
have to part with them!'

All this time I was squirming, and reach-
ing out, and kissing the ring; her voice woke
love in my heart, and I began to whimper
and struggle to get to her. 1 had not learned
words enough to understand all she said, but
I knew she loved and pitied every poor
little helpless thing, like me.

'O Stella, do take her! you haven't got a
chick nor a child, and you'll take lots of
comfort with her, I know you will - and
it'll be such a relief to me!'

"Well, Imogene, I'll tell you what I will
do,'" said the lady, with a business air. 'I
will take the little creature, and keep her for
you a couple of weeks, till you get rested
and straightened out, and then you'll want
her back again; we will leave it that way.'

And she reached out her plump arms, and
I scrambled up on her broad bosom, hoping,

11

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

praying, it might be for always, for my
little heart ached with not being wanted, and
nowhere to go, and I hoped no little pink-
footed, human babies ever had to feel so!

Thank you ever so much, Stella, but you
can be sure I shall not come after her," came
back the flying answer, as Mrs. Wakeman
ran hastily down the steps and across the
lawn, as though in fear of my non-accep-
tance, under broken conditions.

My foster mother laughed to herself,
closed the door and lightly climbed the
stairs with me to her chamber, big and
sunny, with a bower of green plants and
their bright, cheery blossoms in the bay.
I could feel the firm, even beating of her
heart beneath my little body, and I clung
closer and eagerly kissed her rosy cheek and
poked my long, pointed nose into her soft
brown hair.

She sat down with me in the rocker, and,
holding me off, she looked a long time into
my big brown eyes. I could not speak a
single word with my little tongue, but I
tried to speak out of the depths of my shin-
ing eyes, and tell her that God had made me
to love and comfort his poor people!

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

I tried so hard to speak, it seemed as
though my very soul was in my eyes, and
she must have understood, for she gathered
me back to her breast again, and said to
herself, not firmly, but half as though she
were praying, ' ' I must not, must not, learn
to love you!'

But I said in my little fluttering heart,
You shall learn to love me, unless you are
made of stone.' And I knew she was not,
better than any big man could know, be-
cause God gives us poor little dogs the
power to look right in at people's souls in a
twinkling.

Those wistful, dark, inquiring eyes,
So fond and watchful, deep and true,

What makes the thought so often rise —
What looks those crystal windows through ? >r

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

Just then a gentleman came in to the hall
below, and, as he laid by his coat and hat,
he hummed in a rich tenor voice:

' Old dog Tray's ever faithful,
Grief cannot drive him away ! " —

I had never heard any singing before, —
though I learned to love it afterward, - - and

13

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

I pricked up my ears, for I knew the word
4 dog," and knew he was singing about us
little four-footed folks.

In a moment he called, 'Are you up
there, mother?'

Yr-e-s!" said the lady thus addressed and
sought for, although she was his wife, and,
with a little mischievous titter, she tiptoed,
with me in her arms, to the top of the stairs,
and stood me there. Then she drew back
hastily, so that as he glanced up he saw
me alone, in the dim crimson light of the
hall, my slim tail fairly wagging my slender
body, my great dark eyes searching his,
and my red tongue kissing at him through
my pearly teeth, while my little feet beat a
tattoo.

'Well, I'll be jinged!' he said, and
stopped short; then advanced laughing, and
playfully pinching at my slender nose as he
came up the stairs. I backed away into the
sunny chamber, and the gentleman followed,
looking in astonishment from my dancing,
fawn-like antics to the lady's face.

i/

' What does this mean, Stella ? '
'It means we've had a present," said the
lady, and she told how and why I had
14

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

come upon the scene, but she added, rather
irresolutely :

'I have only agreed to keep her a couple
of weeks ; I told Imogene that she would feel
better about it and want her back again by
that time, wre must not learn to love
another dog!'

'No, no, we must not," responded the
florid gentleman, for now I could see him in
the sunlight. He was rather stout, wTith a
good-natured face, and I thought he and
the lady looked much alike. As he spoke,
he looked toward a picture, framed in blue
plush and silver, of a lovely, snow-white
creature, with long silky curls and big black
eyes, - - 1 wondered if this could be Flossie ?
Then something told me there was a little
lonely spot in their hearts, and I said to
myself, 'I will fit into that lonely spot
and cheer them, by hook or by crook. ': So
I plucked up my courage, made a flying leap
into the lady's arms, gave her a dainty kiss
on the cheek, and flew away again. And
while the gentleman was laughing, I sprang
on his knee and gave him another, leaping
away as his mustache brushed my delicate
nose. I waltzed about on my hind feet, and

15

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

turned somersaults; I jumped on the great
white bed and ran around in a circle, like a
fawn-and-white whirlwind, and shook down
the starched linen shams; I grabbed a ball
of blue worsted from the table, and shook it,
and tossed it, and laid it at his feet; and
when he stooped to give it a throw for me,
I saluted him on the tip of the nose, and
scuttled away after the ball, to the farther
end of the room adjoining, and was back in
a twinkling, fetching the ball for him to
throw again, till they both laughed gaily.

Well, mother, I guess you'll have a time
of it in the next two weeks, but we must go
to dinner.''

So I could see I had broken the ice, and
brought a ripple of sunshine into their home.
I followed gaily, carrying the ball, batting it
ahead of me with my little fore feet. I
would play it was a mouse, and rush upon it,
and grab it and shake it, though in my heart
I would not harm a living thing.

' What shall we call her ? ' said the gen-
tleman.

'Let us call her Fairy,': answered the
lady, ' she is so graceful and airy. See,
her little limbs are almost transparent when
16

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

she is between one and the light, and she
dances like a little sprite.'

"Or else Starlight, for her beautiful soft
eyes; or little Sweetheart, she is so loving,"
suggested the gentleman. I knew they were
talking about me, so I paused and pricked
up my delicately veined ears, my right foot
poised in air, and looked from one to the
other, with my great questioning eyes.

"They are all sweet names, and fit her
well, but some way I like Fairy best; it is
musical and easily called, and again there
is something so etherial about her. Maybe
she will prove our little good genius - who
knows ! '

"Well, Fairy shall be her name then -
but I thought we were not going to keep
her?' laughed the gentleman.

"I shall leave that to you at the end of
the two weeks," responded the lady, with a
true woman's tact for paving the way
smoothly.

4 Fairy,- -Fairy,- -Fairy-Moo-oon-light ! '
hummed the gentleman, to the sweetest little
tune, fixing his eyes on mine, and I under-
stood from that moment that my name was
Fairy-Moonlight, and in all the years to

17

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

come, when they sang that sweet little re-
frain to me, I fairly bubbled over with de-
light, for I thought the song was all about
me. But then I sprang up and stuck my
little cold nose into his ear, as he paused to
pet me, and tousled his browrn hair, which
curled slightly. I sniffed and sneezed at the
lingering smell of cigar smoke in it, which I
could never quite learn to like, so I sprang
away, and went around the room again, like
a flying-squirrel.

Just then I discovered a wooden spool,
under the corner of the green wire flower-
stand, which had been filled with potted
plants, to cheer the winter dining-room.
Bridget, the maid, had been rolling the over-
loaded stand around that she might sweep,
that very morning, and broken out one porce-
lain castor by her careless proceeding; so
as a substitute for her mischief, which she
did not tell to her mistress, she had barely
wedged the spool under, to block up the
corner, saying, as she afterward confessed:
'Be gorra, 'tis jist as good as new!'

My little back teeth were just peeping
through the gums, and felt just like biting
some hard, wooden thing, so I turned my
18

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

attention to this spool, and twisted and
pulled away upon it. The gentleman and
lady had seated themselves at the table, and
were looking across at each other, and talk-
ing about it being the seventeenth anniver-
sary of their wedding-day. I was listening,
but could not well understand such big
words.

"But we feel just as young as we ever
did,': said the cheery gentleman. 'I don't
feel a day over twenty-five!' Just then, I
pulled the spool from under the corner of
the flower-stand

Slam-bang! Crash! over went the great
wire stand; the flower-pots flew off, and
rolled, some of them, clear under the dinner-
table.

But before the pots stopped rolling I
scampered away, like a little race-horse,
back to the lady's room, cleared the floor
with a bound, and dove between the em-
broidered shams, under the blankets, to the
very foot of the big soft bed, which ever
after was my ark of refuge. The bedstead
had a great shining top, with a raised round
panel of the burled walnut, and carved urns
at either side; and here the lady found me,

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

a little hiding, trembling culprit, after the
wreck was cleared away, and the dinner was
over.

'Poor little thing, she wasn't so much to
blame, " I heard her say. 'I knew in a
moment, when I saw that gnawed spool,
just what Bridget had been up to; isn't it
strange : some girls have no sense, nor mech-
anism, but after all there were only twro
pots broken.' So as she found me, a little
trembling heap, in the middle of the big
bed, she left me, and because she did not
punish me, but let me lie there, snug and
warm, I fled there ever after, as my castle
of defence.

CHAPTER II

BUT I only look up at the Master
With a life that is veiled and dumb,

Content to share with the sparrow
His love, and the falling crumb."

WILLIS BOYD ALLEN.

*

MY sins of ignorance for the two
weeks to come were many; my
little new teeth ached and grum-
bled, and I seemed to crave something
to gnaw and chew upon. A cunning little
basket, that had belonged first to Flossie
and then to his saucy successor, Babe, and
whose wicker bore the marks of many little
rasping teeth, was brought forth, with a soft
new downy cushion, for my benefit, and
into it, as soon as my foster mother's back
was turned, I dragged many a dainty slipper
and glove, - - for I especially loved what she
had worn, as well as many a pencil, and
spools of thread without number.

When all were gone to church one winter
morning, the door was left ajar to mamma's

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

dressing-room, and I ventured in, and found
a lovely black fur muff, that she used some-
times to keep her hands warm. I carried it
gleefully into my basket, and lay down, with
my little paws inside it, same as I had seen
mamma hold it. But the long fur tickled my
nose, so I nipped at it and pulled out tuft
after tuft till I got tired. Then I went again
to the dressing-room, and discovered a green
velvet hat, adorned with a beautiful green-
and-gold breast, that some happy bird had
worn sometime over his singing heart, and a
dainty little bonnet, trimmed with costly
aigrettes. I had heard mamma say that
very morning, while she was dressing:

'I bought this lovely breast, and these
aigrettes, before I knew or even dreamed
how cruelly they w^ere torn from the live
mother-bird by their pitiless hunters, in
nesting time, and the little ones left to starve
and die, and I shall never wear them again,
nor buy any more. I am only one among
thousands, but if every woman would say
the same, this terrible traffic in gentle lives
would come to an end!'

So I tossed the green velvet hat high in
air; I plucked out mouthful after mouthful

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

of the golden-green feathers, and they
floated over the room. Then I took the
neat little bonnet in hand, and chewed off
all the offending aigrettes, and put the relics
of both hat and bonnet
among the treasures
in my basket. I
rummaged
around, and
f o u 11 d in y
foster fa-
ther's new
alligator

slippers,
and pulled
out the
sheepskin linings,
and chewed them

down at the heel, and was smacking my
little lips over them, when I heard the
rustle of mamma's dress on the stairs.

23

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

She came and stood over me, looking
down on the ruin I had wrought, very
stern and stately, in her silken gown and
embroidered cloak, all in black.

'Oh, Fairy, Fairy!' she exclaimed re-
proachfully, ' I shall have to punish you
now, for your own good!'

And taking a slender little bamboo cane,
which had a small ivory boot on top for a
handle, she held up the ruined relics of my
sport to my trembling gaze, and gave me a
few little stinging blowrs with the slender
part of the cane, as I cowered under the
protecting arch of the basket. I remember
now how the jet beads on her embroidered
cloak shook and glistened as she raised her
plump gloved hand to punish me. And I
never loved to see her in that cloak again.
She went and took it off, and the rustling
gown, and came back in the soft blue dress
she wore when first I saw her, and picking
me up from my basket, she gathered me to
her breast, and rocked and soothed me, for
I shook with grief and fear, and my breath
came and went in little quivering sobs.

'I am afraid you will spoil it all, with
babying her so much, mother; really we
24

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

can't stand such expensive mischief it
costs more money than a little to have such
goings on as this. If Imogene doesn't seem
to have any notion of taking her back, you
had better let the grocer have her," said the
gentleman. You know you were telling me
that the doctor had advised him to have a
little puppy to sleep with his little girl, who
isn't very strong, and he seems very anxious
to have this one.'

'Well,' said mother, with her usual
woman's tact again, ' I told the grocer that
the matter could not be decided till the end
of this week, and you can see then how you
feel about giving her up."

I stopped sobbing, and listened with
quaking heart. Oh, how I longed to be
good enough to merit approval; how I
wished I knew how to be; but I was only a
poor little puppy, and did not know what
the words "cost," and 'money," meant,
no more than the little people do, when they
break and mar what has cost time and
effort, but I knew they were talking
about me in low and serious tones.

I shivered at thought of being thrust away
again from those soft, loving arms, even

25

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

though they had administered punishment;
but mamma never had cause to punish me
again, for that very evening her friend Mrs.
Q called, and the conversation nat-

urally turned on me, how beautiful I
was, but oh ! the tribulations and trials
of my mischief!

k I don't believe it does one bit of good to
whip her,' said mamma; 'she just seemed
to think it was some severe humor that the
wearing of my black cloak had put me into,
for the little sensitive thing shudders and
looks askance at sight of it now.'

'No, indeed," answered Mrs. Q- -, "I
never whipped my lovely King Charlie
when he wras a puppy; his little teeth ached,
same as hers do, so I just gave him some
things for his very own to play with and
have in his basket, - an old slipper, among
the rest, to bite and pull on.':

That's a good, sensible idea, and Aleck,
I wish you would get little Fairy a nice new
rubber ring and ball to-morrow morning;
and I shall let her have that fur muff she
seems to love so, right in her basket.'

So the hard rubber ring, and nice new
ball, that would bounce and roll, wrere
26

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

brought home to me the very next day, and
I would amuse myself for hours together
with them, and mamma said I was growing
to be her 'little loving lady.'

I stopped nibbing the pins out of her hair,
to let it fall in bright brown waves over her
shoulders, and snatching the spectacles off
papa's nose, and pulling the linings out of
his hats. I would spring on his lap, as soon
as the evening lamp was lighted, and snuggle
my little head up on his breast, between him
and the newspaper while he read, and lie
blinking up at him for hours, with those deep
golden-brown eyes of mine, which mamma
said grew bigger and more beautiful every
day.

'And you can almost see her little fore-
head grow full and high, above her eyes
and between her ears - she is going to be
full of love and intelligence!" she would add.
Still, I had lots of baby ways. When I lay
down at night, I always wanted papa's hand
to hold between my little paws, and would
kiss it all over, inside and out, I missed my
fawn-and- white mamma so; and when I got
tired, I would lay my little chin in the hollow
of his hand, and go to sleep.

27

CHAPTER III

cc

I SCAN the whole broad earth around

For that one heart which, leal and true,
Bears friendship without end or bound,

And find the prize in you.
I trust you as I trust the stars;

Nor cruel loss, nor scoff of pride,
Nor beggary, nor dungeon bars,

Can move you from my side!"

JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND.

I

"A HE next Sunday morning I
jumped out of bed when I heard
a little boy crying, far away down
the street, ' Sunday Herald ! - Sunday
Globe!' I wiggled my way through the
flowers in the bay, and barked in a high,
singing key, 'Ou-i'- ou-i' ou-ir,': and
spatted my little fore feet on the window-
glass at the boy, just appearing with his
Billy-goat, dragging a little wooden box on
wheels, piled high with papers.

I did this because, the Sunday before,

papa had jumped up hurriedly and rapped

on the glass at the boy when he heard him

calling. He had raised the window and

28

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

thrown a little round, shining thing down at
him, and said, rather sharply:

'Look here, boy - don't you forget me;
you know I always want a paper!'

So I knew there was something about that
boy crying ' ' Sunday Globe ! ' that required
prompt attention; and so long as I lived, I
never let a paper boy go by after that with-
out singing out, and spatting on the window
at him.

How they laughed and said, 'Who
would have thought she would have learned
that so quickly, and remembered it a whole
week.' Then mamma added, rather sadly:
'Well, Aleck, the grocer will have to be
told to-morrow morning whether he can
have Fairy for his little girl or not. It isn't
right to keep him waiting so.'

My little body stopped waggling and I
looked anxiously from one to the other.
Papa looked quizzical, and as he finished
dressing he clasped his finger-tips and made
a round ring of his arms ; and I went through
them with flying leaps, back and forth, again
and again, higher and higher, like a little
sprite, anxious to please him.

4 1 could teach this dog anything/' he

29

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

said; "she leaped the tennis net, full
height, for me yesterday.'

"I know that," answered mamma. "She
wrill learn to do everything but talk; in fact,
she does talk now in her way but that
isn't answering my question.'

"I'll decide before the time comes," he
answered, still wishing not to appear too
easy to yield, in a way men have, yet hoping
all the time to be forced to.

Mamma said no more, but cut off a piece
of broad, shining silk ribbon, the color of
the sky, and tied it about my slender white
throat, with big double bows behind, making
a lovely background for my silky seal-and-
f awn-colored ears; then she held me up be-
fore the long mirror and let me see myself.
Then I knew that the lovely color of the sky
was made for me it was my color; and
when she put me down I could hardly walk,
I felt so proud and happy. I tossed and
bridled my little head, and wagged my slen-
der body, and pranced and skipped like a
circus horse.

I behaved beautifully while papa and
mamma were gone to church that morning.
I busied myself with rolling and tossing my
30

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

rubber ball and trying to kiss the ends of my
lovely blue ribbon. I felt so grand and self-
righteous that when the new girl, Christie,
was laying the table for dinner, and I
peeped out and saw the big black kitten,
Whiskers, perched on the edge of a chair,
his nose in air, sniffing in the direction of
the chicken, which Christie had just taken
from the oven and put in a big platter, I
rushed out and seized him by his long bushy
tail and threw him to the floor in a twinkling.
But he never scratched me, he was so taken
by surprise; and Christie praised me.

I always lorded it over Whiskers after
that, before people, but he would never
strike back; we really loved each other
dearly, and always kissed each other when
we met and thought nobody was looking.
I felt dreadfully sorry when some bad boys
stoned poor Whiskers and hurt his leg so
that he died, after suffering many days.

Papa saved me the wish-bone when he
carved the chicken at dinner that day, and
Christie fed me with nice tidbits in the
kitchen, Whiskers waiting patiently till I
had my fill.

I hid my wish-bone under the little blue

31

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

cushion of my basket, and I watched Whis-
kers very sharply for fear lie would go snif-
fing around to find it. I would not let him
put his foot outside the kitchen, but would
push him back, clear across the slippery oil-
cloth carpet, and he would bear it all so
gently, as much as to say, You are a
dainty little Fairy-queen, and I am a poor
old black kitty, glad to even be your slave,
I love you so.' I learned not to be so self-
ish when I grew bigger, but it was too late
to be kind to poor, dear Whiskers.

How glad I was that bright Sabbath after-
noon when papa said, 'I think I will
have old Nellie harnessed and ride over
toward the Blue Hills, and take little Fairy
with us!' I always knew the word 'ride'
after that, and if they didn't wish me to
know, they had to spell the wrord
'r-i-d-e,'; and soon I could tell what was
coming, even then, and would run away and
try to reach my blue ribbon, or little collar,
and ask to have it on.

That first ride was a momentous one to

me; the handsome bay mare, Nellie, was

brought to the door, in the new Goddard

buggy, and I was set between papa and

32

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

mamma, and tucked in, nice and warm;
only, in my eagerness to see and be seen, I
would stretch my slender head and neck and
little folded fore paws to the foreground.

I could hear the little children by the
country roadside cry out, ' Oh, see that
cunning little doggie!' and even the ladies
would look up at me and smile, and say,
'What a little beauty!' till mamma
laughed and said I was "the admired of all
admirers,'' with my fawn-like face and
great shining eyes, against the background
of the dark green carriage lining.

How I did love to hear the trot, trot of the
horse's feet, and see the trees and fields go
flying by, and see the cows grazing the green
grass.

When we were far from home that after-
noon, in what seemed a strange country to
me, with sleeping, scattered farm-houses,
papa said:

'Let us put little Fairy out of the car-
riage, and let her run alongside; the exercise
will do her good.':

Mamma seemed a little afraid that some
passing carriage would run over me, but
finally all seemed so quiet I was allowed to

33

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

jump out and lope along beside old Nellie;
it was only play for me to keep up with her,
so papa chirped her up to a gay trot, to try
my mettle, but that was easy fun for me.
I took a little longer springing leaps, and
didn't even look ahead, but turned my face
backward toward the carriage, and kept my
shining brown eyes on papa's face as he held
the lines, urging old Nellie faster and faster.

Suddenly there was a low, angry snarl; a
great shaggy form sprang up from its sleep
by the roadside and bounded savagely after
me, with a loud, threatening growl which
made my little heart beat wild with fear!

Mamma saw my danger, and gave a quick
cry of apprehension; papa seized the long
carriage whip, and tried to reach out with it
and deter the excited wolfish mongrel, who
seemed to have been aroused from some
dream of flying game by the swift fall of the
horse's feet to see me passing like a fleet
hare. He had never seen a creature like
me in his country experience and was
wild to overtake me. Whether his keen
scent would have warned him that I was
only a gentle creature of his own kind, in
time to have saved my life, papa and mam-
34

o

1^.

o

<<>

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

ma could never quite determine; but it was
a terrible moment for them, as well as me!

The whizzing of the whip, a sound so un-
familiar to old Nellie's ears, startled her to
her utmost capacity; but I flew on, still in
advance, the great shaggy brute behind me
tearing after in a cloud of dust, raised by his
fierce, clawing pace. I was leaping three
times my slender length with every bound, but
my breath was coming with sobbing gasps,
and my little heart was 'bursting with fear !

I turned my beautiful eyes back, with one
appealing look, to papa's face; I saw the
open jaws and blood-red tongue of my pur-
suer close upon me. 'With the blind but
unerring instinct which God has given all
his gentle creatures for self-preservation, I
leaped straight across the roadway - across
old Nellie's mad advance. I heard a cry
from mamma. My pursuer tried to turn as
sharply, but slipped and fell, rolling over and
over in the dust. Papa was trying to bring
old Nellie upon her haunches to spring out
himself and intervene, but before he could
bring her up I had bounded from the ground
with a flying leap, high over the dasher, into
mamma's arms!

37

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

She kissed and soothed me in silent
thankfulness, with tears of joy dimming her
blue eyes, while papa calmed and slackened
his excited steed; he was the first to speak.

' Mother, we'll take this for an omen that
she is to be ours. I wouldn't have given
much for her life till she landed in your
arms. She has gotten the best of me, this
last week, anyway!'

'She will prove our good genius, I am
sure; the dear little thing kissed my sapphire
ring the moment she was brought to our
door, and you know, Aleck, there does al-
ways seem to be some strange significance
about that ring," said mamma, with a glad
note of thankfulness in her voice.

The significance is in the wearer, I
guess," laughed papa; 'but, Stella, I am
better able to buy you a handsomer ring
now, and you have worn that almost ten
years," and he glanced down at the deep
blue sapphire, set around with small dia-
monds, the only ornament on her plump
little hand, which she had ungloved to tie my
loosened ribbon.

' Oh, that is the very reason I value it so -
it has brought me only good luck all these
38

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

years. I wouldn't change it for the biggest
diamond! I wonder what its history was
before you took it from Metzger, the Jew?
How sadly the owner must have felt to part
with it! Who knows how many lives it may
have brightened ? I must always wear it,
and never lose a stone from out it!' and
mamma looked into the blue depths of the
mysterious gem, and turned it lovingly till
I reached out and kissed it again, in the
blessed moment of my adoption!

39

CHAPTER IV

THY memory lasts both here and there,
And thou shalt live as long as we,

And after that - - thou dost not care,
In us was all the world to thee."

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

AND so it was settled, then and
there, that my little lot was cast
with theirs; and papa paid his five
good dollars per annum into the city treas-
ury and I was recorded as 'Fairy-Moon-
light, fawn-and- white gazelle-hound, v and
the happy years rolled by. Perchance I
was their little good genius, as they said,
for no illness nor loss ever came their way.
The business throve; they added to their
acres; and papa planned and built many
homes for others. I was his constant com-
panion in his strolls about his estate, and
would follow him up the ladder- rungs, story
after story, in the new houses, and he would
bring me tenderly down in his arms.

The last puppy mischief that I remember
doing was that very spring. I puzzled
40

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

mamma by coming in from my play every
morning, and bringing in my slender jaws
a fresh-laid hen's egg, so fragile she could
never see how I could grasp it in my sharp
white teeth, and bring it steadily clear up-
stairs and lay it joyfully at her feet, without
breaking the shell. When I had done this

o

several mornings, mamma took all the eggs
over to Imogene's cottage, and said:

"Imogene, I did not commission my
sweet little Fairy to rob your hens' nests;
the best I can do is to restore the booty.'1

'The eggs cannot be mine,'' said Imo-
gene, 'for there is a high wire fence all
around, and the gate to the hen-yard is
closed and locked; Fairy and Skippum have
been with John, and seen him take the eggs
from under the old hens and put them in
his hat, but they can't get in there by them-
selves, I am sure. '

So there was a great mystery. I could
not speak and tell that I was watching a big
black-and-white hen, who had a warm nest
cuddled in the tall grass under the grape-vine
in mamma's own yard. She had run away
from her flock and stolen a nest. I would
steal up behind her, and root my little sharp

41

YOURS WITH ALL -MY UK ART

nose under her feathers and get the fresli-
laid eggs for mamma, because I loved her,
and because I had seen the people do it.

The big hen would scold, and pick fiercely
at my little brown ears, but I braved her
wrath every day. Finally, one morning,
papa watched when he let me go to play,

and saw me creeping slyly out from under
the grape-vine with the pretty cream-colored
egg poised in my little white teeth. Then
he peeped under the vine; the mystery was
solved, and the truant hen, with ruffled dig-
nity, was sent home to Imogene. I thought
I was doing just the right thing, but mamma
said it would teach me bad habits.

One of those bright spring mornings little
Skippum came over to visit me and play on
42

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

our big lawn. We ran like little madcaps,
playing hide-and-go-seek in and out the
shrubbery. He was glossy black, with
pretty brown touches around his eyes, nose
and ears, and a brown vest and stockings,
and I wished him to have a fine time.
While we were resting a minute, to get our
breath, I saw that the maid had left the
front hall door open, and it came into my
little head how Skippum would like papa's
soft brown hat to play with. So I stole in
and bounded noiselessly up on to the marble
shelf of the hat-tree, where the hats hung on
long pegs, but I was not quite tall enough.
My weight, and my pulling at the hat, wob-
bled the tall hat-tree against the wall, so
that mamma, who was writing in her room,
thought she heard something below; and
she tiptoed to the upper hall and peeped
over the banister, just in time to see me suc-
ceed in lifting the hat from the peg, bound
down and out with it. She hurried back to
her window to see what next. I held the
hat out to Skippum, who grabbed it and
waltzed away down the big lawn with it.
One naughty thought had brought another,
- 1 bounded back to the hat-tree, and up

43

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

again, and reached papa's new white hat, for
myself, I could count enough to know
that it took two hats for two dogs. I
knocked it with my little paws till it fell
from the peg, then caught it by the edge of
the soft brim and was out and away in a
twinkling, to join Skippum.

Mamma had been slyly watching me,
clear from the outset, and she hastened again
to the window to see us, two naughty little
dogs, tearing gleefully across our big lawn
to Skippum's cottage, with the white and
the tan hats over our heads, as we ran
against the morning breeze.

I knew I was doing wrong, because I had
never forgotten putting mamma's bonnets
in my basket, and my keen little ears were
turned backward as I ran, and heard her
very first call:

" Fairy, Fairy ! what are you doing ? What
will papa say?'

I slunk back, trembling, my tail curled
tight between my legs and crept to her
feet, as she stood on the edge of the walk,
and laid down my hat. Skippum trotted
boldly back, when mamma called him, and
tossed down his hat with an offhand air,
44

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

as much as to say, 'Fairy is the one who
did it!"

Mamma took up the hats and saw they
were uninjured, but I expected to be pun-
ished. She held them down to me, as I
crept whimpering up the steps into the hall,
and said, in a low, serious voice, " Poor, poor
papa! he can't have any hats, his naughty
little Fairy spoils them all!'

I crept away into my basket and hoped
she would forget it, but she called me out,
again and again, and held the hats to my
keen-scented nose, and said, 'Poor, poor
papa!' till I began to feel that I had done a
dreadful thing to the one I loved so well.

I trembled and shook in my basket when
he came at noon, and called as usual, 'Are
you up there, mother?'

Yes," she answered, "and I would like
you to come up. I have a dreadful story to
tell you!' she said, as he entered the room,
in such a sorrowful voice ; and again she took
down those terrible hats from the two bed-
posts, where she had hung them before my
eyes. I crept out of the basket to where
papa stood, and crouched between his feet,
and cried and lapped my little tongue out at

45

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

him, to tell him that I still loved him, and not
to punish me.

He shook his head as mamma rehearsed
the tale, and said the same words dolefully,
'Poor, poor papa!' but he did not punish
me. I could not look at the hats, but
turned my little face away from them, and
never, from that day to this, did I do another
piece of mischief. And if they ever, to try
me, put on that doleful voice to rehearse the
story, I flew from one to the other, and patted
my little paws on their lips and kissed them
so fast they could not open them to speak.

46

CHAPTER V

YET proof was plain that since the day
On which the traveler thus had died

The dog had watched about the spot,
Or by his master's side."

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

I

"AHEY said I was a good Fairy of
light to the boys and girls, for thus
every year, as my five-dollar tax
was paid, I gave them a half-dozen or more
fine new books to read; for all of us poor
gentle little dogs paid as much or more than
some big men who helped make the city
laws. We paid it into the City Library
fund, and we had to buy our lives this way
every May-day, or else the big men in
blue coats and brass buttons could catch us
and shoot us! That was the law, mamma
said.

But they were not all so cruel as the law,
for there was one poor little yellow dog, with
such sad eyes, who used to steal up the back
way, through the grove, to call on me, and
try to find a stray bone in the waste-bucket;

47

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and he hadn't a bit of a collar, nor number,
and there wasn't a bit of money in his home
to buy his life when May-day came.

For oh, it was such a pitiful home! Only
a couple of bare rooms, where a poor widow
and her boy sat sorrowfully thinking what
dreadful fate might befall dear little Gyp.
He wTas so dear to them, because Sissy had
loved him so.

Sissy with her yellow curls and big black
eyes, and her sweet little white face, that had
grown thinner and whiter, in the midst of
poverty and hardship, till one wild winter
midnight, when eased a bit from her rack-
ing cough, she had called softly:

' Mamma, Robbie, don't cry Sissy isn't
'fraid! Don't you 'member, Robbie, the
picture windows we peeped and saw in the
new stone church, the day 'fore you got
hurt ? The picture windows of the good
God-man carrying the little cold lammie in
his warm cloak, and the mamma-lamb
wasn't 'fraid to let him ?

'Didn't we see him, too, with poor little

children, just like me, all cuddled in his big,

strong arms ? Don't cry any more. He's a

true God-papa. He'll take care of me, and

48

YOURS WITH ALL 'MY HEART

he'll take care of you, mamma, and Robbie,
and - and - dear little Gyp ! '

Little Gyp had come creeping up from his
vigil at her feet, and rooted his cold nose
under the little snow-flake of a hand, which
fluttered over his head in a weak and trem-
ulous caress, then fell, frozen to rest, ere
life's hard task was half begun. Then the
three watchers beheld a strange, mystic light
grow and grow in the little face, it wasn't
wan and sad any longer, the good God-
man must have come to meet that little child
with his ow^n light, shining out of the black
dark ! For Sissy was gone - - gone like a
fluttering snow-bird into the wild storm.

4 Dear little Gyp ! ' His name was last
on her lips, her last caress was on his poor
little mongrel head; and his quavering wail
was first to rise above the weird night wind,
while the other two wept in silence.

Surely, in this the third year of her widow-
hood, sorrow had not come single-handed to
Myra Draper. Poor Robbie's bright, hope-
ful boyhood, bright in spite of poverty and
deprivation, had been overcast with a cruel
blow; he was a hopeless cripple, his strong
right hand blown to atoms with a giant-

49

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

powder cracker, on Fourth-of-July day, as
lie tried to snatch the dangerous missile
from the car-rail.

kl didn't put it there, mother!' he
groaned, as he saw her agony when they
brought him in. ' I tried to stop the boys
from putting it there, and when I saw the
car coming, full of people all clinging to the
sides, and the fuse burning short, I thought
they would be hurt. Little Gyp \vas going
to grab it ahead of me, but I pulled him
back and saved him, 'cause Sissy loves him
so, but I, I wras too late, my hand is
gone, - and you, you needed my work
so, mother!' And the brave boy broke
down at thought of his mother's suffering,
when he had borne his own pain and misery
without a tear.

The world went its way ; the widow's dark-
ened home was forgotten; the wise City-
fathers, who had ruled, against popular
opinion, that certain importunate venders
should disburse cannon-crackers, to their
own profit, as safely patriotic for Young
America, rested secure in their office and
their income, while the wolf crept nearer
and nearer one humble doorway.
50

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

For now the poor widow was deprived
both of the assistance of the brave, cheery
Robbie and the labor of her own patient
hands, for she could not leave him through
weeks of patient suffering - suffering that
might have been mitigated by the skill and
comforts that money could have bought.
But there was no money to buy nourishing
food for the weak and suffering boy, nor the
failing Sissy, and now, alas! that her little
grave was green in Potter's field, there was no
money left to buy Gyp's faithful life for
another short year.

That very morning they had heard with
terror the heavy tread of the stout officer of
the law, as he filled the low doorway with
his brass-buttoned front and rosy face, and
blurted out:

"Now, Widder Draper, I've got ter tell
yez that yez jist got ter pay that two-dollar
taxsh on this yer little yaller dorg o' yourn,
or I've got ter make quick wor-r-k o' gittin'
r-rid of him!'

Gyp sprang up quickly, before the burly
officer had finished speaking, and sliding out
between his legs glided away like a little
wraith, across lots, through the daisies and

51

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

into the woods, away from the haunts of
men for a long mile, till he came to the edge
of the peaceful Potter's field, for he knew
where they had laid her.

A wavy white birch cast its flicker of ten-
der green, and checkered the sunlight on a
little mound of upraised turf where a few
wild wood-violets were blooming. Gyp
threw his weak, weary little body do\vn
under the birch, laid his black nose between
52

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

his paws and watched that narrow patch of
earth, chased with sunlight and shadow,
with sad-eyed vigilance. Sissy was sleeping
there. She would save him from the cruel
law!

Yes, Sissy had said the good God-man
would take care of even Gyp, and so he did,
for thus it all fell out.

While the burly officer stood awaiting
some answer to his direful threat, poor Rob-
bie, with his crippled arm slung in an old
black kerchief, stood silent with wan face
and quivering lip ; the mother tried to articu-
late a broken plea, but a dry sob shook her
voice, as from beneath the cover of the worn
old family Bible she drew forth a treasured
picture, and held it toward their persecutor.

It was Sissy, kneeling beside poor Gyp,
the object of his wrath, her slender arms
entwining his neck, and her delicate face,
with its wind-blown curls, pressed close
above his head. Her great dark eyes seemed
to look the officer through and through, in
their sweet appeal, as he stood there gaz-
ing down upon the photograph with which
some random but skilful artist had presented
his little poser in happier days.

53

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Y^ou'll have to hunt him, sir, by Sissy's
grave, for we've no money. There's
there's where you'll find him!' came in
hopeless, broken tones.

But now the big man had lost his voice,
and a lump was growing in his throat. He
couldn't see the picture clear any longer, but
a real child's face came close between, so
close to his, in all its delicate pearl and pink
coloring, its halo of sunlit hair, its pure,
pleading eyes - did Sissy really come back
to plead for poor hunted Gyp ? Maybe so.

For something very strange happened; all
of a sudden something clinked and grew
heavy in the officer's pocket, and he thought
confusedly about burnt holes in his treas-
ury, and as suddenly rammed his fat hands
down to the very depths and brought up
two big silver dollars, and a silver half be-
sides, and threw them down with a ringing
clatter on the wooden table. His voice was
thick and husky, but they heard him say:

"By the Holy Child! that little gal's
grave's off my beat, I be thinkin', Widder
Draper, an 'fore that yaller dorg o' yourn
crosses me parth agin, you sind thim two
silver dollars down ter the gintry at City
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Hall, and, do yer mind, yer put this tother
half inter a new sth-r-ap fur 'is neck, wid 'is
noomber on, too!' and before mother and
son could comprehend what he had done,
big, bluff officer Mack was stumping off
down the street.

Nor was that all, for when little Gyp ap-
peared next day with his spick-span collar
the story seemed to travel with him, and the
people began to wake up to the fact that a
sad, long-drawn tragedy had been passing at
their very doors, while they had been seeking
for something new under the sun to stir
their emotions, and they grew ashamed that
the bluff executioner, sent by the law, should
have been more merciful than they.

The widow, from that day, was cheered by
many gifts, and sympathy which went fur-
ther still. More skilled attention helped
heal Robbie's poor maimed arm; all came
just in time to save his spirit from breaking
under a hopeless, pitiless fate. Encouraged
to learn to use his pen in his left hand, and
supplied with decent clothing to attend
night school, a few months found him fill-
ing a humble position, but so grateful that
once more he could aid his widowed mother,

55

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

that something of boyish hope and faith
came back to his shadowed life.

I heard the Widow Draper telling all this
sad, strange story to mamma one day, when
she came for some work she could take home
to do. Mamma ransacked her attic, and
grandma's too, for bright-colored woolens
for Mrs. Draper to braid into old-fashioned
rugs, for she knew how to make such pretty
ones, and mamma said it was kinder to let
her feel that she was earning a living. All
the neighbors, somehow, got the mania for
Widow Draper's hand-braided rugs too, and
Robbie delivered them from house to house,
after his regular day's work was done.

Gyp and I would sit at the Widow Dra-
per's feet, and listen intently while she
spoke of her sorrow and loss, and when she
called Sissy's name poor little Gyp would
put his forepaws on her knee, and look into
her tearful face and whine.

And despite all their subsequent good for-
tune, poor little Gyp could never forget. I
saw him stealing away through the wood,
many a day, going to watch where his little
love was sleeping, for he felt sure she would
wake some day!
56

CHAPTER VI

YET would we keep thee in our heart -
Would fix our favorite on the scene,

Nor let thee utterly depart

And be as if thou ne'er hadst been."

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

F

FLOSSIE and Baby had been my
little fluffy, snow-white predecessors
in the household; and Flossie had
been a little household god. Mamma al-
ways told of his wonderful beauty, his soft,
wavy hair, just like white floss, which led to
his name, his long, delicate limbs, like mine,
she said, and his full dark eyes, framed
round with the drooping curls, that she
parted in the middle and combed each way
over his forehead.

4 Dear, beautiful Flossie ! ' she would say
to papa, 'he was one of our wedding gifts,
you know. And how strange it was he
should have come way over the sea from
England to me when his poor, lonely young
master, who found him in France, had to
close his eyes alone among strangers, but

57

YOURS AVITII ALL MY HEART

spoke his last word for the little creature
who clun<^ to him, and charged his nurse to
be sure and give him to somebody who
would love him!'

And I often heard her tell the story of how
little Flossie was passed from hand to hand,
till finally he was sent across the Atlantic to
a dear old English Quaker lady, who could
love him but could not see him; she could
only feel his silky curls, his dainty feet, and
loving kisses, for the tall, gentle lady, with
the calm, sweet, waiting face, \vas blind.

Thou art too playful for me, thou tiny
waif. I can't abide thee to set my cap awry,
and tumble my white kerchief so; surely
thou wilt cast me down, some day, beneath
my feet, when I know it not; I am moved to
give thee unto yon daughter, and she and
Aleck, my son, will surely love thee well, as
thy poor dead master could have prayed. '

And so it was that Flossie was bestowed at
last on mamma, for papa was the son of that
dear, gentle lady, the English Quakeress.
Beautiful Flossie took their hearts by storm;
like all the dear little first things that come
into the halcyon days of new wedded life, he
was a sacred memory as the years went on.
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

"Don't you remember, Aleck, how the
people on the street would stand stock still
and stare at the little beauty when he had
just come out of his bath, that perfect snow-
white ? I used to part his wavy curls way
down his back, and trim the hair close on
his dainty little pink feet and ankles, so
they made such a delicate contrast.

"Just think of him as he used to look, dis-
puting the sidewalk with a dozen tame white
geese! And don't you remember that icy
winter morning, when he charged down the
public square on a couple of Billy-goats
how he slid bump up to their little bunting
heads before he could stop himself, on the
glare of ice ? What a picture it made, and
what a contrast! How everybody laughed,
and lots tumbled down in the melee, all
agape at Flossie, instead of watching their
own footing. Just think, Aleck, that was
twenty years ago! I don't suppose sheep,
and goats, and tame geese are quite so
plenty in the streets of the Quaker City now.'

But it seemed that, as little Flossie grew
older and lost his puppy bravado, his fine
nature showed itself in extreme sensitiveness
to harsh sounds, and when they brought him

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

home to patriotic New England with them,
there was one day that was his Reign of
Terror, and that was Fourth-of-July day.
I used to sympathize so with him when
mamma told this story.

Once they left Flossie with his New Eng-
land grandma, - - she was my own grandma
too, only this was long before my day,
and went away to spend the Fourth and
the night succeeding with friends, thinking
Flossie would be so much happier curled
safely in the quiet old homestead, away from
the young people and the snapping, shoot-
ing hubbub.

But as the day wore on and the night ap-
proached, his sensitive nerves grew more
and more excited by the distant booms,
the nearer bang-bangs, pop-pops, and the
snakelike whiz and whir of the sky-rending
rockets in the town below. And grandma
had to let the little fellow go and sit in the
darkest, deepest corner of the parlor closet,
where he crouched, trembling and panting.

Still, grandma felt quite safe about her

little charge as she closed and locked all the

outer doors, that he might not slip away into

the night in his panic and terror, till bedtime

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

came and she swung the closet door wide, to
take him out and comfort him; then, what
was her consternation and alarm to behold
only emptiness, no pretty little Flossie to
be found, - and Stella loved him so !

Candle in hand, grandma anxiously
sought the little fellow in every nook and
corner of the house, over and over, a fruit-
less search. But grandma was a woman of
determination and energy, and never suc-
cumbed in helpless inactivity. It was wax-
ing toward midnight, a late hour for her
staid habits, but she sent across the street
for her elder son, and briefly setting forth
the dire calamity which threatened, she con-
cluded by saying with the air of a comman-
der-in-chief :

"Now, Flossie is in this house, and he's
got to be found, dead or alive! You must
go with me to the cellar. We'll begin our
search there, and keep on, if we end it in the
attic.'

The elder son knew grandma too well to
remonstrate, and led the way, each with
candle in hand, down the steep stairs, to the
great, square, dark cellar under the old-
fashioned homestead. Into every black bin,

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and barrel, and recess they flashed their
tallow torches, all to no avail.

Three square brick chimneys were set, at
equi-distances, through the center of the
long, dark cellar; they came to the end of
their search near the south one; here grand-
ma stood still, loath to leave the field, silent
and troubled.

'It's no use, mother- -he isn't here,"
yawned the elder sen, wearied with the
search, and not attaching quite so much
importance to a little black-eyed bunch of
white ostrich plumes, in view of his own
group of boys and girls.

But grandma's only response was to call,
for the seventy-seventh time:

'Flossie, Flossie! Come, little Flossie!'

Then she stood intent, in listening atti-
tude -for I've heard her tell the story over
and over till I could paint her picture,
standing there, if I were only one of those
artist men with a brush. But all was dark
and still in the great shadowy cellar, as the
echoes of her voice died away then sud-
denly - ah, what was that ? Was it the
faintest little smothered whine, or was it
the night wind ? Grandma gave a start.
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

"Preston, I hear that dog- -and he's in
that chimney!'

Uncle Preston aroused himself from his
sleepy lethargy, thoroughly alarmed for
grandma's sanity.

'Mother, mother, are you dreaming, or
are you crazy ? How could that dog be in
the chimney ? Has he wings, to fly to the
ridge-pole and come down chimney like a
Santa Glaus ? '

' Hush-sh-sh ! ' whispered grandma, with
one stilling hand upraised; then, turning
back her night-cap off her best ear:

'Flossie, poor little Flossie! Hark! Don't
you hear that ? '

A faint, far-away, mournful little whine
broke the midnight stillness.

;That dog is in the bottom of this chim-
ney, and he's got to be gotten out!' cried
grandma, recovering all her decision and
energy.

4 Oh mother, how can you imagine such
a thing ? If he's in the bottom of the chim-
ney, he's dead long ago, smothered with
soot. I tell you it's only the wind you hear ! '

'I tell you, I know better. I tell you, I
hear that dog, and he's alive, too; but he

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

must be gotten out, and that quick, if we
have to smash a hole through the brickwork,
or take out the whole side of the chimney!'
And grandma deposited her candlestick on
the cellar stairs, straightened her tall figure,
and stripped back her sleeves, with a gesture
that always meant business.

The elder son saw himself, in imagination,
seeking his bed somewhere in the gray dawn;
but it was no use pooh-poohing at grandma
when she had once made up her mind, so he
arose from his seat on an old cider-keg,
rested his long hands meditatively on his
hips, and surveyed the solid masonry.

' Preston, you bring that light right round
the back side of this chimney; 'pears to me I
remember - - Ah yes, here 'tis ! I thought
there was a flue there! It just this minute
came across me how, years and years ago,
your father let neighbor Doctor Johnson,
the dentist, bake his teeth down here, just to
help him out. We put this flue in on pur-
pose for him.' And grandma, as she spoke,
was twisting away with eager fingers at the
iron cover, some three feet above ground,
but bedded in rust, leading to a small round
passage into the chimney.

64

With a glad, half -wailing cry of recognition and relief.

THE NEW YOf K
PUBLIC LIBRARY

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FC'J c-i

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

'Here, mother, do let me get at it.' And
with a few smart raps with an old steelyard
weight he picked up, the rusty plate loosened,
revolved, and fell to the ground - as in-
stantaneously, like a Jack-in-the-box, out
popped a little sharp, sooty nose, and a pair
of great blinking eyes, with a glad, half-
wailing cry of recognition and relief.

'Well, I'll be bound! I'm beat this time,
mother ! '

' Well, your old mother isn't so easily
beaten. When I know a thing, I know it,
and the whole world can't beat me out of it;
something told me, plain as day, to come to
this cellar!' rejoined grandma in a tone of
mingled mysterious awe and triumph.

'Come Flossie, dear little Flossie; grand-
ma'll help him.' The little fellow was
wailing and whimpering out the whole story
of his tragic experience, as sure of her sym-
pathy as a child.

And with the most careful assistance and
encouragement, that his delicate body and
satiny skin should not be injured by the
rough narrow walls of the flue - - for it was a
tight fit, like being drawn through a knot-
hole - - poor little Flossie was slowly worked

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and pulled out to view. He had begun the
glorious Fourth a snow-white dog; he had
ended it, at midnight, a jet black one. But
grandma didn't care a whit for that, so long
as she had him safe and sound in her arms.

The poor little thing, it seemed, in his
panic and fright had run into a disused
room, from whence the stove had been re-
moved the spring before. He had dis-
covered the dark funnel-hole, and, thrusting
in his little head, he found such blissful
silence and fancied security from the fierce
Fourth-of-July bombardment without, that
he had scrambled in, head and heels, on to
nothingness, and fallen headlong to the cel-
lar below, landing, luckily, on a soft bed of
soot, where he lay a hopeless, helpless little
prisoner. Yet he would soon have per-
ished of fright and suffocation had it not
been for the prompt energy and determina-
tion of dear grandma, guided by that mys-
terious divining, almost prescient, power
with which she was endowed.

How thankful mamma was, when she re-
turned the next day, to find little Flossie
alive, and the same dainty little loving, snowr-
white morsel as ever, when she heard the
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

strange adventure from grandma's lips, in
her own graphic way.

Then, always, came stories of free-and-
easy "Babe," another little curly white dog,
only he was dumpy, and woolly, and kinky,
and had one black eye and one blue one, and
an odd little fore foot, that turned straight
out to the right side as he patted along.

Babe, it seems, was purchased as a sort
of companion for Flossie, when age had
dimmed his great dark eyes and he sat
patiently waiting in the shadow. So Babe
would lead little Flossie about, and back and
forth, to and from grandma's house. If he
wandered from the path, especially a path
shoveled in the snow, Babe would bob up
beside him and crowd him over into the
right trail, or lead him gently by his silky
ear. Sometimes he would go and stand in
front of Flossie, and peer into his still bright
but sightless eyes, as much as to say:

' Flossie, why can't you see me ? Your eyes
are big enough and bright enough.'

But Babe was no such delicately or-
ganized, clinging little creature as the first,
despite his name. Flossie, they said, was
part Italian hound as well as poodle, but

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Babe, under his poodle cloak, carried a big
drop of Yorkshire terrier blood - and a
most original compound he was.

He was hardly willing to accept the tame
position of companion to the little home-
loving Flossie; he had too much live business
of his own on hand. The first day mamma
tied him to an extra-sized hassock, to gently
persuade him to take a few hours' rest at
home, she saw that same hassock, a half-
hour later, much worn and bedraggled from
a half-mile run, disappearing behind a frisky
white ball off the city sidewalk, through the
Bank doors. He couldn't allow an attach-
ment twice as big as he was to be any im-
pediment in his busy rounds.

Hadn't he got to be umpire at an engine
trial down town that very day, and sit right
under the drippings of the fire-box till his
little white woolly back would be black with
cinders and coal-tar?

Hadn't he got to go down to Ramond
Hobb's stable, where the tame monkeys
were playing round loose, and make a
friendly call on them, and, perchance, divide
a little of the burden of their live-stock
speculations ?
70

Babe

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Then to-morrow - yes, to-morrow Buf-
falo Bill and his "Wild West Show" was
coming. He'd got that on his hands, the
whole thing! And sure enough, when papa
and mamma were driving through a side
street for safety, with their nervous Topsy,
what was that fluffy white ball, bounding
ahead of all that bristling array of down-
sweeping horns and trampling hoofs ? It
was their own Babe, leading Buffalo Bill's
bisons!

For a week or so his attention was di-
verted by the completion of the first line of
horse-railroad past papa's door, and he ran
ahead of the big road-roller which was re-
pairing the street on either side, assuming
command of all operations, till mamma was
in terror lest his little life be blotted out, a
martyr to curiosity.

But when the very first new shining horse-
car went jingling up the hill to the westward,
on the short line, Babe sat thoughtfully down
upon the curbstone, motionless, save now
and then a wise bob of his little curly head,
as he cast his best and biggest eye to the
right, for the return of this splendid two-
horse chariot — put on the road, no doubt,

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

for his sole and special accommodation,
though he'd never seen such a rig before.

Yes, there it came, ring-a-jing, ring-a-
jing, never mind stopping, for his little
white ostrich feather tail flashed past the
conductor, and the saucy little figure sat
erect on the crimson velvet cushion, with all
the sang froid of president of the road.
Neither was he deposed - everybody was so
amused at his off-hand ways; the more so,
when, as the car turned southward down the
main street, then eastward toward the
station, Babe sauntered out to the platform,
and as they reached the corner of his
master's office dropped off, like an old
adept.

And so he assumed this privilege ever
after. But riding was only a side pastime.
He went to the city park evenings, to nib at
the boys' legs and hear the band play, and
came home of a summer midnight to the
front stoop with a bravado - imperative :

" Ye-ep, ye-ep - what the dickens is this
door locked for ? Get up — get up there,
I say, and let your jolly boy in!'

"Oh, plague take that little nuisance!'
papa would yawn, only half wakened, but
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

mamma would slip patiently down the stairs
and give him hasty admittance, for she re-
membered how once, when she had fainted
and fallen in a room filled with escaping
coal-gas, she had dimly heard that same
little strident voice of Babe's, wildly calling
to wake papa to her assistance, as he stood
over her face, kissing her and howling in a
frenzy of loving apprehension, finally rous-
ing and saving them both from danger.

Thus admitted at midnight, the next mo-
ment his little dewy feet would be beating a
tattoo on top of papa's head, for at the head
of his pillow, and his only, would the little
wanderer take his rest.

'Babe, I tell you to quit that kicking; I'll
be bald-headed long before my time!'
would be the next ejaculated reproach
mamma would have to swallow, for the
preservation of his top-knot was a half -im-
plied responsibility of hers.

But she would quickly extend a protecting
hand, both to guard the little happy-go-
luck dreamer from a possible impatient slap
of remonstrance, and to guide his busy little
drumsticks away from the head of her sleep-
ing lord. And papa and Babe would both

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

be singing sonorous slumber songs again,
long hours before she herself could win the
soothing but elusive presence of the drowsy
god.

As for Babe, he'd got to get a few hours
solid sleep, he said to himself, for whether he
had seen the big picture posters on the bill-
boards and fences, and taken it all in, papa
and mamma never knew, but they needn't
think he'd been spending this particular
night in that tame old city park, hearing the
band play ' Shoo fly ! don't bodder me ! '
He'd had business, mighty business, on hand

Barnum's Circus was coming to town!

He would have a surprise for them in the
morning, for hadn't he been down to the
freight-house half the night his own self,
unloading the whole menagerie ? Hadn't
he got to be up and off betimes in the morn-
ing, to get hold of the line of march and
arrange the procession? So he slept and
snored.

And the next morning he did surprise, not
only papa and mamma, but everybody else.
The great Barnum's Circus was going to
pass papa's office in its line of march.
Whether Babe connived at this we never
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

knew; but all the little folks, cousins Elsie,
Roxanna, Theresa, and Joe, were clustered
on the front to see the sight, and papa and
mamma with them.

On came the outriders, in their glittering
trappings; the great golden carriages, with
their mysterious occupants; next a grand
cavalcade, the great shining black Tartarian
steeds, the famous "trained horses' of
that day, prancing and rearing in the blare
of the martial music, glittering with gold
fringe and gold-broidered, purple velvet
trappings, as they champed, and nodded
their plumed heads. Then the children
held their breath, and a hush fell on the
crowd, as on came the mammoth cages.
Great noble-faced lions, too proud to cast a
glance of their kingly eyes on their biped
captors, rode by in silence profound; glossy
striped tigers glided noislessly back and
forth within their prison-houses, lashing
their tails in restless motion; mottled leop-
ards, fierce panthers, and wild-cats followed ;
then the tall, gentle, treetop-eating giraffes;
close behind ambled a cavalcade of the
tiniest, darlingest, little Shetland ponies,
with their waving manes.

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Mamma was just saying it was only a
gilded show, with gaudy cages covering
much that was sad and pitiful behind the
glittering exterior. For the lions and tigers
and leopards languished and suffered as
keenly behind those golden bars as in a
gloomier prison, as they were jostled wearily
from town to town, hemmed in by crowds,
dazzled by artificial lights, excited and har-
assed by the ever-moving throngs gazing
upon them, their muscles cramped and ach-
ing, their lungs panting for the free air and
wild life of the desert and their native
jungles.

But her words of pity were drowned by
the roar of the great steam calliope, that
burst on the air like a hundred locomotive
whistles, in weird tune, or like a giant bag-
pipe.

But what conies now looming up behind,
filling; the narrow street from side to side ?

o

Is it a great, grimy Bedouin tent, overspread
with Oriental splendor, swept on a desert
cyclone as it sways, like a bellied sail, from
side to side ?

No, no Wake up! Don't get to dream-
ing at sound of the weird calliope, but if
78

The monster old favorite, with his tiny escort,
swaggered by."

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

you must, then dream of giant jungles in
far India, for hither comes that old child-
love of this decade- Barnum's Jumbo!

On, on, he comes, with majestic, swagging
strides, the crowd 'Oo-oo-oo-ing!' the
children wild with delight at their first sight
of this great, mammoth bulk, and clamor-
ous cries arose: 'O papa, O mamma, can
I be put on Jumbo's back this afternoon ? '
For Jumbo's far-famed gentleness and love
for the little children had driven all fear
from their hearts.

But what is that snow-white atom, swag-
gering just in advance, almost between
those ponderous feet, with all the strut and
jerk of a drum-major in its little woolly
legs, right foot turned squarely out, as it
tries to keep time to the brawling calliope?
His head askew as he marches, his little odd
blue eye turned up to the mammoth ele-
phant's trunk, which sways above him,
plainly saying to his self-chosen charge:

;This way, Jumbo! Who's afraid? Just
follow me; I'll show you the sights; I'll take
you round the town I own it ! '

The children fairly screamed with glee at
the sight, and a murmur of laughter rose

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

into a loud babble from the crowd. Then
came shouts and calls, and finally a hoarse
'Hurrah for Babe Ballentyne!' as the
monster old favorite, with his tiny escort,
swaggered by, for everybody knew Babe.

CHAPTER VII

'HE had no soul.' How know you so?
What have we, that had not Chico,

Save idle speech ?
If from the Bible you can read
Him soulless, then I own no creed

That preachers preach."

The late "PEARL RIVERS'' in
Frank Leslie's Monthly.

ONCE, when we lived in our own
home city, papa and mamma left me
one evening with little Ellie, the
new Swedish maid, - for Christie had mar-
ried and gone to a home of her own, - and
went about twenty miles away on the train
to attend a concert in a neighboring city.
It grew colder and colder, and when the
music was over, and they came out in the
frosty night, the people were rubbing their
ears and spatting their hands to keep them
from freezing. They got on the train again,
and arrived in their own city at midnight.
All the carriages were gone from the station,
and mamma said:

' Oh, let us skip along to the house. I shall

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

not mind it; the crisp air and bright star-
light seem so refreshing after the close,
heated train and concert-room.'

So they started home on foot. It was
very well where the tall brick buildings shut
off the icy breeze, but when they turned onto
the long stretch of open residential street
leading to our home it was biting cold, and
they had to watch their hands and faces, and
rub them briskly, to keep Jack Frost from
pinching them.

The thick ice forming in the brooks and
meadows snapped and crackled as the
frosty air bound it tighter and deeper in the
cold, glittering starlight- -the only sound that
broke the stillness.

But as they passed a lonely corner a little
shaggy, neglected Skye terrier crept out from
the shelter of a disused building, and ven-
tured timidly to their side, then taking cour-
age leaped up from the ground, kissing at
their benumbed fingers.

% Oh, you poor little lost doggie, I fear you
will freeze!' said mamma, stooping to pat
his ragged mop of flaxen hair. Whereupon
he gave a little responsive whimper, and ran
on in advance to the next door, then back to
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

them in the street again, leaping up and
kissing and sniffing at their gloved hands;
then crossed to the next house door, and the
next, and back to them again.

4 1 wonder if he lives in some of these
houses and is trying to tell us to open his
door?" said papa. But just then they were
surprised by the gladdest barking from the
little waif at the door of their oivn home,
where he had run, far in advance of them.
Then they understood it all. With his keen
scent he had been running from house to
house, hunting for their home, and now he
had found it he knew it at once, as he
sniffed vigorously at the front door and
around the portico where they had passed
more than eight hours before! The frosty
night wind could hide nothing from his keen
little nose.

He dashed down the street to meet them,
with the most joyous cries and antics, then
back to the door to await them, with the
wildest tail-wagging and pattering of eager
feet. He had found their home for them -
would they share it with him?

I was ensconced in my castle of defense,
the great black walnut bedstead, in mam-

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

ma's chamber, but all night long my alert
cars had caught at the slightest sound, the
rumble of wheels or approaching footsteps,
but all had subsided into silence, and little
tremors of apprehension shook me, as I lay
curled in the warm, cozy blankets, for fear
dear papa and mamma would not come back
to me.

When the cry of the little midnight visi-
tant startled my listening ears, I bounded to
the floor and to the top of the hall stairway,
saying in my wrath:

"What saucy little dog dare come here, to
my own home, barking in that bold, familiar
way?' All my very own home I called it
now, forgetting that only two short years
before I, too, had come to that very door,
begging to be taken in by kind hearts.
How much little dogs are like boys and girls,
and how easy it is to get proud and selfish,
and forget the sorrows of others.

Just then, long looked-for footsteps sound-
ed on the porch, papa's latch-key clicked in
the lock, and in bounced a little frowzy figure
before the door could fairly open.

A tangle of silken, flaxen hair, four feath-
ery feet, two keen, topaz-colored eyes, with
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

pink lids, just peeping from under his
shaggy top-knot — what a sight he was !
I could hardly feel jealous, but I tilted my
dainty nose and pretended not to notice
him.

Papa and mamma had entered the hall,
and turning on the bright light looked up
for me and saw me 'laughing' down upon
them, as papa called it, for, in anticipation
of his playfully pinching my slender nose in
welcome, and expecting the funny feeling of
his fingers every moment, I had gotten into
the way of drawing back my delicate lips
and displaying my pearly teeth; and from
that I soon learned that the little grimace
pleased him, and knew what he meant when
he said, to show me off:

" Now Fairy, laugh ! ' and I would imme-
diately display my faultless teeth again, wag-
ging and tossing my head.

; What a perfect contrast ! ' ' said mamma,
turning from my slender, graceful figure
and great shining brown eyes to the little
shapeless tangle at her feet; 'but," she
added, "there is something beautiful in his
perfect homeliness.'

I knew she was praising me, in a way, as

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

I caught her admiring glances, and I began
to relent toward the little interloper; and
when she said, We must give the poor little
fellow some warm milk, anywray, before we
turn him out into the night," I led the way
to the kitchen with an air of self-righteous
charity, while mamma, tired and chilled as
she was, set about preparing him a big dish
of warm, rich milk, which he lapped down
with thankful relish, blinking up at us with
his keen yellow eyes.

Next, some chicken-scraps and tidbits
were added to the feast - such a surprise
party to his poor little starving stomach.
Then papa called him into the hall again.
Slowly and ruefully the disappointed little
fellow crept, trembling, down the stairs, and
when papa opened the front door and said:
' Go on, go on, little f ellowr ! ' he flopped
over on his back in a twinkling and put up
his four little pink-padded feet imploringly,
whimpering piteously, with almost a baby's
cry. He wormed along on the carpet, on
his back, his feathery pads still waving and
coaxing, into a corner under an easel on
which sat a portrait of papa, as though pray-
ing for his compassion, and just beyond his
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

reach, while the cold blast from the open
door made us all shiver.

Papa tried to pick him up, but the dog
raised such a pathetic, coaxing cry he closed
the door and said:

'It's no use, mother; I've no heart to put
the little fellow out this awful night, even if
he didn't beg so. See howr the frost is gath-
ering on the windows, in spite of the hot
furnace fire; can't he sleep in the kitchen?'

"Oh, yes, indeed!" answered mamma; "it
will never do to put him out; his little feet
would be frozen, and I begin to think he has
no home to go to. He cannot do much
harm shut in the kitchen, and I don't believe
Ellie will be afraid of him. I will wake up
early in the morning and tell her, so she need
not be startled with finding him there unex-
pectedly.'

Little Frowzelly had stopped crying, but
lay on his back, his praying feet uplifted,
anxiously listening, and before mamma
could finish speaking he had caught at the
gist of it all and went leaping gaily back,
two stairs at a time, to the kitchen, and curled
himself in a cozy ball behind the great warm
range for the rest of the night.

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Poor tired mamma never woke up to tell
Ellie of the new advent in the kitchen. She
didn't need to, for Ellie had good common
sense, and more, a gentle, pitying heart,
though she 'yumped a little,'1 as she told
mamma afterward, in her cunning dialect.
She only laughed and said, W-a-1-1, I
detare! you little flaxy, frettled, Swede dod,
all of a tolor - what sip did you turn over
in?"

So the cheery breakfast-bell and the faint
fumes of the spicy coffee wrere the first things
to wake us. Mamma laughed to see me
jealously eyeing my pretty basket the first
thing, to see that our new lodger had taken
no liberties with it, and then I strutted
toward the kitchen, to look him up. There
he wras, wide awake, blinking out at me with
his topaz eyes and beating a tattoo with his
fringy tail.

After breakfast, when the morning work
was done, Ellie of her own accord put
little Frowzelly in the laundry-tub, while I
stood curiously by, and gave him a nice
warm bath, and dried and combed him.
We found his hair was fine as silk floss, of a
pale, glossy drab color. I began to feel
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

quite proud of him, and at noon, when papa
came home to lunch, I playfully pulled him
forth by his feathery feet, to show papa how
handsome he had grown. He would let me
roll and drag him all around the carpet, just
gently touching me with his strong, white
teeth, when I pulled his long, silky hair too
roughly, as much as to say:

"Oh, gently, gently, little Fairy queen.
Only let me stay here and share the crumbs
from your table and the merest fraction of
love, and I'm your little slave; do with me
what you will.'

Mamma said his mouth was really beau-
tiful, with its ivory teeth and pink gums,
and she said he had the loveliest, forgiving
disposition.

For four whole days it was so bitter
cold she had no heart to turn him out, and
although papa had put a notice in the paper
nobody came to claim him ; so I had a splen-
did time every day, playing rough and tum-
ble, and dragging him playfully about.

"That's just the dog for a baby to have,'5
said mamma. 'I know he can always be
trusted.'

So at the end of the fourth day she spoke

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

to a young man who was engineer in papa's
factory about finding some place among his
good neighbors for little Frowzelly.

'I shall be more than glad to take him
myself, for a companion for my own little
baby,' was his answer, when mamma told
how bright and gentle and trusty our little
visitor was. ' I shall feel much safer about
him while I am away all day long, for his
mother is busy with her household cares
and the baby will be creeping around the
door all alone when spring comes.'

So it was settled at once, and the young
man came that very night and took the
little stranger home with him. I was sorry
when he went away, but the young man told
us afterward that with little Frowzelly and
the baby it was a case of 'love at first
sight,'' and that the dog slept in the foot of
the cradle, a faithful little watcher, from
that night forward; and as the months went
on, he and the baby grew to be inseparable
companions.

Best of all, one eventful day, when a ven-
omous hooded adder, coiled by some strange
chance close by the door-step where the baby
toddled off, sprang forth to bury its poison-
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

fangs in the fair little foot, brave little Frow-
zelly, quicker than light, sprang to the res-
cue, and catching the viper in his strong
white teeth, shook the life out of him in a

twinkling and
laid him proudly
down at the feet
of the terrified
but grateful
mother.

How glad we
all were, as
mamma

said, when we heard the story of the rescue,
that we had entertained a little four-footed
angel unaware that pitiless night.

93

CHAPTER VIII

My dog he had his master's nose,

To smell a knave through silken hose;

If friends or honest men go by,
Welcome, quoth my dog and I!'

Old Wessex Sony. ANON.

SKIPPUM, my first little chum, and I
knew an awful secret once. It began
in the pretty white cottage where he
lived and ended over in my house. We
tried to tell our mammas about it, but we
couldn't make them understand, for they
never dreamed of such a secret.

Skippum's mamma had such ' a treasure
of a maid,'' as she called her, who was so
pretty and kind to the little babies, and who
always met her mistress with a refreshing
drink of ice-cold lemonade, or something
equally nice, when she came home from
riding or shopping, and brushed out her
long yellow tresses, and helped her dress so
patiently, and who loved to help adorn her
with all her prettiest jewels and make her
look so girlish and beautiful, that of course
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

mamma Wakeman couldn't help calling her
a jewel too.

But sometimes, when the young mistress
was out, and Skippum and I were playing
around the long, low windows that came
way down to the veranda floor, we saw
poor Inez standing before the pier-glass,
trailing the ivory satins and fleecy lace
dresses, which her mistress had left all shut
in the closet, around her own tall, slender
figure, and trying the gleaming necklaces on
her own fair neck, and fastening the bril-
liants in her blue-black hair.

And her cheeks burned like rubies, she
felt so proud and guilty, too, when she saw
how beautiful she looked. She was ' play-
ing round the hook," as the little boys call it.

She didn't start to do wrong, she said,
when it was too late, but the more she gave
way to the first wrong step of trying on and
wishing for the jewels the mis-tress had
trusted to her care, the more a dark, secret
thought haunted her. She could have put
the bad thought away, when it was just a
little black thing that bobbed up in her
head, the first time; she could have said to it,
"Get away: never speak such a word to me

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

again! I am an honest girl, if I am working
for a living, and my fair face, and much
more my good name, are worth more than
gold to me; and some day, if I am patient
and faithful, I will have honest jewels of
my own, and can wear them openly and
proudly. '

But no. She confessed that she kept
nursing that little black thought. She said,
Thinking is no harm;' but, day by day,
that thought was growing stronger
stronger than her weak will - - while she kept
hobnobbing with it; and finally there came
an hour when the wicked thought put its
strong, black claws right on her fast-beating
heart, and made her hands do its bidding,
while she shook and shivered.

Mistress Wakeman was going out riding
with the two little ones, and Inez was going
with her to tend them. Skippum was to
stay behind, for I had come over to play
with him that afternoon.

So Inez bustled nervously around, and
said, ' Dear Mrs. Wakeman, let me go and
help you and the little boy into the carriage,
and then I will get on my hat and cloak,
and bring out the baby.'
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

But the mistress said, " Oh, no, Inez, don't
hurry so; take time to dress yourself, and I
will be leisurely getting seated. I do not
need any help, so long as you bring the
little one.'

So she went out holding her little toddling
boy by the hand, paused to admire the beau-
tiful white running-rose that was garlanding
the porch, then walked slowly to the car-
riage. The maid peeped stealthily out at
her, in such a queer peek-a-boo way, that
Skippum and I stopped playing, and began
to stare at Inez. Then such a strange and
sudden sight as we beheld!

Inez seemed transformed into a wild,
guilty thing that had lost her reason. She
fairly tore all the drawers from the pretty
dressing-table and bureau, and threw their
contents over the floor, all but one thing,
— the dear little scarlet velvet jewel-bag,
with its cunning satin pockets, where all the
precious shining stones were tucked away;
that, with shaking hands, she thrust into a
deep pocket she had made that very morn-
ing and sewed under her dress.

The baby was looking right at her with
his wide blue eyes, and she looked so strange

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he began to cry. Skippum and 1 began to
bark and scold, and to run back and forth
between the open door and the carriage, to
try to tell Mistress Wakeman to come and
see, -for we knew something was terribly
wrong, - and we would not stop when Inez
slapped savagely at us with the hair-brush.
Then she rushed over to a rear window
and struck at the glass with the back of the
brush and shivered it, and unfastened the
lock. We barked and screamed the louder,
and so did the poor little baby too. Then
she caught him up rudely and flew out, try-
ing to slam the door behind her; but Skip-
pum and I were tearing right up her trail,
and we got tangled up and squeezed awfully
hard in the door. She nearly tumbled
down with the baby in her arms, and kicked
at us spitefully with her sharp boot-heel, but
we had gotten worked up to such a pitch we
never seemed to feel the kicks then; and we
followed clear to the carriage, fairly raging
and frothing at our little mouths, just as
Mother Wakeman was about to climb out
in answer to our excited call, only to hear
that naughty Inez say: "Oh, Mrs. Wake-
man, I hope you will excuse me. I got so
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

fluttered, I couldn't find my hat, and then
the baby's bonnet-string came off in my
fingers when I went to tie it, and I had to
stop and sew that on; then those pesky little
dogs had to run a mouse out of the closet,
right over my feet, and scare me and the baby
most to death.'

' Oh, never mind, Inez, you did well to be
so quick," said Mistress Wakeman. You
may start now, Dennie.'

We were barking and pouncing our little
fore feet from side to side, begging her to
come back; she did turn again toward us, as
the horses started up, and say: 'I never
heard those little things make such an ado
about a mouse before. Are you sure, Inez,
there's nothing more the matter?'

'Nothing, that I could see, madam,'' an-
swered Inez, and turned away her burning
cheeks and downcast eyes from the mistress,
and set about soothing the baby. We were full
of wrath and fear as the carriage rolled away.

We rushed to the kitchen and pulled old
Becky, the cook, by the dress and tried hard
to get her to come, but she only shook us off,
and said, in her kind, crooning way, for she
never scolded us to mean it:

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k k L •<

Shoo fly! yer leetle foolish varmints;
what fo' yer puttin' yer teefh inter clis chile's
bran' new caliker? Doan yer s'pose old
Becky's got' nufT ter do, ter cook an' iron, ter
say noffin' a mendin' ? '

Then we flew over to my house, to my
own dear mamma, all breathless and excited
-stood up and shouted out, together, the
dreadful thing that we had seen. But she
thought we were telling her about the ice-
man making such a banging at the ice-
chest in the rear, and she only said:

"It's all right, you little watchmen -he
never touches mamma's goodies.' And
when we pulled her dress, too, she went out
to the chest and got some milk, and put a
little warm water in it to take off the chill,
and set it down for us. Our hearts beat so
hard we didn't feel hungry, but our little
tongues were fairly dry with shouting, and
we lapped it down, then raced to and fro,
from her room to the door, to try to get her
to follow; but she was busy writing, and we
could not make her understand.

So I told Skippum I would stand by him
and we two would see it through. We crept
sorrowfully back to the disheveled room and
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

nosed around among the dainty things lying
all about the floor, but nowhere could we
find the scarlet bag with its shining con-
tents. Just then came the sudden rumble
of wheels; Mistress Wakeman, some way,
couldn't enjoy her ride, and had turned back
very early. We could hear her saying:

4 1 know, Inez, you are right in saying that
I needed the air and ought to have kept on,
but some way I had a feeling as though
something was going to happen, and I had
better come home. Maybe it's all nothing;
maybe it's only a shower in the air - I feel
this sort of oppressed feeling at that some-
times.'

But Inez was hurrying in advance and
opening wide the doors, and when she was
half across the sitting-room, in sight of the
lady's room, she cried out sharply:

' Why, Mrs. Wakeman, what have those
dreadful puppies done ? Oh, my! Oh, my!
It's worse than that; they never could pull
out those drawers - - it's it's - - please take
the baby quick! I fear I shall fall; it's
burglars! burglars!'

Inez sank into the first rocker, letting
her hands fall limply each side the squirm-

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

ing baby, her eyes closed, and bereft of
further power to speak. Mother Wakeman,
true to the strongest instinct, caught the
baby from the nerveless arms of the fainting
maid and stood silent for a moment, with
blanching cheek, surveying the wild dis-
order.

Skippum and I were too shocked to speak,
even had we the power, but we rolled our
eyes and showed their whites, and we each
in turn stepped up and sniffed towards
Inez's deep, deep pocket. The scarlet bag
was there, we could smell it, - - and we
looked at mamma Wakeman with such wise
and knowing glances, if she would only have
noticed us.

But she turned away hastily, calling sharp
and quick to the coachman, who was gather-
ing up his reins:

'Dennie, drive quick as you can to Mr.
Wakeman' s office and ask him to drive di-
rectly back to the house and bring an officer
with him; the house has been entered and
robbed, in our absence, of I know not what.'

Dennie listened, bowed without a word,
snapped his whip, and away he flew. Then
the mistress stepped quickly through the
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

rear room, to where black Becky was labo-
riously ironing the last beruffled and be-
laced white dress for the baby, calling as
she did so:

* Come here this minute, Becky, and tell
me what you know about this state of things.
Have you let any pedlars or tramps into
this house since I've been gone ? '

'Fo' der Lor's sakes, missus, yer doan
tink I's gone loss my seben senses, dat I
should be 'vitin' sich twash inter der house;
what's gone happen now?'

'Come and see!' said the mistress,
sternly, and poor Becky, frightened and
wondering, slip-shodded along after her to
the disheveled room; then stood breathless,
with hands uplifted.

'Der Lors-a-massy, missus! Sure 'nuff,
dat's mor'n tramps; dem's thebes an' rob-
bers! robbers! Oh, 'pon mer word an'
soul, missus, I neber heered a sound; neber
a sound, sabe jes dem leetle four-footed
critturs. Oh, now I knows, missus, -
bress der poor leetle honey hearts, - dey's
tying ter tell old Becky, all der time dey
wor puttin der teefh inter mer bran' new
caliker.

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*Oh, der Lor forgib me, missus, if I'd
only 'beyed dem leetle four-footed eritturs
He sent, I'd cotched dem robbers, dar an'
den, an' I'd done bang der life out ob
'em!"

Skippum and I forgave poor Becky, now
that she had bravely given us the credit of
trying to raise the alarm, and we wished we
could tell her she had a better chance to
'done bang der robber' just that minute
than she had before, but all we could do
was to stand near Inez and her deep, deep
pocket and give little suspicious growls.

' Oh, let us hope it isn't so dreadful bad,
madam ; maybe we scared them away before
they got anything; I thought I heard some
one running just as we stepped in," sug-
gested Inez, gathering herself up as though
to calm and cheer her mistress.

The mistress started with blanching cheek
again at thought of the possible presence
still in the house of such dangerous char-
acters, and she peered nervously into the
parlor and tiptoed to the front hall, for she
herself had entered by the veranda door.

'I'll search the chambers myself," sug-
gested Inez, apparently gathering courage.
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

'They might have rushed upstairs to hide
and then jumped off that low, flat roof.':

* I'll go with you," said Mistress Wake-
man, with chattering teeth. 'Maybe we
three could hold 'em in a closet till the police
can get here.'

' Jes gib dis chile a hole ob der wool, an'
dey'll neber knowed what hurt 'em ! " snorted
Becky with dilating nostrils. Just then an
umbrella slipped in the hall rack and fell
with a little rustle and thud. The three
burglar-hunters went up in the air with
three muffled shrieks and came down in a
close, huddled heap. Inez pulled away
and tried hard to keep the lead, but Becky
kept well abreast. No, there wasn't a boot-
leg projecting from under a bed, nor a man
in a single closet; all was untouched; had
the mistress and Becky not followed so
closely, Inez might have found- their tracks.

So they crept downstairs again, and Mis-
tress Wakeman, finding the coast clear, be-
gan to collect her ideas, and ran her eyes
anxiously over the confused contents of
her dressing-table and bureau, thrown so
ruthlessly about. One thing her thoughts
centered on she could not see, and Inez

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

thought of it too, for she cried, in the same
breath :

' Oh, the jewel-bag ! the jewel-bag is gone !
How dreadfully I feel for you! All the
lovely gems I have loved so well to see you
wear!'

'Ob course der jewel-bag's gone; dat's
jes der ting dey's arter all der time, dat's my
'pinion. Dey used ter say, 'Set a thebe to
cotch a thebe,' and Miss Inez, doan yer
s'pose I ain't got no feelin' to hev dis yar
dre'ful ting cum ter pass wrid dis chile stan-
nin' right in dis yar house ? '

It seemed to Skippum and me that
Becky's big black eyes rested long and
searchingly on Inez. Mistress Wakeman
could not speak, her calamity was too great.
The tears welled over out of her big blue
eyes, and sobs shook her for a moment, then
she burst out angrily:

"They shall never, never get a\vay with
my precious jewels! I'll spare no cost, nor
leave one stone unturned to find them, and
I'll bring the thief to justice, whoever and
wheresoever he is!'

"That I would, madam, " said the guilty
Inez, feeling that there was no halting in the
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

path she had taken; but Skippum and I
thought we saw a little chill creep through
her at the words and the determined flash
of Mistress Wakeman's blue eyes.

Just then came the rapid whirl of wheels
and Mr. Wakeman hurried in, followed by a
wary-faced little man with a long, sharp
nose, too big for the rest of his face, and
funny ears that spread outward and forward
a little, as though to catch every sound, and
the sharpest blue-gray eyes, that seemed to
look you through and through. This weasel-
faced little man they called Mr. Seeforth.

'How is all this, Imogene?" inquired
Mr. Wakeman, excitedly; and the lady told
the tale of the robbery in their absence, the
overturned drawers, and the dreadful se-
quel — the missing jewels.

4 How do you think they found entrance,
madam ? ' inquired the sharp-nosed man.

' I am sure I can't imagine, Mr. Seeforth,
for Becky, my cook, was standing right in
the wing kitchen, where she could see every
door to the house, except the front, and that
is double-locked all the time," answered the
mistress.

Becky had retired respectfully toward the

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

kitchen on the entrance of Mr. Wakeman
and the other gentleman, but the maid hung
about in the room adjoining, within ear-
shot, and when she heard this, she stepped
boldly forward and said:

'Pardon me, gentlemen, but it looks to
me they came in that window,' and she
pointed to the rear window, with its broken
pane and open lock, which none had ob-
served, behind the partly lowered shade.

Yes, yes, -I see, - — I see,': said the
little man. ' If they went out again that way,
they must have worked quite hard to reach
back, through that hole, and pull the shade
as low as that.'

But Skippum and I remembered the
broken pane with fear and anger, and we
barked right out loud and long, and \ve tried
to tell this little man w^ith the big, sharp nose
all about Inez slapping at us with the sting-
ing hair-brush and then smashing the glass,
and we looked back and forth from the
broken pane to her, and not outside.

And we thought he could talk our lan-
guage, for he took his eyes off Inez's face and
began to look intently at us, as we pounced
first toward her with angry screams and
108

Fixed his keen eyes again on Inez.'

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

then toward the window, and then back
toward her, pausing only to look way into
his blue-gray eyes, with our great shining
ones, as he stood before us, half way be-
tween the two objects of our wrath; and
when we found we had really caught his
sharp eyes, we never took time to wink, but
poured out our story, over and over.

Then he took a little book and pencil out
of his pocket, and we thought he was going
to write down what we had told him, for he
asked :

' Have these two little ;dogs been in and
out this room all the afternoon?'

Yes, sir," said Skippum's mamma, "but
I know they never broke that glass.'

He made no answer to this, but fixed his
keen eyes again on Inez, and said:

'Miss, you noticed this broken pane be-
fore your mistress did ? '

C£ -\T • ??

Yes, sir.

You hadn't mentioned it to her?'
' I didn't see it till just as you were coming
in," stammered Inez.

Your eyes are younger and brighter than

the rest of us,' said the little man drily.

i>

Then he went over to the window, and

111

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

raised the shade and looked at the break,
and wrote more in his little book. Skippum
and I went over, too, and put our little paws
on the window-sill, and looked back at the
flushing Inez, and swelled up our little
throats and barked again. We saw the
broken glass lying on the outside of the
window-sill, but we didn't think he was
writing that in the little book.

' Mrs. Wakeman, I believe you mentioned
that your maid was the last person to leave
this room, before the ride?'

Yes, sir,'' answered the lady. 'She
came here to take the baby from the bed
and put on his little bonnet.'

4 Miss, were these two little dogs in the
room when you left it ? '

'I don't remember, sir.'
Skippum and I were turning our little
heads back and forth between the sharp-
nosed man and the maid, watching their
faces. We knew the question was about us,
and we thought he was taking our part, and
when we thought again of the stinging slaps,
the shivering glass, and mamma Wakeman's
red velvet jewel-bag in the deep, deep pocket
of our enemy, we bow-wowed right out

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

again in chorus, and looked straight at
Inez.

'Oh, yes, Inez,' cried the mistress;
' don't you remember ? You said they were
racing a mouse and scared the baby. '

' I don't charge my mind with the doings
of two silly little dogs, to remember very
long in the face of a sad affair like this!'
snapped the maid, growing redder.

'That will do, miss,': said the little man
with the flaring ears, nodding at Inez as
though she might be dismissed, and she
flounced haughtily out of the room.

'Madam, you have perfect confidence in
your domestics, I presume ? '

6 Oh, the most perfect confidence, sir.
I've always trusted them with everything.
Poor old Becky showed she was innocent as
a lamb, and as for Inez, she was with me all
the time, of course."

'I think, madam, with your permission,
I will step into the kitchen and speak with
the one you call Becky.'

And the little sharp-nosed man stepped
briskly into the kitchen, and Skippum and
I hustled along after him, fairly bumping

113

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

against each other, we felt so important in
the case.

Becky left off hulling the big red straw-
berries she was fixing for tea, and with her
plump black arms akimbo, her dusky face
wearing a wise, mysterious look beneath her
red turban, yet with calm, unflinching eyes
on his blue-gray ones, awaited the onset.

' Rebecca, have you been in the house
from the time your mistress left in her car-
riage to the time of her return ? '

Yes, sah, ebry minute, sah; I nebber
leebed mer pose. I war jes' done inein'
der baby's dresses, sah.'

' Now, Rebecca, you think sharp. Didn't
you step out into the back yard, possibly to
the clothes-line or somewhere, just long
enough for some sneak-thief to slip in and
enter the madam's room?'

'No, sah! Dis chile knows de 'portance
ob der 'zact troof, in troubl'us times like dis
yar. I knows, too, dat der poo' young mis-
sus' jules was stole wite under dis yar ole
black nose ob mine, sah, an' it looks
mighty 'spicious, but, sah, dat black
mistry am gwine ter be clared up whiter
dan der snow!'
114

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Skippum and I watched the wary face of
the questioner, and we saw his grizzly
mustache twritch with a suppressed smile,
and a kindly light just glimmer across his
blue-gray eyes, and the comforting thought
came to our little hearts that he wasn't
blaming Becky. We loved her, 'cause she
loved us.

Then the inquisitive little man took a
turn around the kitchen; he seemed to have
forgotten where to go or what to say; he
stuffed his hands down deep in his pockets;
he whistled the first line of the tune that
Becky sung to us sometimes, 'Way down
upon der Swanee ribber," and studied the
figure of the kitchen oil-cloth ; then he threw
up his head and seemed to be searching for
cobwebs on the ceiling. Then he burst out
on the same track again.

'Rebecca, were those two little dogs in
the house when your mistress started ? '

'Dey was in der house, sah, when she
fust got in der carriage, an' dey was barkin'
like mad.'

' Whereabouts in the house ? '

( In der missus' room, sah, an' tearin' back
an' forfh ter der glass do'r.':

115

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

"Who was in the madam's room then,
Rebecca ? '

' Der baby was, fo' sure, sah, 'cause I
lieered 'is leetle voice, like as tho' he's greebed
an' skeert. I no dars ter go ter 'im, 'cause
Miss Inez, like's not, tole me ter mine mer
nigger bizniss.'

'Did the dogs stay in madam's room
after the maid went out with the baby ? '

"No, sah dey mimed out and jes'
screamed at der missus, and den, soon as
eber she dribed away, dey jes tackled dis
chile an put der teefh clar froo mer noo
caliker. Oh, if I'd only had der brains o'
Balaam's ass, in dis yar ole woolly head, I
might 'a' cotched der right thebe, for 'pears,
sah, dey war gittin' in 'fore Miss Inez an'
der baby got out - - an' dem leetle foh-
footed critturs war bustin' der gizzards ter
tell us, an' our ears war full ob wool.'

How relieved and proud we felt to hear
Becky say this, but we grew awful scared
when the sharp-eyed man said:

'Becky, do you suppose these little dogs
really did put their teeth through your
dress ? '

"Wall, sah, dey yanked and hanged on
116

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

it 'miff ter chaw a piece right out on't, clare
an' clean,'' and as she spoke Becky caught
up the hem of her bright blue stiffly starched
calico, which was her pride, and held it up
between the little man and the light.

Alas, for Skippum and me! Sure enough,
the stiff hem was not only dented over with
our little sharp tooth-marks, but pulled into
little crescents of eyelet-holes in several
places on the right-hand side, which had
been toward the sitting-room door as Becky
stood ironing.

We had backed off in sudden alarm at
this new turn of affairs, as the little sharp-
eyed man studiously examined our mischief
while he whistled the second line of Becky's
tune — "Far, far, away.' Our little ears
and tails were slinking as we suited the
action to word, and backed as far away as
we could into the corner by the pantry door,
which stood ajar.

'Dey knows dey done it, sah. See how
skeert dey is. Bress der honey hearts, dey's
only tryin' ter tell poo' ole Becky, so der
white sheep needn't suffer fo' der black
one. I'se talkin' 'bout souls now, sah - - not
skins. '

117

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Just then my sensitive ears caught the
sound of quick, short breathing through the
half-open pantry door. There was some-
thing suspicious in the sound, and glad to
turn tail on the torn dress, and if possible
turn the little man's attention, too, I pounced
noisily into the pantry. There was a pic-
ture in a frame, for Inez's handsome face
and head were in at the rear window, over
the mixing-bowl, and, as she jumped hastily
back, she struck the sash above her with
such a bump that it caught the big ears of
the little man, who, instead of following to
the pantry to find nothing and see nothing,
reached out quickly and opened the rear
kitchen door to the north, and slipped out.
I squeezed between his legs, in my zeal, as
he went, and there was Inez, just disap-
pearing around the lilac-bush at the corner,
with one hand nursing the back of her head.

He never said a word; he only whistled
the third line of Becky's song- 'Dar's
whar mer heart am turnin' ebber," and with
the air of a man ' dat had done settled dat
sum in 'rithmetics,': as Becky called it, he
stalked out of the kitchen and rejoined the
master and mistress. Then, looking about
118

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

to make sure he was alone with them, even
to glancing out of the rear window into the
shadow of the big white lilac-bush again, he
said:

'Mr. and Mrs. Wakeman, I would sin-
cerely advise the close searching of your
waiting maid, and her effects. I am certain
the loss of the jewels lies with her, although
she has had ample time to dispose of them
- we shall not find them on her person. '

'Oh, sir! how can that be? She was
with me all the time. I can't consent to
such a cruel thing, to disgrace and ruin that
poor innocent girl for life. She's above all
suspicion, and of course she'd resent it ter-
ribly. I can't lose her now, in my nervous,
upset condition; she's a perfect jewel of a
girl, and I can't even lift that heavy baby.'
The little man looked puzzled, as though,
as he told papa afterwards, he could follow
any clue better than he could the tortuous
workings of a woman's mind. Father
Wakeman looked irresolute and helpless,
recognizing the dire calamity of losing Inez,
and he fell to wondering, as he confessed
later on, whether to pocket the loss of a few
diamonds, more or less, without further in-

119

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

vestigation, were not better than to have the
whole domestic fabric come tumbling about
his ears, for he knew his pretty girl-wife
had full enough to tax her strength. So he
suggested :

'I feel, Mr. Seeforth, that such a move
may be a little hasty. Why not examine the
premises outside ? We may find tracks that
will point to a different conclusion' -anxious
to get the little man off the servant question.
Yes- -Inez suggested that they might
have jumped off the tin roof, upstairs/1 put
in mother Wakeman.

'She suggested to me that they got in
and out that broken window she discovered
just as I came in,': said the little man drily.
" However, I see your position, Mr. Wake-
man, and although we may give the guilty
party some start of us, we shall, as your old
cook says, ' clare up dis black mistry ' in

A* "

time.

6 Now, Mr. Seeforth, I don't see how you
can possibly suspect poor Inez, and never
seem to think about Becky being right in
the house all the time.'

Well, madam, we in this business can't
fully explain our convictions, much better
120

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

than these little dogs can, but we both of us
are pretty sure to be right in the long run.
We both come at it partly by intuition;"
and he patted our heads thoughtfully as he
continued :

'If Becky'd had anything to do with the
loss of your jewels, she wouldn't so stoutly
throw away the chance my suggestion of
sneak-thieves, in her possible absence into
the yard, gave her. She declares she was
right in earshot every minute. But, of
course, Mr. Wakeman, we will thoroughly
examine the premises/1 and suiting the
action to the word, Mr. Seeforth led the way
outside, and Mr. Wakeman followed.

They began their search at the broken
window, where the glass lay outside the sill,
and on the moist earth, but no sign of a
footprint they found; then they stood off to
the rear and surveyed the whole back of the
house and the low, flat roof, but all the win-
dows were clasped, inside, above it.

Just then Skippum began to snuff and
blow and paw vigorously in the grass, in the
half- worn path leading to the dark oak grove
beyond the garden, and some little shining
thing bobbed up under his pawing feet.

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

' See this - see this ! ' cried Mrs. Wake-
man, who had followed. They've dropped
my little silver brooch in their flight, sure as
the world. Oh, how thankful I am that
clears my poor servants, anyway! Oh, there,
just look, Fairy's found my silver hairpin!'
as I tossed up a pretty crescent, set with
brilliants, from the deeper grass, nearer the
grove. 'Just think, those dreadful men
dropped these as they ran they may be
hiding somewhere now. Oh, Mr. Seeforth,
I don't know as I can ever live in sight of
this dark grove; I feel as though it may be
full of burglars and desperate men. Don't
you think you'd better get a big force of
police, and search every inch of that
woods, this very night ? I can't sleep till
you do.'

But Mr. Seeforth didn't seem much
moved by the new phase. He only an-
swered :

'What would the burglars be doing,
madam ? They wouldn't stand still for a
posse of men to walk over ' em. Were
these things in the jewel-bag, madam?' he
continued.

'No, sir; come to think of it, they just lay

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

loose in the drawer. Of course, they are of
no value compared with the real jewels.'

Yes, that's just it, madam, ': said the
little man, whose keen eyes wrere searching
the grass, where Skippum and I were pranc-
ing around and snuffing out the fallen treas-
ures, and he gathered up some old-time
studs, made from silver coin.

You notice they spilled the poorest part
of their booty, in every case. They held the
mouth of the real jewel-bag right side up
with care. That sort of men, making a bolt
for liberty, don't wait long to sort out and
scatter baubles like these, to set folks on
their track. But the one who did scatter
these trinkets here has left too big a hole
in the grindstone - - a blind man can see
through that.'

But I smelled tracks, and fresh ones, too,
and Skippum took up the same trail. We
both snuffed and ran about in our busy
little way, then started forward, and the
watchful man began to walk carefully and
softly behind us, motioning, as he went, for
Mr. and Mrs. Wakeman to remain behind.
We led the way most to the deep shadows
of the grove, where night was falling, com-

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

ing upon a bangle bracelet and a few other
trinkets as we nosed alon^. Then we

o

turned off short, and backward toward the
garden again, but to the outer edge, follow-
ing a narrow path, where we had to go single
file, into a deep, dark blackberry thicket,
that had grown wild and tangled, under a
knot of big blossom-laden pear-trees. The
little man was following noiselessly, close
behind, but we all came to a sudden stand-
still there, in the heart of the thicket,
stood Inez, with a white face, in the failing
light, as she tried to meet his keen blue-gray
eyes.

' Did you drop this bracelet, miss ? ' he
inquired calmly, as he held up the bangle.

'No, sir; it is Mrs. Wakeman's; the bur-
glars must have dropped it.'

'But you walked right over it, just now,
and did not seem to see it. I wish they had
chanced to drop her diamond brooch and
earrings instead," and he looked steadily
at her.

The girl bridled quickly and flung back
at him, 'They only sorted out what they
cared least for, to lighten their load.'

'Or to try to throw us on the wrong

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

scent,' he said, never withdrawing his
searching gaze till he turned slowly on his
heel and moved toward the house, whistling
the fourth line of Becky's song, ' Dar's whar
de ole folks stay,' and Skippum and I fol-
lowed close on his footsteps.

4 1 don't change my mind, Mr. Wake-
man/1 he said, rejoining the lady and gentle-
man. 'These trifles, scattered about very
likely while we were talking together in the
house, only confirm my first thought; but
feeling unwilling, as you do, to suspect your
maid, we can only await the next move.
Meanwhile I strongly advise you to watch
the young woman in question.'

* I would risk my life that she is innocent,
Mr. Seeforth," said Mrs. Wakeman, with
great decision in her tone. But when the
little man made no further comment, she
gave a sigh at thought of the lost jewels, and
cast a shivering glance at the black wood
at the rear of the garden, and bade the
little man good-evening, as the carriage
awaited him, then went into the house for a
good cry, to relieve her overstrained feelings.

She gave a slight start and shriek, in the
gathering dark, for there was a little rustle

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

close beside her. Inez was creeping stealth-
ily through the veranda door.

'It's only me, madam; I want to do or
say something to comfort you;" and she wet
a velvet sponge in cologne and bathed the
aching head and heated brow of her weeping
mistress, and soothingly smoothed out the
golden hair. "Just think, madam, though
'tis dreadful to lose those lovely jewels, how
much worse it might have been; supposing
they had crept in and stolen the baby!'
This was a master stroke, for Inez's voice
had such a scary bugaboo tone to it that
even Skippum and I felt the hair rise along
our little spines.

'Oh, merciful heavens! Inez, where is the
baby ? Where is the baby ? ' fairly screamed
mother Wakeman.

k He's all safe, right here in his crib,
where I've been watching him all the time.
You were so half-distracted with that know-
nothing man, quizzing round about those
two silly little dogs. What does he s'pose
they know, anyway? I thought best to

stick to the baby, and not lose him with the

??
rest.

Skippum and I heard her wicked, lying

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

words, and we understood well enough she
was speaking slightingly of us, and we, too,
screamed out angrily in our own language,
and said:

You'll find out one of these fine days
what we 'two silly little dogs' know, Miss
High-and-mighty. We know know
know, and we've bow-wow-wowed it all out
to your little ' know-nothing man ' already ! '

Mother Wakeman jumped half out of her
chair, but as the baby woke and began to
cry, she said:

' Oh, you dear, good, thoughtful Inez
and his own mother forgot him! Those
awful men are in that woods now, burying
my bag of jewels under a tree, and if he had
flown round and done his duty he might
have caught 'em at it. But thank goodness
they haven't got my baby; I've got him left.
Bring him here to me, Inez. I want to feel
him right close in my arms.'

So the baby was brought, and with a
sudden turn of feeling mother Wakeman
laughed away her tears, and father Wake-
man, when he came in just then, was quite
thankful that they could gather so cheerfully
around the tea-table.

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

That's right, Imogene, cheer up! You
shall have the jewels back, or I'll buy you as
many more. But that Seeforth is a regular
hound for tracking game. I think too,
Imogene, that instead of staying home and
worrying and wondering, you had better
take the two babies and run down into the
country to mother's, and I'll follow, and let
Becky and Inez have a few days' vacation.'

'I should love to, John, but I am dread-
fully afraid I should lose Inez if I let her
loose. I wonder if Stella wouldn't take her
a few days, till she gets her new girl ? - you
know her little Ellie has just got married. '

Just then I started to hear my own mam-
ma's voice on the veranda. ' Excuse me,
Imogene, but is my little Fairy here? I
never knew her to stay away from me so
long, although she and Skippum both came
to my room some hours ago and scolded
loud and long about the iceman.'

I bounded into her arms- -it seemed so
good, after the strange experiences of the
afternoon. I had been so excited with help-
ing Skippum that I had forgotten it was
growing late.

Then mamma listened, with wondering

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

eyes, to Imogene's story of the robbery in
her own and Inez's absence from the house
— the loss of the diamonds and the finding
of the scattered pieces ; but the suspicions of
the detective were withheld, out of a sense
of justice to the poor girl.

And she ended with begging mamma to
let Inez stay for a few days at the big white
house and assist in the kitchen. ' Only/1
she added, 'I would like her to sleep over
here in the cottage, just to have an eye to
its safety. She says she isn't a whit afraid,
and it will help me so much, Stella. I need
a change dreadfully, only I can't afford to
lose such a jewel of a girl.'

And with me right in her arms, kissing
and begging her piteously about something,
she knew not what, in her close attention to
Imogene's story, she promised to take the
naughty Inez in, out of pity for the nervous
young mother. Oh, I was awfully worried
when she answered, Yes, Inez can come";
and when she came, the very next day but
one, I shrank away from her and acted so
strangely that mamma noticed it right away.

The first time mamma left me alone with
the two-faced maid, I crept away under the

129

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

big black-walnut bedstead, where no one
could see me unless they put their heads
way down to the carpet, and there I watched
and waited. Sure enough, Miss Inez stopped
putting the room to rights, and tiptoed over
to mamma's chiffonier, and got her pretty
green velvet jewel-box with the scarlet satin
lining, where lay her lovely little watch
papa gave her as a wedding gift, with its
wreath of black enamel and sparkling ro-
sette of diamonds on the center of the case,
and her beautiful Tuscan gold bracelets,
with green-and-gold enameled birds of para-
dise on the clasps, that papa gave her on
the thirteenth anniversary of that same day,
and many other precious things, nearly all
his gifts.

The brazen Inez put on the pretty watch
by its long, soft chain, and clasped the
yellowT-gold bracelets around her wrists,
then waved her round white arms above her
head to catch their fine effect. I could see
her plainly, with my little chin lying close
on the floor.

If Skippum had been there too I might
have had courage to rush out and bark, but
I was all alone in the great house with the
130

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

dishonest girl. Still I determined, if I saw
her starting to put dear mamma's precious
gifts into her deep, deep pocket, I would
fly out and fight for them, tooth and nail.
Luckily the door-bell rang out sharply just
that moment, the guilty Inez started as
though it had been a thunder-clap, and
hustled the shining jewels back into the box
and started to answer the bell.

I breathed freer, but I shook and trem-
bled with excitement and fear; and when
mamma came in toward night I crept out,
still shaking, and she caught me up quickly,
and found me cold and shivering and in
dread of something.

'There is something going wrong in this
house, Aleck. I never found little Fairy
hiding away so before. I fear that Inez
isn't kind to her in my absence. I don't
feel just satisfied about this whole affair,
anyway; I wish I hadn't promised Imogene
to keep her, and I believe I will apologize
and ask her to take her with her, since she
values her so highly. There was one thing
that struck me so curiously yesterday.
You remember that, when Inez waited on
us at dinner, she had on the loveliest white

131

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

dress, with the yoke and sleeves all hand-

i/

made riekraek, and the skirt with insertion
of the same, half wray up, and that beautiful
cherry sash of watered gros-grain ? Well,
when Imogene missed her train and drove
back unexpectedly to wait with me, Inez
was nowhere to be found, although she
heard me exclaim that Imogene was coming
up the walk, and request that the table be
relaid for a lunch for her. And wrhen she
came at last she was in a shabby old black
dress, and explained that she had upset the
ice-pan and drenched herself to the skin, and
had to rush and change her dress ; but, some
way or other, it happening just as Imo-
gene appeared so unexpectedly set me to
thinking. '

Mamma rose with this, still holding me
in her arms, and took out her jewrel-box,
she hardly knew why. Could it be, I was
thinking so hard about it and trying to tell
her, I made her think, too ? Maybe so,
we little dogs can read people's thoughts
like a book, - why can't they read ours,
sometimes ?

She sat down and opened it on her knee,
and I peeped in and nosed over the shining

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

bracelets, for I could smell the naughty
Inez's ringers on them still.

'Pears to me somebody's been trying on
my bracelets. I always leave them clasped
around the little satin forms, to keep the
delicate gold braid in shape,'' she said,
frowning slightly, when she saw they were
unclasped.

How I wished I had some way to warn
her. I kissed the watch and bracelets, and
I kissed her face and eyes, and I looked over
to the mirror and barked, a little booing
bark.

'This dog has seen somebody at this
jewel-case, Aleck," cried mamma quickly,
6 and it's got some connection with her being
so frightened and trembling when I came
in to-night. I'm going to lock it right in
the safe this very minute. You know I
don't wear these things so very much, I am
so busy.': And suiting the action to the
word, mamma laid me on her pillow, with
a gentle caress, and walked over to a great
big iron box, most as tall as she was, that
stood behind a drapery in the corner, and
I heard the heavy iron doors open and then
shut with a bang — the jewel-box was safe.

133

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

The very next morning, when the prying
Inez tiptoed to mamma's chiffonier, all
dressed, this time to make her escape to
town in the absence of the family, she saw
only emptiness where the jewel-box had
stood. She stood stock still, with a startled,
half-evil look in her glittering black eyes,
which seemed to grow bigger as she whis-
pered :

'Suspected! Suspected, ha-ha!' And
then she muttered to herself, "I'll take the
next train, I guess.' And so she did, but
the little sharp-nosed man was on that train,
too, and he never lost sight of her. I heard
him tell mamma afterwards how he shad-
owed her all that day from place to place,
and when night fell how she issued forth,
arrayed, like the Queen of Sheba, in Imo-
gene's diamonds and mamma's laces. Then
he thought the hour was ripe, and he walked
quietly up to her with another officer and
said:

'Miss Inez, you'll not be surprised to
hear that you are my prisoner.'

When she tried to slap and scratch at him
in her sudden rage, the other officer snapped
a rough pair of iron bracelets on top of all

134

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

her borrowed jewels. Then poor vain, fool-
ish Inez began to realize she was indeed a
prisoner. She turned deathly pale at first,
then she arose and surveyed herself a long
time in the big mirror of the miserable
saloon where they had tracked her, turning
around and around, surveying her beautiful
face and form, tricked out in all its stolen
plumage, as though it was the last reflection
she would ever behold, then gave herself up
to the stern hand of the law.

She was quickly stripped of her borrowed
splendor, and the deep, deep pocket, where
little Skippum and I had witnessed the en-
gulfing of the scarlet jewel-bag, soon gave
up its secret. All the lost jewels were found.

Mamma had discovered the flight of Inez
at noon that day, and neither she nor papa
were surprised when the door-bell rang and
I flew down the stairway, barking in my
shrillest soprano, for I had been alertly sus-
picious all day. Though it was late at night
the little sharp-nosed man with the keen
eyes entered, and said:

'Madam, I have to inform you that I
have your quondam maid in the lock-up,
and you will be glad to know that the great

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and mysterious burglary is explained the
lost diamonds are recovered. And I must
tell you, right now, that this little Fairy of
yours, and her black-and-tan crony, put me
on the right scent at the very outset.' He
stooped and patted me approvingly.

' More than that the little darling
saved me the purloining, if not the utter loss,
of my own jewels by her timely warning.'
rejoined mamma. And she recounted my
disturbed and trembling state whenever she
left me alone with Inez, and the scene, the
night before, which led to the locking up of
her jewels.

'But, madam, I fear she has much of
value in her possession which belongs to you
in spite of your precautions. We could see,
and in fact she admitted, as much; will you
not go and examine her trunk at the station-
house ? '

'No," answered mamma, 'I shall prefer
no charge against the poor girl, whatever I
find missing, for, beside unpleasant pub-
licity, I feel to blame that, against my own
intuitions and better judgment, I re-sub-
jected her to temptation too strong for her
weak nature.
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

"We all do wrong in the thoughtless prac-
tice of throwing suddenly upon some coun-
try girl, out of a home of poverty and limi-
tations, the careless charge of costly jewels
and finery, and even leave our open purses
lying about, with contents unnoted. We
quite forget that what to us, with our un-
limited ability to purchase, possess and
wear, is no temptation whatever, may be
beyond their strength to resist. We must
not condemn them from our own stand-
point, without due pity.

"No, you may say to the poor creature
that I shall prefer no charge; she has, I find,
in her possession three long antique gold
chains, heirlooms and keepsakes, very dear
to me because they were worn by friends no
longer here, which, tell her, I hope she will
have the heart to restore to me, since I leave
her free.'

After many weeks the three gold chains
were restored, for, after many vain denials,
they were found quilted in the prison garb
of the unhappy girl. For, alas, poor Inez!
to prison she had to go, despite mamma's
leniency and the surprise and sorrow of
Skippum's mistress when she found that

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

the discovery had fallen where she least
expected. Theft after theft accumulated,
and they told sorrowfully at last how the
heavy iron doors clanged gloomily over all
her youth and beauty, the same as the iron
doors had clanged over mamma's jewels —
but not to protect nor to save.

138

CHAPTER IX

..

THIS dog only, waited on,
Knowing that when light is gone,

Love remains for shining.
This dog only, crept and crept
Next a languid cheek that slept,

Sharing in the shadow."

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

AND now a big and happy change
came into my life. Papa and mam-
ma made themselves a beautiful
home on an island by the sea. They took
me with them as they paddled back and forth
during its building, and I learned to love a
boat as well as I did a horse. I would sit
for hours in the rocking rowboat, when it was
anchored, and play I was sailing; and al-

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

though I didn't love the feeling of the cold
water very well, for I wasn't a water-dog, still
I would wade out to the boats and jump
aboard.

I would play around, so happy, all day,
because I could be with them on the quiet

,

island, and watch the white sea-gulls and

swift kingfishers wheel and dart above the

waves, and listen to the host of singing birds

that gathered in the shady green trees, or

twittered around me in the bright sunshine.

Papa nor mamma would not let a single

hunter come on the island, and the seabirds

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and songsters soon found they were safe
there. Even the lovely gray herons, al-
though they are so shy and timid, came and

waded in the tall marsh grass on the shore,
stalking through the shallow water with
slow and stately tread, like noiseless gray
shadows at sundown, craning their long

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

necks and turning their black-crested heads
to listen to every sound.

The cunning striped squirrels would run
right past me, in and out the stable door,
their little cheeks all puffed out with the
corn papa left open on purpose for them, as
they scurried away to hide it in their little
homes for winter.

I watched the towers of the island home
builded stone by stone, and finally the
great cozy fireplace of stone and sea-shells,
and my little heart was glad, because some-
thing told me that I could be with those who
loved me so dearly more I would not
have to wait alone till nightfall, as I had in
the city home, and hear that word ' office '
so much. There was no such thing as an
office on the restful island. It was one long,
bright summer dream of sunshine, and soft
breezes off the sea, singing birds, perfume
of roses and lilies, and sounds of sweet music
at eventide.

They brought that same dear old lady we
called 'Grandma' to this new home, and
it seemed to give her ne\v life and strength.
She, too, had kind blue eyes and soft white
hair, and her face was young, like mamma's;

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

they used to bring her great armloads of
the flowers, and she would fix such lovely
bouquets for all the rooms.

Grandma loved the birds and flowers, and
in her city home she used to feed the poor
little sparrows every morning.

I used to sit on grandma's knee and listen
to papa and the young folks singing at
evening.

I loved music dearly, but I never tried to
sing too, as some little dogs do, but when
they sang mamma's song, as they called
it,-

"There is an Island blest, in the shelter of the bay,
Where weary souls may rest, and drive dull care
away;

An Isle, like Venus born, tossed upward by the

sea,-
No art can e'er adorn its tree-clad hills for me ! '

with all the gay and happy guests ap-
plauding, as the song went on to tell of the
island eagle and his nest, the white sea-gulls,
the youth-renewing draughts from Hebe's
spring, the purple, wine, and gold of the
sunsets o'er the sea, ' like the Golden Gates
ajar,': - all the things I had learned that
they watched and loved in our dear island

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

home, - I longed for a voice to join in the
sweet refrain, but could only look from one
face to the other, with my singing soul
shining out of my big brown eyes.

I said I never burst out singing as some
Iktle dogs do, but there was one sweet old
piano piece that made my little heart ache
so. And, no matter where in the house I
was, mamma couldn't play a line before she
heard me coming, sobbing and pleading for
her to stop. I would fly up to the piano and
try to hold her hands from making the voices
sing, but it was her right hand, way up
among the crying voices, that I tried hardest
to hold; and sometimes I would twine my
little fore paws so tight around her plump
arm, and pull so hard, jumping up and
trying to kiss her face, that she would have
to stop, and sometimes say:

'Fairy, Fairy, you are hurting mamma."

And I would leap up in her lap, and try
to divert her from beginning again by
twining my little fore arms around her neck,
and pressing my satiny cheeks, first over one
eye and then the other, so she could not see.

They all wondered what made me feel
so at this one tune when I enjoyed all
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

the rest. I couldn't tell myself, only it
seemed some way as though I had heard it
in some sad dream, years and years ago,
when my heart was aching, and I tried so
hard to remember when and where.

But usually I sat so still mamma would

let me come to most everything in the big
reception room- -the musicales, the art clubs,
and the literaries, as they call them; and the
ladies would always take time to give me a
caress and call me a little beauty. Mamma
used to say, ' Oh, how blessed it would be if
every forsaken little child, every neglected,
lonely heart, of dog or human, could only

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

grow in grace in this air of perpetual love
and approval!'

I even attended my cousin Elsie's wed-
ding and wore a great cream-white double
bow of ribbon, which just matched my ivory
neck and breast, and set forth my tawny
eyes and ears and golden-brown shoulder-
cape.

When I saw the company giving their
hands to the bride and groom, I ran too, and
stood before them. Cousin Elsie stooped
down, in all her lovely lace and flowers and
long fleecy veil, that fell over me, while she
patted me and said, 'Dear, dear little
Fairy!' I thought there was a little quiver
in her voice, and I kissed her white-gloved
hand, while the other guests smiled.

Four long, bright summers glided away,
and dear grandma was with us; but the last
summer she could not wander around the
lovely island with me any longer. Her steps
grew feebler and her white head bowed
lower. Still, she was always cheery and
smiling; and when mamma would awake in
the rosy sunrise, and go to her room with a
cup of hot milk, I would patter along after
and jump on the bed and kiss her thin,
146

..

Cousin Elsie stooped down, in all her lovely lace
and flowers and long, fleecy veil"

THE NLW Y
PUBLIC LTUAP

ASTO

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

white hand, to say 'good-morning.' She
would look up and smile so sweetly on
mamma, and say:

'My poor, dear "child! you must not
worry so much:about me; I don't suffer one
bit of pain, and if I lie awake, I have such
pleasant dreams of my childhood. Clearer
and clearer things come back to me that
happened almost eighty years ago - and for
this very reason we can't make childhood too
happy.

4 1 was thinking this very morning how,
when I was a little tot, not more than three
years old, I got in the grain-room with my
little curly-headed brother, Samuel, and wre
dipped our chubby hands into the great bins
of oats and barley and corn, and tossed the
grain back and forth in showers over each
other, till the whole floor was strewn with
a hopeless mixture. We never thought how
naughty we were, until the door opened and
our father, over six feet and seven inches
tall in his stocking feet, stood on the thresh-
old, looking at us. I kno\v now, better
than I could then, what a handsome man
he was; I can see just as plain this minute as
I could then his high, white forehead and

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

fine brown hair curling around it, and his
kind blue eyes, as he stood there, never
speaking a word, but looking so grieved and
sad. Our fun was all over that moment;
we stood in the midst of the mischief we had
wrought, two little, guilty culprits with
downcast heads.

Then he called us, trembling, to him,
and pointed to all the ruined grain and told
us how hard he had worked, ploughing,
sowing and reaping, and winnowing, in the
heat and in the cold, to bring it all there,
nicely stored for the winter's use. Long
before he had ended, we were wailing pit-
eously in our pain and sorrowT at what we
had done.

' I can see now why he did not punish us ;
he saw we were punished enough already.
Dear father! He had to go and leave his
flock of eight little children when I was only
eight years old and sister Minerva, the
eldest, only ten," grandma would add with
a sigh.

One funny thing happened that summer,

that made grandma and all of them laugh.

One hot August evening the sky grew black

as ink, and the wind whistled around the

150

..

We dipped our chubby hands into the great bins.'

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

stone tower in mamma's room when we went
to bed. I had never been afraid in a storm,
so I went to sleep with the rest, - my little
chin in papa's hand, - to the sound of the
swaying oak-trees and the waves plashing
on the shore. But suddenly, at midnight, I
was startled wide awake by a blue glare of
flashing light, which showed the sea churned
into white foam, and the salt spray, lifted
by the fierce wind, driven straight in at the
open window, followed by the rattle and
crash of hailstones, that came dashing
across the chamber floor; while over all was
a heavy rumble and roar that jarred the
great house. I would not have been afraid,
even then, only mamma flew so quickly
from room to room to secure the windows.
She went to cousin Elsie's room and said:

' Elsie, you are sleeping right under the
tall flag-staff, and as you are a little timid
anyway, perhaps you had better go to
grandma's room and lie down with her on
her old-fashioned feather-bed, which they
call a safeguard in a tempest.'3

No sooner did I hear the words 'grand-
ma's room " and " feather-bed," every word
of which I understood as well as any little

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

girl five years old could have done, than
I ran trembling through the dark corridor
and plunged under the blankets, to the very
foot of grandma's bed.

I heard grandma say, so soothingly, to
cousin Elsie:

"There is nothing to fear, my child; our
Heavenly Father, who marks the sparrow's
fall, is watching over us, and He will not call
us till our work here is finished.'

The next morning the sunlight gilded the
dancing waters of the bay and the glistening
dewdrops in the oaks and pines; the lilies
around Hebe's fountain were opening their
great golden hearts of perfume. No trace
of the wild, dark storm could be seen - was
it all a dream? No, for they all laughed
and laughed at breakfast, when grandma
told of her little panic-stricken visitant of
the night, who had heard and obeyed so
promptly the order to take refuge in her
feather-bed: and all that summer, when I
saw that flashing light and heard even the
distant growl in the sky, I ran as fast as my
little feet would carry me and buried myself
in this ark of refuge.

Poor, dear grandma! The next summer
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

I went again and again to her silent room,
with its lovely great window, which was

* •*

built expressly for her to look out upon the
whole sweep of the beautiful bay, and 1
would peer at the unpressed pillow, then go

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and put my little fore paws on the arm of
her vacant chair, and look with my great
inquiring eyes in mamma's face, till the
sudden tears would dim her sight; for she
was thinking how in the drear March days
the Father's call had come grandma's
work was well done.

Mamma seemed sadder that summer,
and I knew it better than any one else. I

V

used to creep close to her heart when we
were alone and lay my little head softly
against one cheek and then the other, over
and over, to tell her how I loved her, and
how sorry I was for her. We would sit that
way together and watch the great red sun
go down into the sea, and away off in the
sky-country she said we could see a brighter
land, through golden gates, with purple
waves and rose-lit sails and beauteous isles
of eternal rest, and the changing forms of
'many mansions.'

And mamma pondered in her heart and
would repeat the sweet, comforting words
dear grandma had spoken in that chill
March morning, while the Angel of Parting
waited by the hearth-stone. She could hear
again the sweet, tremulous voice repeating:
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

"'In my Father's house are many man-
sions; if it were not so, I would have told
you; I go to prepare a place for you, that
where I am, there ye may be also. '

She said hers was the steadfast faith that
had lighted her feet for over eighty years,
even down to the brink of the silent river,

and mamma recalled how often in childhood
she had heard grandma say:

" Our loving Christ will do His work well;
we can trust Him for that; we shall meet
and know our true friends there; we shall
be made as happy as we are capable of being,
but we must put selfishness out of our hearts;
and if beautiful homes, and trees, and flow-
ers, and singing birds, and horses, and dogs,
and household pets are necessary to our full

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

happiness here, the}7 may be there, in glori-
fied form. He will leave nothing lacking in
His promised work of preparing a home for
His children wrho love Him.

158

CHAPTER X

I HOPE that yet some happy days

We'll capture, you and I,
And golden stables shall be yours,

In Heaven, by and by."

WILL CARLETON. (By Permission.)

I

"A HE next summer papa thought that
the faithful old bay mare, Nellie,
had done work enough to earn a
rest in her old age, so he sent her to lead a
free and easy life on grandma's old ancestral
homestead — to roam and graze in the broad
green fields by the pleasant streams, and
amble, now and then, to the country church
and store and post-office for gentle exercise.
He said that no horse of his, who had been
a faithful, loving member of the family as old
Nellie had been, and been intrusted for
years with the safety of all, should ever be
sold off to suffer to death by inches
among heartless buyers who were bound to
get the last dollar out of her.

A couple of years before papa had brought

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

home a tall, long, chestnut mare, named
Dora Dutton, to relieve old Nellie of most of
the carriage-driving. Mamma used to laugh
and say Dora must be half camel, she was
so docile and homely. But, when occasion
required, she could throw out her great long
fore legs in fine style and make the carriage

fairly spin. She looked really handsome
when she struck this flying gait - I thought
so, anywray, as I sat proudly on the seat be-
side papa.

What a proud day it was for me when
they brought home to the island a hand-
some chestnut mate for Dora, and named
him Don, and with him a brand-new russet-
lined carriage. I took the very first ride be-
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

hind the pair, all in their new harness
and white collars and brown-tasseled fly-
nets.

Don was only a big, overgrown colt, papa
said — only five years old ; but he watched
Dora, and tried to do just as she did, and
they made a gentle, handsome pair on the
road. When a boy on a bicycle darted by,
an automobile or, worst of all, a screaming
steam-engine with the roaring train went
thundering past, Don trembled and crouched
at first. But when he saw his mate all
calm and fearless, he gained courage and
stood bravely beside her, his sensitive ears
pointing nervously, listening first to the
hissing steam of the engine, which seemed
like a great fiery dragon to him, then back,
to catch papa's encouraging words: ' : Whoa,
Donnie; its a-1-1 right, Donnie; see, Dora
don't mind — that's a good boy!' And so
he kindly taught him, till he was as brave
and gentle as she.

Once, when the horse-doctor came to file
Dora's teeth, where they had become sharp
and cut against her cheeks, so she could not
eat well, Don pushed up and stuck his nose
in the doctor's face and opened his mouth,

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

to try to tell him to do the same to him.
Papa laughed and said:

4 Give him a little dose of it, doctor, and
see how he likes it.' But Don stood still
and never winced at the rasping file, he was
so anxious to share everything with Dora.

I was dreadfully worried, for I loved the

«/

horses so. I darted suddenly up and nipped
the horse-doctor on the calf of the leg, just
enough to let him know there was somebody
there to defend them if he went too far.
I made him jump, and he looked down
quickly, but only laughed when he saw me
showing my little white teeth at him, and
said:

' What do you s'pose a little mite like you
can do about it ? You can't scare anybody

- shall I fix your little pin-points ? ' ' and he
made a motion with his file toward my nose.

Then I barked and scolded fearfully at
him, for my little heart felt big and strong
as a giant's, with love and care, and I scared
him too, for he put away his pokey old iron
and said, They are all right now,' and
away he rode.

Once before, in the city home, when
mamma had hurt her shoulder by a fall on

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

the stairs and papa hurried in with a strange
doctor, I sprang on the pillow beside her
and showed my pearly teeth, trying to growl
like a big bulldog. And when the strange
doctor began to pull her poor hurt arm
about, I could see she was in great pain, so
I leaped upon his hands and tried to pull
them away with my sharp teeth and claws,
and papa had to take me out of the room.
But I screamed and scolded at the door with
all my little might; and the first time the
maid went through to wait upon them, I
squeezed in after her and flew upon the bed
again. But mamma was laughing then,
and gathered me close in her well arm and
called me her little sweetheart. The doctor
was looking at papa and saying, You
heard that shoulder go into the socket with
a snap -it's all right now!'

I knew what the last four words meant,
and I fell to kissing mamma with all my
might, I was so glad to see her safe and the
color coming back in her cheeks again.
The doctor had big black eyes and a black
mustache and I thought he looked like a
dangerous man; but when he patted my
head and said;

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

t h L 1

Sonic dogs know more than some men, '
and I heard all talking together so pleas-
antly, I felt less worried. Still, I watched
him sharply and scarcely winked till he went
away.

But near neighbor to our island home was
a good doctor whom I learned to love dearly,
he was so kind to all little helpless things.
He had been a great surgeon once, in a big
city far away, and had lost his health work-
ing so hard among the poor people in the
hospitals and going without his sleep. He
became so ill they did not know as he would
live to get here, and they had to bring him
slowly, laid on a litter, down here to the
beautiful bright sea. They carried him
aboard his own boat, the Nhita, and laid
him in the fresh air and sunshine, with the
great white sail flapping over him. He be-
gan to drink in life and health, - slowly at
first, but surely, and aunt Mary, who
lived right aboard the yacht with him, and
nursed him, and called no lot hard could
he be spared to her, began to hope, as the
summer days drifted slowly by and he began
to have strength to sail the boat up and down
the lovely bay, or to go ashore among the
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

i

wooded hills that overhung the sea, to select
some beautiful spot for a home, in this
balmy, health-giving air.

Luckily, they found the loveliest crest of
hills, covered with pines and cedars, right
next my island home, and aunt Mary called
it " Cedar-crest.

They commenced to build their home just
where they looked over to the red bridge,
where we drove across with Don and Dora.
To the right was the island with its lovely
winding Current River, a blue arm of the
sea separating it from a smaller island which
lay before them; off to the left was a pretty
village of summer cottages and an old-time

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

wharf, with its anchored fleet, or flock of
white sails scudding out to the broad ex-
panse of sea and sky beyond, fringed on
either side with jutting spurs of pine-clad
hills. I knew this dear home well later, but
neither family guessed, when these two
homes were finished, how close they would
grow to each other.

166

CHAPTER XI

' HE who gave thee being did not frame
The mystery of life to be the sport
Of merciless man. There is another world!
For all that live and move, — a better one,
Where the proud bipeds, who would fain confine
Infinite goodness to the little bounds
Of their own charity, may envy thee."

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

ONE fall, they took me with them to
a great city and a big house, where
lots of strangers seemed to live to-
gether. We did not climb the stairs, but
rode up in a cushioned box that went
straight up inside an iron cage. Mamma
said, before we got out of the carriage:

4 1 shall keep little Fairy under my cloak,
for maybe the other people in the house
may take a notion against a dog, but they
will never know it when she is once in my
room, she is such a quiet little thing.' So
I curled all out of sight under her cloak till
she got into her parlors. Then she put me
down, and I was so pleased to see the rugs

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and pictures and big, soft arm-chairs, I
knew had come from my old city home, I
waggled and skipped about, all over every-
thing. I felt so big and proud, I said:

What is the use of hiding under mam-
ma's cloak, or anywhere else? I'll go right
out now and tell that big man who runs that
funny riding-box that I'm not one bit afraid
of him.'

So I wiggled out through the door, past
the bags the hackman was passing in, and
rushed right up to the cage, just as a lady
and a little boy were flying up in the box.
I spatted my feet on the hard oak floor and
sung out in my high singing key, with my
tail wagging to give emphasis, same as I
did to the 'monkey-man," as I called him,
when he came to the Island.

I always knew the music of the " monkey-
man,' no matter how distant the sound. I
was wild with excitement, and rushed to see
the funny little hairy man, with his bright-
colored coat and cap, who danced on the box
of music, or climbed his master's shoulder
and caught the pennies we threw.

Now when mamma heard my little voice
in the hall, she came out quickly and caught
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

me up in her arms. I knew I had been
naughty and stopped singing right away,
but mamma had caught sight of another
little grizzly dog, with a mop of hair over his
eyes, like little Frowzelly, so she knew I was
not the only one in the house.

Finally she was much puzzled to see the
same little boy riding up and down from
day to day, and week to week, with many
different dogs, from tiny terriers and poodles
to great noble Newfoundlands and St. Ber-
nards. But upon inquiry she was delighted
to find that the dear little fellow belonged to
what he called "The Band of Mercy."

And he was pledged to be kind to all
helpless creatures. He was not contented
with that alone, but went out in the great
city, and wherever he found a poor lost dog,
large or small, he brought it home with him,
and fed it and cared for it, then took it to
a home which noble hearts had founded,
where these lost pets could be sheltered till
they could be recovered by those who anx-
iously sought them, or find other kind hearts
to take them in.

Mamma used to say, :What a dear little
boy, and what a noble work he is doing!

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

He is sure to grow up a great and good man,
lie thinks so much more of saving these poor
little dogs than he does of his play. The
world will know and bless his name some
day, for his heart will grow big with pity for
all God's creation. '

Papa got the cutest thing that winter,
a 'magic lantern' he called it, that
would make little pictures into great big
real ones, all over the big sheet mamma
would hang up across the whole end of the
parlor. And stormy winter evenings they
would stay home with me, and invite the
little life-saver boy and his kind mamma,
and other friends from other parts of the big
house. And the little boy and I just held
our breath, as I sat in the chair beside him
and one of his little foundlings, to see the
beautiful great pictures papa made.

I thought they were truly real, and when
it was all dark in the great parlor, and out
of the black darkness we could see the lovely
big Scotch collie dog crying all alone beside
his dear master who never could wake any
more to pat his silky head, or give him a
kind word, or buckle on his own sword, or
don his fallen plume, for he couldn't feel
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

the touch of that gentle paw above his
breast, - 1 felt so sorry I cried out too,
partly because all the rest were so sad and
still. I could feel their tears in the dark,
and the little life-saver boy wTas sobbing
softly too, so mamma had to soothe us.
She called the poor dear doggie 'Land-
seer's Only Mourner,'1 but all the little dogs
in the world ought to w^eep for such a friend
to their kind, who can never wake any more.
Then the taper burned awray out, and the
collie was crying in the black dark, and his
master's sleep grew deeper and deeper.

Then, all at once, a red light blazed out
of a blacksmith's forge, and a big dappled-
red horse, who looked just like dear old
Nellie, stood under the black cobwebbed
roof, by the anvil, wTith her head turned
around towards us, and the great burly man
with his leather apron, who had grabbed up
her slender hind foot, was just going to rap
it writh a hammer. She was saying:

'Handle me with care, old fellow, or
you'll worry this dear dog friend of mine,
and you might come to grief.' And she
lay back her delicate ears, in gentle
warning.

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

And there he was, sure enough ! - - one of
the most worried, anxious-looking doggies,
sitting dangerously close behind the smith,
and anxiously watching :The Shoeing of
the Bay Mare.' He never winked, he
watched his every move so closely for fear
he would drive a nail too deep, or burn her
faithful foot with a red-hot shoe; but I
bow-wowed right out loud at him, for I
thought it was old Nellie, and mamma had
to hush me.

Then grand old castle walls and stone
towers and creeping ivy came out through
the dusky beams and the red light of the
forge, and the saddest steed we ever saw
stood in the castle yard. He hung his head
so low and crouched as if to pray the earth
to open and take him in. He couldn't
speak in words, but he told us just the same:
'My heart is breaking for him and for
her, for I come back riderless.' Then we
looked up and saw that another heart was
breaking too, for a lovely lady on the bal-
cony above, waiting to meet somebody she
loved, was reeling backward, fainting, at
sight of the 'Empty Saddle.'

Then the poor mourning steed's head
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

sank lower and lower - he melted away ;
the blanching face of the lovely lady faded
into a desolate plain of trampled snow, dap-
pled with strangest blood-spots, and men
lay there sleeping, cold and white and still.
Could they have put each other to sleep ?

Nobody was awake, only one poor lonely
charger, whose fallen master still clasped
the rein in his white fingers. The chill win-
ter winds tossed the steed's snow-white
mane over his drooping head that hung so
sorrowfully near the hand he loved. He
might have torn his rein from the light clasp
and flown to warmth and safety, but no!
he would stand on, in the falling night and
gathering snow, faithful to that fallen mas-
ter's lightest touch, till he too sank to sleep,
starving, freezing, * Forgotten. '

Oh, how our hearts ached for him, and
mamma said he was only one of thousands
of faithful horses, suffering the wars and
woes of men, with never a voice to plead
for them - only when some master-hand,
like Landseer, Bonheur, Waller, Noble, and
others like them, revealed in scenes like
these their more than human devotion.

And mamma went on to say, while the

173

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

trampled snow-field, with its pale-faced
sleepers and white, waiting steed, with
wind-blown mane, faded like mist from our
sight :

These great painters have drawn the
spirit of their pictures from the noble, loving
nature of the animals they delineate and
their own insight into them, and our homage
to their work .is in due proportion to our
own insight into and acquaintance with these
faithful lives God has placed in our keeping,
to aid and comfort us. Neither are they
ours alone they belong to Him, and He
will require them at our hands, the same as
our fellow man's.'1

I had never seen any of these kind men
mamma was talking about; they had never
been down to our island; but now I had
seen some of their noble horses and dogs,
who could talk and cry just like people, I
put all she told us about them into my little
story.

174

CHAPTER XII

:WHEN thoughts recall the past,
His eyes are on me cast,

I know that he feels, what my breaking heart
would say;

Although he cannot speak
I'll vainly, vainly seek
A better friend than old dog Tray."

STEPHEN COLLINS FOSTER.

I

"A HE very next day our dear doctor
and aunt Mary came from Cedar-
crest to visit us in the city, and I
was so happy when all four sat down in the
warm, sunny bay with me. They told how
their old dog, Sportum, had staid home to
take care of the "house," as they told him,
and Dannie, the man, would come every day
to feed him and Kitty, the horse. I learned
to know and love old Sportum very dearly
afterwards.

The next morning we found everything
white with the falling snow, and we all had
to stay in. Mamma remarked that I had

175

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

outgrown my little blue-and-gray blanket,
and aunt Mary said at once:

' Oh, how I wish you had the stuff for a
new one, now we are snow-bound; what a
nice chance it would be for me to make it. '

'I shall take you at your word, aunt
Mary,'! said mamma, 'for I have got the
loveliest things to make it, which I bought
at Christmas only she is such a little
witch to fit anything to, I am afraid you will
find it a big undertaking.'

' Oh no, it will be lots of fun," said aunt
Mary, as she brought out a small cutting-
table from a corner and set it up in the
center of the floor. 'Aunt Mary' was the
pet name she called herself to me, and my
little heart was soon captivated with her
laughing brown eyes and cheery way. She
never put me off her lap, even when she was
handling silk floss or fine embroidery or
lace, and now when she called, ' Come here,
little Fairy, and let aunt Mary make you a
lovely new blanket,'1 I jumped gaily on the
cutting-table and stood up before her, wag-
ging my tail, and turning back my slender
head and neck to kiss her, and twisting my
little body into a dozen shapes, as she started
176*

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

to fit me to some light lining cotton, just to
get a good pattern. She tried on my old
blanket to see where it was too short and too
tight, and where I needed extra thickness to
protect my delicate breast from the winter's
cold.

I understood the whole thing just as well
as any little child could have done, and I
tried to stand still, only I felt so grateful to
my sweet cloak-maker I had to bob around
to kiss her every moment, and my little eel-
like figure was in a score of shapes. But
finally mamma declared that aunt Mary had
a splendid fit, and the lovely new materials

- a seal-brown corduroy, with an old-gold
satin lining, some fluffy brown fur to trim it
around the neck, and some cunning gilt
buttons to close and trim it double-breasted

-were all laid out on the table. I kissed
everything as aunt Mary held it up to ad-
mire, and when they put me down on the
carpet, while they spread the new pattern
on the velvet, I stood up and watched, with
my little fore paws on the edge of the cutting-
table, I was so pleased and excited.

I stuck tight to aunt Mary every minute,
nestling in her lap all the time she was bind-

177

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

ing the pretty blanket and making the cun-
ning buttonholes for the little gilt buttons.
Whenever she put it out of her hands to go
to lunch or dinner, she found me lying on it,
needle and all, on her return, I was so afraid
something would run away with it.

When it was nearly finished, and she tried
it on to see just where to set the buttons, I
fairly swaggered about the room, holding
my pretty head high above the fluffy fur
collar, bridling it from side to side, and
prancing and curveting, same as I had seen
Don and Dora do when papa said they felt
fine as a fiddle. It was a long time before I
could steady down enough to let aunt Mary
take it off, to set the finishing stitches, and
they had a good laugh at my proud little
antics.

The doctor called me over to the bay
window and showed me a big, blue-coated
man, with shiny buttons, walking slowly
past, and said:

"Does Fairy see that g-r-e-a-t - b-i-g
policeman? He'll go for those bad boys
that s-t-e-a-1 little dogs!'

I swelled up my little throat and barked
a big "Bow-wow-wow!' that I thought
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

sounded like an awfully big dog, and spatted
on the window glass at him, and leaped
about on my little hind feet, to show how I
would like to take a hand in some great
melee between little dogs and bad men and
boys. I had caught at part of the idea, but
was mixed as to the exact part of the
'policeman,'' as appeared, greatly to
the doctor's amusement,

a half-hour ^^ later.

When the --cli new blan-

ket was ^BY completed

I was du- M ly arrayed

in it, and ' ', J-~fJl| started out

with the doctor and

papa for a little walk.

The storm had cleared away,

and the sun shone out over the banks of
snow shoveled from the sidewalks. I felt
so proud and self-conscious in my new coat,
and big blue satin bow, and blue velvet collar,
all set around with sparkling blue stones, and
tinkling bells in the shape of golden acorns,
that my feet could scarcely touch the side-
walk. Everybody looked and laughed at me ;
I grew happier and prouder every minute, and
longed to do some brave and glorious deed.

179

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

That very moment I caught sight of sev-
eral big, blue-coated men, with brass but-
tons, one of the head ones the very man the
doctor had shown me, coming up the street,
tramp - - tramp - - tramp, - all stepping to-
gether. Quick as a flash I charged down
upon them, as though to arrest their prog-
ress. I fairly screamed at them, and nipped
at their heavy-booted feet, only retreating
step by step to escape their onward march.
The big men didn't look scared, as I thought
they would; instead of that they only
laughed, and the head man said:

'Ho! ho! you little midget, don't eat us
up. What sort of a fur-bearing animal are
you ? ' The whole crowd were much amused
at my bold escapade and my funny look in
my new blanket, set off by my bravado airs.
Papa called me back, and the doctor saw
that I had got a little mixed between his talk
to me of 'policemen,'1 'bad boys,' and
'little dogs," when I attacked these stalwart
guardians of law and order.

I was not willing to have my little blanket

taken off when I got home, but they said I

would be too warm ; so mamma hung it up on

a high peg on the closet door, where I went

180

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and looked at it many times, to see if it was
all safe. Always, when papa took his hat
and cane, as though he were going out, I
rushed and tried to reach it.

One bright spring morning the traveling-
bags were brought in, and I knew in a mo-
ment that we were going to our lovely island ;
for I sniffed inside of them and I could tell
they had been there six months before -
my long, slim nose was very keen. Mamma
was hurrying about and could not notice me
much, till she heard the jingle of my little
bells, and saw me climbing to her dressing-
bureau, trying to reach my little collar with-
out tipping over anything else, for I never
broke anything. She took it down for me,
and I stuck my little head through quickly,
so as to help her. I pawed my dear blanket
down from the hook, but I knew I could not
get it on alone, so I lay down upon it for a
while, hoping she would notice me.

Then I began to shiver and tremble for
fear they were going away without me, so I
ran and climbed into the traveling-bag.
Mamma came soon to pack it, and she said
to papa:

'Just see this dear little thing! She is so

181

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

afraid she sha'nt go;" and she showed him
how still I lay, to let her shut me in the dark
bag. Then she took me out, and I tried to
lift up the corner of the lunch-basket, to
climb in there, so as to be sure to be aboard
somewhere.

Papa said, " Give me poor little Fairy's
blanket; I will put it on her, then she will
know she is going, and rest easy.'

He said his fingers were all thumbs, and I
kissed him so wildly, and waggled my little
body so fast, he had hard work to find the
pretty buttons, but finally we were all ready,
and were soon aboard the rushing train,
flying away down to the sea-side.

I lay good and still on the seat beside
papa, or sat up to see the trees and farm-
houses flying past, or turned around to look
back at the people in the car. The tired
little babies in their mothers' arms would
stop fretting and reach their little hands out
to me I never met a little child who did
not love me and reach out to pat my silky
head with its chubby hands.

As the train got nearer and nearer the
station for our dear island I would fly up,
every time the train-man called out, and lap
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

•

papa on the ear, and then peer anxiously out
of the car-window, for I was so afraid he
would forget to get out at the right place.
But in a few moments we got there; papa

.

.

took the lunch-baskets, I sprang into mam-
ma's arms, and we alighted.

Mamma said, " Let us start right out and
walk, this lovely morning, and let the car-
riage come later with our bags and baskets.

183

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Little Fairy will enjoy it so after being shut
in all winter/ and so we started out.

My little heart fairly bounded for joy.
I raced hither and thither across the road-
way, before the swift barn-swallows that
skimmed so near my head. I could feel the
fanning of their blue-black wings in their
saucy flight around and around me ; and the
little bluebirds swung on the tip-top of the
graceful cedars, singing their sweetest, glad-
dest songs.

Soon a turn in the road, as we emerged
from the woods, brought us in full sight of
our dear Island Haven, with its stone towers
and chimneys rising above the trees on the
high western point of the island, and below
it, against the green wooded bluff, the pretty
Oriental pavilion, on the water's edge, with
its fleet of boats at anchor.

I dashed across the bridge, under which
the rising tide was flowing fast, and up the
high hill ahead of them. Then I waited, for
papa and mamma always stopped a mo-
ment, in the spring coming, to look over the
broad, blue bay, with its green islands, and
before us, near at hand, at the home we
loved so well. Mamma said, 'How sweet
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and restful it all is, after the roar and rattle
and stifling air of the city. Little Fairy is
as glad as we are.'

Then we started down the slight decline,
through the tall cedars and budding su-
machs, toward the house. Just at that mo-
ment the flapping of wings sounded through
the cedars. I heard it first, and stood still,
with my little ears pricked high and one
foot uplifted.

Papa and mamma looked quickly to the
right, and, through the feathery green,
caught sight of what I was staring at with
unblinking eyes.

A great, glossy bird, standing there erect,
with long beak, broad white breast, wings
dappled with brown and black, and a dark
golden-green head and neck, which glistened
in the checkered sunlight.

'Hist!' whispered mamma, stopping
short. 'There's a splendid wild goose.
Don't scare him - let us get a good look at
him.'

He eyed us with great, fiery eyes, and, far
from being scared himself, he made up his
mind to give us a scare. What right had
these people, with that queer-looking little

185

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

four-footed creature, to come on his island,
where he had roosted about all winter, and
strutted around and around on the veran-
da, "monarch of all he surveyed,' like

i/

Robinson Crusoe.

So up he flew with a great rushing of his
wide, strong wings, and a harsh, ' Conk-
conk-conk ! ' through his yellow beak -
and down he swooped, right in our faces.

Papa whacked him with his umbrella, the
only thing he had, and it sounded as though
he was beating a feather-bed. As he landed
in the driveway he started for me with his
sharp beak wide open, his red tongue hissing
and darting out at me.

I thought it, as people say,

"Better far to run away,
And live to fight another day,"

than to give battle to so strange an enemy,
so I started down the hill, fast as my fleet
little feet would carry me, the huge bird,
with flapping wings, half flying, half running
and with outstretched beak, in close pursuit.
Dear mamma, regardless of her own dan-
ger, plucked handfuls of feathers from his
broad back in her efforts to restrain him;
and she gave a sharp cry of fear as he caught
186

/ started down the hill, fast as my fleet little feet
would carry me."

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

the back edge of my little blanket, which
really saved my tender flesh.

At that instant papa got ahead and gave
him such a solid whack with the umbrella
that he turned his attention to him, while

j .^ r-"»

mamma knelt down in tne\driveway and
bowed over me, so the fierce bird, could not
possibly reach me again, -and shielded her
face with her arms. She feared he would
pluck at my beautiful eyes; yet she did not
realize till afterward the great danger we
were all in, for a wild goose will break a
man's arm with one blow from his powerful
wing, so a hunter afterward told us; but
papa gave him such stout battle that he flew
off, conking angrily, into the bay, and we
reached the house in safety.

A few moments later, when mamma went
to set a can of cream on the north piazza,
there was Mr. Goose again, standing on
the door-step and hissing at her. She re-
treated, pell-mell, into the house. Papa
grabbed a new broom out of the kitchen and
went out, and had a regular go-round with
the old fellow, ruffling up his feathers with
a good pummeling, before he took wing and
sailed off into the bay again.

189

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

'I'll teach that goose that I've some
rights around here yet!' he said to mamma,
breathing hard after his sharp tussle. "I
could put an end to his career mighty quick,
but I don't wish to hurt him any more
than to teach him to let us alone.'

'What a strange thing!' said mamma.

'I can see where he has been marching

around the house and island all winter.

He just thinks it belongs to him and we

have no right to be here.'

'I think he is a wild goose the Jacobs
boys, across the bay, tried to tame for what
they call a ' 'coy goose' to call the others, and
I don't wish to hurt him if I can help it,':
said papa.

'No, he is a handsome fellow, and
I'd like to see him around if he would
only be a little more civil/1 said
mamma.

But I kept saying, 'Boo! boo! boo!'
short and sharp I thought he was an
awfully bad goose.

Papa started out again, picking up a fence-
rail as he went, to be ready for Mr. Goose,
should he return to give battle, and walked
up the steep grassy hillside overlooking the
190

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

bay. We ran to the southeast window to
see what would happen.

Sure enough, with great flapping of wings
and loud, threatening cries, up sailed the old
fellow, circling above the hill-top, and mak-
ing a fierce swoop for papa, but he gave him
a settler with the fence-rail that sent him
spinning over the bluff. Only poor papa
lost his balance too, striking out so heavily
with his unwieldly weapon, and, pitching
headlong, slid on his plump stomach half-
way down the hill, over the dry, slippery
grass. He scrambled to his feet pretty
lively, for the old goose was up and on him
again. He saw% too, that he had broken
his watch-chain and torn off his handsome
topaz charm, an old heirloom he cherished,
in his fall. He told mamma afterwards:

'I was beginning to get my dander up, I
can tell you, and I didn't feel quite so careful
of that old goose when I saw him making a
dive to swallow my big topaz. I had got
kind o' riled, sliding down hill on my stom-
ach, with him flapping and conking behind
me.'

He got on his feet just in time to save him-
self, caught up the fence-rail and dealt a

191

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

second swinging blow to the thoroughly
maddened goose, which again retreated to
the water below.

About this time twTo young men, who had
been pulling hastily out in a rowrboat from
the opposite shore, came within speaking
distance, and called out:

'It's time we dispatched that old fellow,
Mr. B- -. We don't want to give our good
neighbors such trouble as this. '

' Oh no ! ' called papa, ' don't shoot him
on my account. I think he and I wrill arrive
at an understanding after a while.'

The two young men were the Jacobs boys,
and this was their * 'coy goose, "as papa had
guessed - old Billy Honks, the neighbors
called him.

Yes, yes. We are bound to end it,'
they called back. ' He lamed another man
all up last week; and broke a dog's leg; and
swooped down on neighbor Ring's old horse,
which ran away and smashed his wagon.
Then he went over and raced 'Squire Eph-
raim's COWTS till they lost every drop o' milk,
and t'other day he sailed over and pulled
half the feathers out our old tame white
goose we got him for a mate. It's high time

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

we put an end to his goings on, before he
half kills somebody.'

'Boys, I beg of you not to shoot! It will
distress Mrs. B- far more than anything
the goose will be likely to do to annoy us. '

One of the brothers had raised his gun to
take aim at the defiant bird, who was sailing
along on the water and giving vent to his
ill-temper in harsh, conking cries, but at
this plea of papa's he lowered the gun again,
looking abashed and puzzled at the awk-
ward predicament he was getting himself
and good neighbors into by his attempt to
tame this wild fowl of the air, since they
would not consent to his death. Just then,
as the boat was rolling around in the strong,
swift eddies, an oar slipped from the row-
lock; the young man made a sudden move
to save it, but in so doing dragged his
weapon across the gunwale - - B ang ! Splash !
A shower of shot ploughed up the water
around old Billy Honks, glancing dan-
gerously near the bluff where papa was
standing.

Now Billy Honks knew, well enough,
what a gun was, and when he saw his best
friends handling one so carelessly as to

193

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

deafen his ears and singe the glossy green
feathers on his proud head, although un-
hurt, his righteous wrath knew no bounds.
He arose majestically above the water, high
in air, with a fierce cry that sounded far out
to sea toward the sunset ; then he descended
toward the fragile craft as if himself shot
out of a catapult, and before the astonished
Jacobs boys could realize that he dared do
such a thing, he struck them a full fifty-
pounder, knocking the shotgun out of their
hands with a whiz into the briny waves,
while the little skiff whirled like a top with
the shock of his savage momentum.

Up rose the indignant goose again, cir-
cling threateningly above them, while they
cowered with upraised oars to ward off a
second onslaught.

Billy Honks peered down with fiery eyes.
He knew he had disarmed his ungrateful
captors, and given them a sound buffeting.
Suddenly, above him, a dim V line dark-
ened the evening sky, and the startled conk
of his wild mates, flying swiftly to north-
ward, reached his keen ear. A new sense
of power and longing filled his breast. He
had called helplessly, for two years, toward
194

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

the sky, for these free rangers to come down
to the little bay where his clipped wings
held him captive; but they were ever wary
of the cruel gunner. Now he would go to
them.

His bosom heaved with a vague longing
for a wider sphere than the little seaside
hamlet. He was weary with belligerent en-
counters with its denizens, biped and quad-
ruped. Why not look down upon the w^orld
at large ? With that he called after the
north-bound flock in a changed voice, and
vaulted higher and higher.

'NowT, Mister, you can see the gratitude
o' that old feller. Our gun is in the bottom
o' the sea - another one o' his confounded
capers. Blame take him! we haven't been
able to get nigh him to clip his wings this
spring, and he doesn't mean we shall,
neither. ' And they gazed indignantly after
Billy Honks, clear cut, with wide-spread
pinions, against the northern glow.

'Now, boys, it isn't so bad as it might
have been, all things considered. You might
have hit old Billy when you didn't mean to,
or me either for that matter, and if you can
dive like ducks, as I've seen you do for a

195

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

boat-mooring in December, I guess you can
bring that gun up at low tide in April. We
can tell, into three feet, of just where it lies.'1

"Yes," they said ruefully, "but 'tisn't
going to do it any good to soak there in salt
water all night; and no knowing what that
infernal goose'll do next.'

"Well, boys, I wouldn't worry about him;
you meant all right. I shall have to say
good-night now, but I'll be out in the gray
of the morning, when the tide is down, to
help you fish for the gun.'

Old Billy Honks was still winging away
to the northward. He had left the familiar
bay, the little island with its castle he had
fondly called his own for months, behind
him. The only soul to share it with him
had been a little brown owl who roosted in
the stone-work of the tower above the en-
trance. She had startled the newcomers
that very day by fluttering wildly down,
with a blind rush, when they slid the bolt in
the door, but they only said, ' Oh, that's the
dear little owl, on guard ; strange we have to
jump so every time we meet her.'

Billy Honks philosophized some to him-
self. Mankind had never shown much love
196

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

for him, nor had he for them. A sense of
injury at their hand stirred in his hot heart.
He was getting a little wing-weary for want
of practice, although he was exultant at the
speed at which he had accomplished his first
mile inland.

For now he looked down upon the long,
straight line of the railroad track, cutting
through the pine and oak woods, and saw
the twinkling lights of the little country
grocery store and post-office combined, over
against the station.

The glowing lamp of the country grocery
store, with its tin reflector, was the spark
that kindled the fuse to his belligerent spirit.
For he knew that many an old adversary of
his made it his headquarters; he had never
been able to fly there till now, but he had
propelled himself by half-winged foot-power
over the forest road to its well-worn door-
sill before, and he knew the village denizens
were gathering there tonight.

Inside, the old standbys were already in
position. ' I tell yer, Uncle Siah, there can't
none o' them ere city chaps boss us round;
I reckon our eye-teeth's cut 'fore they's born.
That idee o' turning out in winter weather

197

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

an' diggin' out the Meetin' -house cellar, free
gratis for nuthin', didn't go down with you'n'
I, did it?' said the first speaker with great
moderation.

'No sir-ee!' responded Uncle Siah. "I
'low that if these summer folks can loaf
round and enjoy theirselves all through the
fine wreather, they've no bizness ter find
fault agin our restin' winters. I own I ain't
in any great teeter for real bone labor, in
season nor out o' season, no more'n they
be. That ere college perfesser thought he'd
said a mighty sharp thing when he hinted
that grocer Locke here had ought ter either
upholster the tops o' his barrels or provide
us leather patches for our breeches. He
ain't in dooty bound ter do nuther one; that's
our own lookout. And as for me, I'll defy
any o' these kid-gloved fellers to git me off
this ere sugar-barrel till I'm good an' ready.
I'll stick on it, winter and summer, too, if I
choose, till I've gro\ved here!'

'So say I!' chimed in Reub Ring as he
beat a lively tattoo on his barrel with his
twisted boot-heels by way of applause, and
crunched a fresh peanut, abstracted with a
sort of back-handed flourish from the gro-
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

cer's diminishing stock, by way of em-
phasis.

! Them's my sentiments I'm right
with yer, boys, and I reckon we can hold the
fort ag'in' the whole posse,' put in Joe Slow,
as he reached forth a gaunt hand for about
the tenth cube of loaf sugar to sweeten his
taste. ' I ain't in the habit o' being dictated
to by nuther man nor beast.'

4 Nor me, nuther, ' grunted Uncle Siah.

The little lame boy on a box in the corner
snickered and shuffled his crutch. He saw
something something that tickled him
immensely, and he knew, as he said to him-
self, there was going to be a circus.

'Stop yer snickerin', yer little tyke, yer,
when yer elders is talkin' ! ' roared Uncle
Siah.

' I ain't laughing at you,'v gulped the boy,
stuffing both fists into his mouth and rolling
his eyes to the back of the store to distract
their attention.

Their eyes followed his, but saw no cause
for merriment. Only grocer Locke sat
there sedately scratching away on his ac-
counts. A second shuffle of the boy's
crutch, and a yell of pain and anger from

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Uncle Siah, turned all faces with a jerk
toward the broad open door. Through it a
baleful, wrathful figure had been advancing,
fiery-eyed, with trailing wings and velvet
footfalls - unseen, unfelt, till a horny beak
shot forth like the flash of a saw-edged
poniard into Uncle Siah's posterior, as he
sat hump-backed upon his wooden Gib-
raltar.

One wild vision of Billy Honks waving
his first victorious colors, in the shape of an
inch- wide strip of Uncle Siah's blue denim
overalls, and all was rout and confusion.
Whirling around on his wooden throne, Un-
cle Siah kicked vengefully at his assailant.
This was just the challenge Billy wanted.
Up he mounted to the low-browed ceiling,
like a spirit of evil, fanning out the lamp
into utter darkness with his black wings, as
he went crashing through the glass jars of
chemicals on top of the grand new soda
fountain.

But the darkness could not cover Uncle
Siah nor his compeers from his eagle eyes.
Three rushing thud - thud thuds, three
toppling barrels, the crash of a two-gallon
jug full of New Orleans molasses against the
200

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

corner of the iron scales, the rattle of a
bushel of white shell-beans, overturned in
the grand scrimmage, the flap and flutter of
wings, the shrill invectives of the bird and
his downf alien victims, brought grocer Locke
stumbling over a struggling heap in a slip-
pery pool of treacle.

He struck a match, .lighted a candle and
peered fearfully about in the gloom, but
Billy Honks was gone; so was the boy with
the crutch.

!We all said we weren't afeered o' man
nor beast, v muttered Uncle Si ah in crest-
fallen accents, as he sat up on the edge of
the scales and wrung a stream of molasses
from his chin whiskers, which were all
abloom with the white beans, " but we didn't
reckon on that ere dumbed fowl!'

That little miscreant was at the bottom
on't,' muttered Reub Ring, 'with shuff-
ling his crutch to aig him on to us. That
little beggar was the only crittur in the coun-
try that pet bird o' Satan ever made friends
with.'

A snicker from around the corner, a honk
high up in the evening sky, were the only
response.

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Billy knew that he should overtake his
wild mates beyond the mighty stretch of
pines on the other side of the Cape, and he
shook off the dust of his feet forever against
the scene of his captivity, and winged on for
the paradise of freedom.

Great was the merriment of the natives
when the parting scene between Billy Honks
and the old standbys at the grocery was
heralded through the little hamlet the next
morning, and I have given it to you word
for word, just as papa heard it and came
and told us.

We need not be afraid, now, to go out and
search for the sweet mayflowers on the isl-
and, for that was what mamma had come
for. She wished to pick a lot, to send to the
poor sick people in the hospitals for their
Easter Sunday.

So we hurried out, and hiding in the dry
grass and under the pine needles were the
sweet, pinky blossoms, just like pretty sea-
shells. I would root my little nose down to
see what mamma was finding. I would
smell the sweet perfume, and nib playfully
at the flowers and kiss her face as she knelt
to pick them.
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

The next day, which was Saturday, aunt
Mary invited us to come over and pick on
the ' Ridge, " the high hill of Cedar-crest,
where the lovely flowers grew pink and
sweet as they could be, in sunny, sheltered
spots among the whispering pines. She
helped us, and mamma made up a great
many beautiful bouquets. We started back
to the city that night, aunt Mary with us,
with three great market-baskets full of may-
flowers, and when we reached the city mam-
ma and I went right away, before we had
tea, and took the sweet flowers to a great
building. Here she was met by some gen-
tle-faced women in plain black garb, with
white bonnets, whom she called 'Sisters.'
Their faces beamed with grateful pleasure
when they saw the Easter gift, and they said
they would divide the sweet blossoms among
their poor sick people, shut away from the
bright world and laid on beds of pain, to
cheer and comfort them.

Mamma only saved out enough for each
one of us to have a buttonhole bouquet to
wear to church that next bright Easter
morning. I couldn't go, though I looked
so wistfully at mamma and aunt Mary. I

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

could hear the sweet bells calling, and see
the white doves flying in and out their seats
in the great high belfry tower, but I had no
wings to fly so high, so I waited sorrowfully
at home. Still I was comforted by having
a nosegay of the pearly pink blossoms tied
in my broad, blue satin bow when I rode
out in the park, behind Don and Dora, in
the afternoon.

206

CHAPTER XIII

Is it all lost in nothingness,

Such gladness, love and hope, and trust ?
Such busy thoughts, our own to guess,

All trampled into common dust ? '

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

ONE week more, and we all started
back to our lovely island for the
summer. I rode all the way be-
hind Don and Dora, who were as glad as I
that we were going to our dearest home, and
had such a glorious time. The roadsides
were a soft bright green, all spangled over
with golden dandelions, and as we neared
the shore the ground was fairly blue with
the lovely great bird's-foot violets with their
pansy eyes.

How swiftly the spring and summer sped
away! I pattered around with mamma
while she wTorked with the man, fixing the
flower-beds and vases, and with papa wrhen
he uncovered the lovely lily-ponds and
started up the fountains. When the home

207

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

was all in order, and the roses were bloom-
ing, then he could find time to set his camera
for pictures. I was always watching to run
and pose before him.

Mamma would say: 'Oh, do make a
picture of the lilies this morning- -they are
open so wide and beautiful!' Then I
would run and sit right in front of the Hebe

of the fountain and the heart-shaped lily-
pond, so as to be in the picture, because I
had learned, when I was a little puppy, that
it pleased papa and mamma to have me do
it. So I would follow him around the whole
island, and when he went into his dark room
with his red lantern to fix his plates, I
would be outside the door and hear him
say, as he held them up against the ruby
light :

Well, I declare, if there isn't my dear
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

little Fairy-Fay, big as life, and I never knew
she was around ! '

When I was only a baby dog they petted
me for sitting still to have my picture taken
on the stone steps, when the island home
was building; so I always posed of my own
accord after that, and would
cross my little paws and try to
look just as sweet as I could.

There was one bright Au-
gust morning that papa tried

to have Tit- Willow, the fawn-and-white
kitten, and Dandy Jim, the tame black
crow, pose with me beside Venus, the
poor white lady who stood on a boat-load
of flowers in the lawn. I used to feel so
sorry for her at first, because she hadn't any
clothes, only a few that were falling off her,
though she tried to hold them on, and she

209

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

looked so 'shamed I would turn my little
head away and not look at her, to make her
feel worse. I heard mamma say one day
that she was Canova's Venus, so I thought
maybe that was why she kept her beautiful
face turned ever toward the sea, looking for
Canova to come sailing in, 'cause he was her
lover. But he never came; and some way,
after she stood there summer after summer,
so still and watching, I began to think she
wasn't a real live lady after all, but a lovely
image frozen out of ice and snow.

Mamma took me visiting once in a beau-
tiful rose-garden, and she called to papa,
" Oh, come and see this lovely Flora, right in
a bower of roses!'

I knew the words, 'Come and see,': and
I rushed swift as a little fawn to see the
sight; but when I saw another poor white
lady, with nothing but wreaths of white
flowers to wear, I hung my little head and
crouched down, and hid my face below the
great white rock she was sitting on. Mam-
ma caught me up and kissed me, and said
I was her little white angel.

But I have gotten away from black Jim
and Tit- Willow. Well, papa would get us
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

all fixed for the picture, then he would put
his head under the big black cloth hung over
his camera, to look through at us. Just
then Tit- Willow would fluff up his hand-
some ringed yellow-and-white tail, and
waltz sidewise up to black Jim, who would
reach out and give him a tweak on his pink
nose. Then Tit-Willow would slap at Jim
with his great double paws, and, for fear

they would get hurt, I would have to cry
4 Bow-wow ! " and rush between them. Then
Dandy Jim, who had one wing clipped so
he couldn't fly away, would whir around
and up over my head, land on my back, and
tweak my silky ears, and there was a grand
mix-up, and a chorus of 'Caw-caws!'
'Meows!' and 'Bow-wows!'

Papa would run back and straighten us
all out for the picture again, till finally he
had worked nearly an hour in the broiling

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

sun, and Tit-Willow and Dandy Jim acted
worse and worse, and I was beginning to
tremble, because papa had to scold. He
had his head under the black cloth till his
face streamed with perspiration; but just as
he thought he had us all right we fell into
another melee, and he lost all patience and
threw his cap at us and sent us scattering.
Then he turned the garden-hose on to cool
the air, but Dandy Jim thought that was
great fun and just spread out his blue-black
wings and shook them in the water-drops -
a shower-bath was what he longed for. As
for Tit- Willow, he didn't care a whit as he
waltzed away, for he would wade out at low
tide into the salt water, and fish out a mum-
my-chub for his breakfast with his big dou-
ble paws. I've seen him do this, and many
a time I've watched him catch a fish through
the air-holes in the ice.

Papa was sorry afterwards that his pa-
tience didn't hold out till he got a better
picture of us, for before another spring
Dandy Jim's wings grew out, and he flew
away from the farmer papa hired to keep
him and went with seven old wild crows,
who used to fly over and around the island

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and sit in a solemn row on the red bridge-
posts and scold 'Caw! caw!- -caw!'
Mamma said they were holding a town-
meeting.

We did not find out for five years that
Dandy Jim was among them till, one day,
we were riding over the bridge with Don
and Dora and he did not fly away with the
rest of the crows, but sat still on the bridge-
post. Soon as papa could stop the horses
he called back, ' Jimmy, Jimmy, poor Jim-
my ! ' ' and the big black bird spread out and
shook his shining wings, and answered in the
same funny half coaxing, half gulping,
cracked voice in which he used to tease for
his beefsteak breakfast when he was one of
the family. He seemed delighted to hear his
old name called, and hopped along on the
railing toward us. In five long years of
mingling with his wild mates he had not
forgotten his name nor papa's voice, but he
had grown shy and had not the courage to
let papa pick him up. Mamma said he was
happier to go free and have the liberty of
his native isle, for he was born down in one
of the tall poplar-trees.

That very winter, too, after papa tried to

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

take the picture, Tit- Willow ran away from
the home in the city where mamma had
planned for him to stay till spring; so she
put in the daily paper:

"Lost. A double - pawed, f awn - and-
white kitten, white face and breast, white
ring round his neck, four white mittens,
answering to name of Tit- Willow. $5.00
Reward," etc.

And little boys came thronging with black
cats, and blue cats, and yellow-and-black
tiger cats, or else came empty-handed and
said, "I know where your kitty is, and I will
take the five dollars, if you please!' till the
man who had charge of Tit- Willow had to
explain to the boys that they couldn't have
the five dollars till they came with the right
cat in hand, and no other. Finally he had
to take the notice out of the paper, or else
take off his door-bell.

A dear old lady over the way, who had
taken care of Tit- Willow the winter before
for mamma, and was very fond of him, said :

"I know just where he is; he has run
away, down to the island, because he was
homesick, and if you ever find him, there's
where he'll be!"
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

But everybody laughed and said : ' He
was carried down there a month-old kitten,
shut in a box and on a train, and he was
brought back in a wooden cage, under a
carriage-seat, six months later. It couldn't
be possible that he could find his way back,
forty miles, over the road, to his old home.'

We never knew; but two years later, one
dark October evening, we were walking the
horses down the steep hill on the island.
We had started out to spend the evening
with aunt Mary and the doctor. The car-
riage lamps were lighted and shone brightly
on the high grassy bank to the right of the
drive; suddenly papa and mamma cried out
in one breath:

"Why, there's Tit- Willow!"

I looked with all my eyes, craning my
neck out of the carriage at sound of his
name, and there, crouching on the grassy
bank, as though dazzled and bewildered
with the sudden and brilliant lights of the
carriage, with their reflectors, which shone
in his great yellow eyes, was a monster fawn-
and-white cat with all the marks of the kit-
ten which ran away.

We saw him, near to, twice after that, and

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

were surer than ever that it was Tit-Willow,
only he had led a wild, free life on the island,
and grown timid at sight of people. He
would mew and talk to us from out the shel-
ter of the grove of tall poplars, but would not
come nearer the house than to peep out
between the cedars at the entrance, where
he would sit up and wave those big double
fore paws at us.

Mamma had a big bowTl of milk set out
under the trees for him to steal up and drink
every day, and when the home was closed
for the winter a little trap-door, leading up
into the warm stable, was left open for Tit-
Willow, who hunted and fished, and loved
his liberty.

216

CHAPTER XIV

* HE loved to lie where his wakeful eye

Could keep me still in sight,
Whence a word or a sign,
Or a look of mine,

Brought him like light."

CAROLINE BOWLES SOUTHEY.

1

"AHERE was a dear little lady and
her beautiful daughter, friends of
mamma's, who visited us at the
island; and they loved little dogs, too. I
found that out, first of anybody; and soon I
used to venture up to the little lady when
the evening lamps were lighted, and she
looked so dainty and pretty, though dressed
all in deepest black, soft and clinging.

I would stand right before her, and look
straight into her gentle face that bore such
traces of sadness when she was alone. I
would try to speak, out of my great, brown
eyes, and say to her:

'I love you, 'cause I know you love little
dogs, and I long to comfort you; now

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

wouldn't you like to have me climb on your
knee ? '

So I would stand, and look and look, until
she would give way and say:

Well, you little darling, you shall come! '

Then up I would spring, and nestle down,
and try to lie as lightly as possible on her
dainty lap and listen while she told stories
of Tony,'' her own little dog. One sad
story of his faithful love and remembrance
I must try to give you, with his picture which
she showed mamma and me.

This is the picture of dear little Tony,
watching and waiting; he could never give
up listening for the familiar footfalls through
the sad silence that had fallen over her dear
bright home, so many weary months before.
Day after day he sat in his cushioned chair
in the west window and peered down the
street, his faithful little heart beating heav-
ily with the dull pain of hope deferred, be-
cause he had been cruelly disappointed again
and again.

But this day of which she told us Tony

was up on the arm of his chair, alert, intent,

with straining gaze far, far down the street,

where nearly a year before he had been wont

218

Tony was up on Ilic arm of hi ft chair.

THE ix

PUB! LC I

V

ASTOR. L

[TILDBIO >^

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

to wildly welcome the master's approach;
and suddenly - oh, joyous ending to his
faithful vigils ! - there came the familiar
form, the quick, elastic movement he knew
so well, even a whole square away.

"Yes, oh, yes, it must be he!'

The little watching, waiting heart knew
he would come ; now he was coming, coming
home, wearing the same coat, the same soft
gray hat he wore when last Tony greeted
him.

In a moment poor little Tony was one
quivering, palpitating morsel of expectant
love, from head to foot. He appealed to
his mistress, with anxious, trembling whines,
trying to catch some gleam of confirmation
to his hope, some sudden, joyous welcome
in her sad eyes, which were turned on all his
movements with welling tears, as he turned
his eager face and bright, dilating brown
eyes first to her and then toward the street,
pressing closer and closer to the window
pane, and craning his dainty head and neck
to watch the approach to the home.

Then he flew over to the other arm of the
chair, toward the side door to the family
sitting-room, his delicate ears alert, listening

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

for the longed-for footfalls. They must
reach him at last, echoing along the walk,
and nearer, nearer, till the springing
tread should sound out, clear and firm, on
the piazza floor, and the smiling face of his
master meet him, through the glass door-
way, just as it used to be.

Oh, why so silent ? Why so long ? Again
he appealed to his watching mistress and
the gentle grand-dame, with her silvery hair.
Would they not watch ? Would they not
listen with him ? Why should they weep,
now, when the master was coming ? Why
not fling wide the door ? Listen, listen,
it is almost time.

Tony searched their faces with intense,
almost human questioning, then dropped
his little head downward and forward, as
though to reach forth to meet the sound his
waiting soul was yearning for.

Tick-tack, tick-tack! The tall clock on
the stairs measured only the muffled foot-
falls of Time, till full five minutes of stifling,
heartbreaking silence fell. The little listen-
ing ears drooped lower, the bright, expec-
tant eyes grew dimmer, and cast one more
appealing, piteous look at the two mourners.
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

He knew, now, wrhy they wept, and, with a
little wailing sob, he threw himself down-
ward upon his cushion, his nose between his
tiny paws, with a gesture of despair - - the
master could never come to him, but he
would go to the master.

Then, there was her story of cunning little

'Snap,' that keenest and purest of black-
and-tans. When he was just emerging
from his puppy pranks, his master, the
father of our little lady, came home from
his office at noon one day to discover, near
the house, a most unsightly break in his
green, velvety lawn, which was his especial
pride and pleasure.

Little eager, digging paws, egged on by a
little black nose, that scented imaginary rats
or moles while they made the dirt fly, had bur-
rowed this black hole in the fine green turf.
The master called for poor little Snap, and
he came, trembling and cringing, pleading

' Guilty ' from his crestfallen ears to his
slinking tail. But the master, whose heart
was kind, did not punish him; he only said,
as he pointed to the sad blemish on the
smoothly shaven lawn, and looked re-
proachfully at the little shivering culprit:

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

5 Well, I never thought to see the day
when a dog of mine would do such a dread-
ful thing as this never! I don't know
wfhat to think; I can't tell what to think; I
never could have imagined a dog of mine
doing such a dreadful thing as this!'

The little abject figure crouched lower
and lowrer beneath his words and tone of
reproach; and so his master left him. When
he returned a few hours later he found a
changed dog, who bounded forth to meet
him - so glad, so proud, prancing, skip-
ping, tail fairly wagging his little body, as
he led the way to the desecrated spot of the
noontide. Behold his labor of love and
atonement !

There the astonished master saw7, with
wondering eyes, how the little creature had
worked for hours, drawing back the loosened
loam and stamping it down in place. There
were all his little claw-marks in the moist
edges, and, to crown his work of restoration,
he had gathered all the scattered bits of
turf which, in his morning's ruthless sport,
he had thrown so carelessly about, and
patted them in, all awry to be sure, but so
painstakingly.

Foxy,

'

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

The master's heart was touched, as he
bent to give dear little Snap many a loving
stroke of wondering approval; and, from
that day forth, he rehearsed the story, as
his daughter gave it to mamma, as one of
the most convincing proofs of how we little
dogs catch at the tones and meaning of blame
or praise, and strive to merit approval.

Then, there wasjier story of 'Foxy,"
who belonged to an intimate friend of the
lady; how his mistress would hold him up
to a funny little talking-box, that wras up on
the side of the sitting-room, and he would
press his little ear to the black ear-trumpet,
and hear his master's voice calling, so far
away :

'Foxy, Foxy, there's a rat dowTn here!'
Ye-ep, ye-ep, ye-ep ! ' he \vould answer
back "just hold on; — I'll be there!"

Then he would give one wild, squirming
wiggle out of her arms on to the floor and
out of the house, sliding all the mats in a
heap behind him.

Ye-ep, ye-ep, ye-ep ! ' away down the
street, on such a scuttling gallop that the
passers-by drew hastily aside, as if pursued
by a revolving centipede.

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Ye-ep, yc-ep, ye-ep ! Clear the track, you
poor, idle slow-pokes! Can't you see I'm
telephoned for?

Ye-ep, ye-ep, ye-ep! Can't you see
I've got to gain a half-mile on a rat, and
catch him, before he runs the length of my
master's store?'

And on he would tear, the people turning
their heads to watch him, and laughing as
they went, for in the little Western city many

had become familiar with Foxy and his

t/

cunning little tricks, and they knew well
that he'd been telephoned for.

Finally, to cheer her lonely hours, the
little lady took into her heart a dainty King
Charles spaniel, whom the daughter of the
household christened 'Corea.' I was in
a flutter of excitement when a letter came
telling mamma of her possible advent ahead
of the two ladies, the dear friends she was
expecting.

That very afternoon there came the sud-
den rumble of wheels over the long red
bridge, and up drove the express with a
mysterious little leathern traveling-case,
with wire bars, like a bird-cage, on one side.
Mamma brought it in the big room and shut

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

all the doors, and I hopped along on my
hind feet beside her, catching glimpses of
the biggest, brightest pair of shining black
eyes from out the shadow of the black
leather-lined cage. That was all we could
see till mamma hastily unstrapped it, and
out flew little Miss Corea, waltzing and
slipping around the floor of Island Haven.

I was completely mystified and puzzled,
and waited to see her take off her black
ostrich-feather cloak that came down to her
very toes, but she seemed to prefer to keep
it on, and some black plumes over her ears.

She had such a tiny little pug nose and
looked so odd to me, I didn't believe she was
a dog at all, until mamma caught her up and
hugged her and said:

You dear little traveler, you! How
weary you must feel, after your hundreds of
miles. Fairy must make you welcome, and
loan you her little blue-lined basket for your
own this summer.'

Now I had never dreamed of mamma
caressing any dog but me before, and a
strange feeling came welling up in my little
throat. The minute she put Miss Os-
trich-feather down again, I pounced rudely

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

at her and pushed her over on the slippery
floor. I was jealous, madly jealous, be-
cause mamma had kissed her, and because
papa, who came in just then, called her a
"little beauty.' I thought mine was the
only style of beauty.

I was sorry and ashamed when mamma
had to comfort the newcomer, and told me
how rude and unkind I had been, while she
fed her with warm milk. But little Corea
was very forgiving toward me, and invited
me, with many coquettish tosses of her plumy
ears, which almost swept the floor, to come
and play with her.

I guess I looked just as queer to her, in
my little short-haired doeskin, the way she
stared at me with her great, shining, black
eyes. When mamma's friends came, the
next day, they found their little Corea all
ensconced in my blue-lined basket, and I
had to admit she made a lovely picture.

I tried hard to be lady-like when the
household petted her, but mamma saw how
my little heart swelled up to see Corea in
her arms, so she explained to her friends
that, not to try my little feelings too far, she
must caress her when I wras not about,
230

Little Corea.

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Still there was that rankling jealousy that
made me feel a bit glad when I heard that
little Miss Fuss-and-Feathers, as I called her
to myself, had gotten herself into disgrace
by trying to devour " The Life of Bismarck'

belonging to the young lady. What a
dreadful thing to do ! Corea left on the fine
seal binding many a sad rent and furrow
from her little pearly teeth, and she had to
be shut up in a dark closet, which was a
more effective punishment with her than a
whipping. Thus soon had I forgotten the

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

many sad slips I had made in my own past
puppy career.

Still, we all grewT to love the pretty little
creature, with her baby ways; and when the
sweet summer days had fled and her leath-
ern traveling-case was brought forth, I was
sorry to part with my little guest, and we
kissed each other good-by through the wire
bars.

234

CHAPTER XV

UNDERNEATH my stroking hand,
Startled eyes of hazel bland

Kindling, growing larger, —
Up thou leapest with a spring,
Full of prank and cu vetting,

Leaping like a charger."

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

OH, wasn't I wild with delight when,
in the glorious mid - September,
while the sea was such an azure
blue, and the fields all shining with drifts of
goldenrod, aunt Mary and the doctor de-
cided to have one of their grand picnics, on
the anniversary of their wedding-day. I
was all alert for days before, my little ears
pricked up and my eyes full of gold-and-
brown interrogation points, while aunt
Mary was discussing with mamma as to
where we should go.

Should we ride or sail ? Should we
spread our feast under the singing pines on
the lovely shores of Ashumet pond ? Or on
the great flat rock in the shade of the redo-

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

lent fir-trees, overlooking the sea and the
lovely island of Nausheon, where the cool
breezes made soft, sighing music through
the dark feathery green above us ? Or
should we drive to quaint old Sandwich
town and encamp by its purling river? So
we varied our programme, but mamma was
apt to favor the wood by the sea.

So, year after year, I came to knowT that
the early stir in the household, the array of
lunch-baskets, the preparation of all sorts
of 'goodies,'1 as my chum, old Sportum,
called them, all meant the grand picnic.

I flew about like a fawn-and-white whirl-
wind, in and out the kitchen, sniffing at the
savory smell of sliced ham and chicken, and
taking a peep at mamma as she prepared the
sandwiches. Then away I ran to her room
and reached up on her dressing-table, to try
to thrust my nose through my best collar,
with its blue stones, and golden acorns for
bells, which I was sure of wearing on state
occasions. Finally I went to the stable to
see if the man, Ramon, who was always so
kind to me, was alive to the occasion, and
was brushing Don and Dora, and harness-
ing them to the brown canopy-topped car-
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

riage, with its broad russet seats, and putting
on their brown nets, fringed with yellow
tassels, to keep the big green-headed flies
from stinging their glossy brown sides. I
thought that the handsome nets were the very
cap-sheaf of their grandeur as they pawed
and bridled, nodding their tasseled heads.

When all the baskets and wraps, and the
flowers to deck the feast, were aboard, I was
lifted, wiggling and waggling, to the seat.
Mamma charged the servants to be careful
of fire around our lovely island home, and
when to expect us all to supper, for she
always liked to bring aunt Mary and the
doctor home with her. We started down
the winding drive, down through the hills
and over the long red bridge, off the island.
I could hardly contain myself when I heard
the sharp clack, clack of Don's and Dora's
feet on the wooden planking, and knew that
we were fairly under way.

I flew up and kissed mamma's face and
reached over and thrust my sharp, cold nose
against papa's ear, to tell them both how
joyous and thankful my little heart was, to
go with those I loved and never to be for-
gotten.

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

We wound our way around the pretty
cove, past the ice-cold waters of Hope
spring, where the happy Indians used to
camp, so Ramon said, and wrhere we used
to stop so often to fortify ourselves with a
drink, under the big oak-trees. Then we
turned in by the big stone gate-posts, and up
the broad drive to the doctor's and aunt
Mary's house, which stood out on another
bold hilltop overlooking the bay, and so near
our home we could speak across the winding
arm of the sea which flowed between us.

They called it Cedar-crest because of the
dark green cedar trees that were dappled
over the hillside and gathered in a shady
grove at the rear of the sightly home.

The doctor had laid out the front slope,
overhanging the sea, into a maze of artistic
beds, hearts and diamonds and stars and
crescents, with white-shelled walks between,
and aunt Mary had planted each bed with
its own kind of lovely flowers. We could
look across and see the bright dashes of
color, or the pure white or great golden-
banded lilies, in their season, swaying to and
fro. Now, as we wound up the drive,
against the soft west breeze, I craned my
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

slender neck far out of the carriage and
sniffed at the sweet perfume of the flower-
laden air for I had learned that people
loved flowers, so I loved them too. Papa
always liked to wear a rose in his button-
hole, and I would smell it and kiss it; then
mamma would fasten one in my collar, and
I felt very proud. She called the little white
rock-rose " Fairy's flower," because she said
it asked so little in the world to make it
bright and happy opening its shining
white heart in drought and heat. When
she fastened one in my collar, and I wore it
all the long summer day, it would shut its
little eye at night, and sleep while I slept;
but with the first rosy flush of morning over
the sea, when I waked, it would be opening
its little heart again, after the long night,
with never a drop of dew only what it could
store in its owrn little breast.

Well, to go back to the picnic : there stood
Kitty, the dark dappled mare, seal-brown,
nearly black, with her shining coat and her
long tail almost sweeping the ground, for
neither the doctor nor papa ever thought of
such a cruel thing as chopping off the tail of
a beautiful horse and disfiguring and tor-

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

meriting a good friend for life. They
thought God knew how to finish his work;
and they knew, too, that he would call all
to answer for every pain unnecessarily in-
flicted upon the defenseless creatures in-
trusted to the care of man.

Kitty was full of fire and spirit, but she
was so thoroughbred she did not need even
to wear blinders, but rolled her great brown
eyes backward toward the pretty red-
wheeled phaeton, to see if doctor and aunt
Mary were safely seated. Then away she
flew, leading the way over hill and dale, past
the little seaside settlements and country
towns, with their small white church and
school-house, setting across the road from
each other - on and on, till the bright
morning was melting into the hot noontide,
and all were getting warm and hungry; then
reaching the wooded lane, we swept in
under the dark, shady fir-trees, and were
grateful to feel and hear the cool sea-breeze
singing in the branches.

While the horses were being unharnessed,

lightly blanketed, and tethered among the

trees, to have their well-earned dinner of

nice oats, brought along with our own bas-

240

1

I

88

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

kets of dainties, aunt Mary spread a big
white linen table-cover over the great flat
rock, and the wonderful contents of the
many baskets began to issue forth.

Mamma laid out. first a lot of bright new

'• '",: '»•''. : ' . '"

tin plates and drinking-cups, that shone in
the dappled rifts of sunshine like real silver.

When all the heaped-up plates of sand-
wiches, cold boiled eggs with spiced stuf-
fing, dainty baskets of velvety red peaches,
purple grapes, golden oranges, with the
emerald and saffron of the luscious cante-
loupes, and here and there a loaf of aunt
Mary's delicious frosted layer-cake were set
forth, the great rocky table was just lovely to
look at, and my little mouth would fairly
water while I was waiting for papa to adjust
his camera, to make a picture of the picnic
group as they gathered round the festive
sylvan board. I wriggled around so that
I almost always had two heads and two
tails when the picture was finished and
Kitty and Don and Dora, in the background,
usually had the same extra features; but
aunt Mary said she liked the pictures, just
the same, as souvenirs of the occasion.

Then all made merry, and the bright air

243

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and sunshine and light hearts gave a keen
zest to the tempting viands, and the silver
cups were stretched forth for replenishing
with aunt Mary's delicious coffee. She
always looked out that I had my own little
cup of sweet, creamy milk, in my snug cor-
ner between her and mamma, as well as
many a tidbit of cold ham and chicken,
with bits of sugar frosting from the cake.

I sat very still and ate what they gave me,
and looked from one to another and tried
to smile my approval out of my loving eyes,
which they said were like a doe's, as the
merry jest went round, for I caught at the
meaning of nearly everything. My heart
fairly brimmed over with joy when little
flaxen-haired, blue-eyed Violet, the little
girl guest of the occasion, whispered:

'Isn't Fairy the sweetest darling of all,
mamma ? '

All arose refreshed from that sylvan
board; then came the restful ride homewTard
in the cool of the day, the supper at sun-
down, the quiet watching of the western
glow over the sea, as I curled, a little lump
of contentment, in aunt Mary's, lap. I al-
ways tried to show her my great love by
244

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

sitting in her lap, even in preference to
mamma's, when she was our guest, but I
would run over, now and then, and give
mamma a reassuring kiss. So the sun sank
on another beautiful anniversary day of life
and love, hope and trust.

245

CHAPTER XVI

. .

THEREFORE to this dog will I,
Tenderly not scornfully,

Render praise and favor:
AA7ith my hand upon thy head ;
Is my benediction said

Therefore and forever!'
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

I DEARLY loved all the guests who
came to Island Haven, and especially
one sweet young girl, who always loved
and petted me. She was tall and fair, and
had beautiful dark blue eyes, with long,
curling dark brown lashes; some thought
her eyes were black, but that was only in
the shadow. I knew they were a deep
pansy blue, like mamma's garden violets;
blue heart's-ease was the old-fashioned
name for the flower, but it was wrhispered
around as a secret that Beulah's beautiful
eyes brought unrest to some brave hearts.

Her thick, wavy hair had golden glints in
it when the sun struck across it, and all the
246

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

little stray locks curled up in cunning ring-
lets in the moist sea air.

Mamma said that Beulah's mouth was
a regular 'Cupid's bow.' I didn't know
what that meant ; I only knew her lips looked
red and sweet, and when she laughed,
throwing back her head, showing her pearly
white teeth, it was such a merry peal every-
body had to laugh with her.

She had such lovely gowns, too, they all
agreed. One, the color of her eyes, wTas
cut away square from her full white neck,
with soft laces just shading it. Her gowns
were all so simply made and she looked so
sweet in everything; mamma said she was
like an old-time portrait of some fair lady,
off a castle wall.

They gave Beulah the " bridal chamber, '
as they called it, with its big round bay of
seven windows, looking out over the sea.
The room was all in white, like the snow,
with white silk embroidered draperies, and
when she had adorned it with all her pictures
and girlish notions, mamma and I used to
love to glance in and see her sleeping in the
rosy morning light, the sweetest picture of
all, her golden hair flowing carelessly over

247

YOURS AVITH ALL MY HEART

the pillow, her long, fringed lashes resting
lightly over her delicately tinted cheeks,
like a sleeping sea-nymph.

How I loved to be sent to kiss her hand,
to wake her, and watch for the first peep of

her laughing eyes from under their fringy
curtains. I used to feel she was all my very
own.

But one day a stranger came between us,

and my little heart was forlorn and hurt at

first, and I eyed him askance. Mamma

and I were down by the big lily-pond, look-

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

ing at a great yellow-throated, green-
jacketed frog, who sat on a wide, cool, lily-
pad, blinking his golden eyes at us and call-
ing out 'Cl-lunk-cl-lunk!' with such a
mysterious air, to call us back, every time
we started to leave him. He made merri-
ment for everybody with his social ways.
He wrould come up every morning to be fed,
and delighted to sit on the circular stone
edge of the pond and let the little folks
stroke his back gently w^ith a lily bud, or
even their fingers, but if I got too interested
and tried to kiss him, he would give such
a great floperty-flump, splashing into the
water, that I would jump almost as high as
he did.

Hearing voices, we looked up, to see
Beulah standing on the high stone steps at
the entrance, between the pillars, with the
flowers and vines framing in her lovely face
and form, while several steps below, a hand-
some young stranger, with uncovered head,
his dark eyes upraised to the blushing face
above him, was inquiring for the host and
hostess of Island Haven.

Mamma told papa as soon as he came,
with such a voice and air of mystery that I

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

was greatly impresssed, that she believed
that Fate had sent him to our castle by the
sea, where we had boasted that we were
safe from snares.

And she went on to tell what a fine pic-
ture the two made, with the old rustic stone-
work, mossed in the young tendrils of the
creeping ivy, for a setting; how charming
Beulah looked in her filmy white gown of
clinging Swiss muslin, with an arm-load of
red-rambler roses she had been gathering
for the dining-room, with the spreading oak
tree overhanging the entrance forming a
canopy of rustling, glistening green above
her.

She described how our handsome knight-
errant, for that was what she called him,
with the sun burnishing his clustering locks,
his fine head thrown slightly backward, but
with one foot advanced, as though bound
to climb to her sooner or later, had halted
between the two big flower urns, which bore
two cameo sphinxes, their mysterious, silent
lips just on a level with his own questioning
ones.

Mamma hurried forward to meet our new
visitor, who proved to be the son of a dear
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66
66

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

old friend, bearing his credentials with him,
and warm welcome and hearty greetings
followed.

He was just out of college, and going far
away over the sea, to carve out his fortune,
he told them.

So you are fancy free ? ' asked mamma.
Oh, yes - -fancy free - without even an
image in my heart, ' he laughed, and struck
his broad breast gayly, but, in the very act,
he cast a furtive glance, all unconsciously to
himself, at Beulah's downcast lids with their
long, fringed lashes sweeping her suffused
cheeks, and that moment, mamma said
afterward, Cupid, that little mischievous
elf, who had landed, no one knew how or
when, on our peaceful island, filled his
quiver with keenest arrows.

But I held out against the winning
stranger just as long as I could. I sulked
and moped, and stood aloof from their
happy strolls and mutual talks, till finally,
one day, I was so grieved and lonely, I broke
down and went creeping up, trembling, into
Beulah's white arms, and writh little pitiful
cries, covered her sweet, warm neck with
kisses. She seemed to suddenly understand

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

my gentle reproof, and feeling the earnest,
questioning gaze of a pair of dark eyes bent
upon her, she hid her face on my silky
breast, and held me closely to her heart;
and while she held me there, without ever
speaking a word, she told me that heart was
big enough for two.

Gaylord came and stood beside her and
stroked my little head as I cuddled on her
shoulder, and, soothed and comforted, my
heart melted toward him, for I felt rein-
stated; I took him into the circle,- more
than that, I was his faithful little ally ever
after.

I have to make this little story short, al-
though you may think it one of my sweetest
ones. From that day forth, I aided and
abetted that mysterious Cupid all I could,
though I never caught sight of him. I
pawed down Beulah's very prettiest songs
off the piano, so that the sea-breeze from
the wide-open door took them and spread
them at his feet, with her name written
broad in the corners. Then of course he
had to urge her to sing to him in her low,
rich voice, and she could not say him nay,
nor find excuse.

/ would overturn the old shields and curios.'

THE N; v
PUBLIC LiBF *n

ASTbR. L ^D

'

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Then, when the singing was over, if
Beulah wandered into the cozy Oriental
corner, where the jeweled Arabic lamp cast
a soft rainbow light, and the beaded por-
tieres screened off this recess in the stone
tower from the big reception-room, I would
poke my slim little nose through the crystal
curtain and begin to snuff and paw, and to
pretend I smelled a mouse. I would over-
turn the old shields and curios, burrow
under the bright cushions, and stir up a great
commotion, till Gaylord actually had to
assist and defend Beulah from whatever
danger might appear in my pursuit.

But some way the mouse never quite
came to light; and some way, too, just as
they got cozily seated, I would see fit to give
over my quest and curl down on the soft
silk cushions beside them, shut my eyes
and listen to the sweet rise and fall of their
young voices, in the half jest, half earnest,
of that delightful hour, while Beulah's
white, nestling hands toyed with my silky
ears, so eager to divine their words.

Another day at sunset, when my lord had
made a bold break, and walked away by
himself to the little white kiosk among the

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

juniper trees, overhanging the sea, and sat
there very meditatively, as though he were
turning over and over in his thoughts some
great but happy venture, I knew lie was
hoping those blue heart's-ease eyes would
follow him. But their possessor sat still
on the porch, just as meditatively pulling
a red rose to pieces, each all too conscious
of the other's whereabouts. I, too, was ill
ar ease.

So I crept up stealthily and plucked
away my lady's filmy lace handkerchief and
flew awTay down the shell wralk with it, and
laid it at Gaylord's feet as he sat there alone.

He picked it up eagerly and laid it in his
broad palm, and looked down upon it with
such a tender smile in his dark eyes, as
though it were some little live thing. Then
he waved it gently to and fro, as a man
would handle a cobweb, and breathed its
faint, violet odor.

You little good Fairy! How keen your
beautiful eyes are!' he whispered, giving
me a love-pat. I could see he longed to
keep the fleecy little thing, and finally he
folded it and hid it away in his breast pocket,
instead of sending me back with it.
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

I whimpered and pulled at his sleeve,
flying off a step or two toward the house to
show him, and tell him as well as I could,
that he was in the wrong place, and making
himself and somebody else lonely, when we
three might be so gay and happy together.

Presently, to my delight, he started back
for the porch where Beulah was sitting.
He couldn't stand that waiting attitude any
longer, any more than I could.

I bounded ahead as he ascended the long
flight of broad stone steps. Beulah clapped
her pretty white hands playfully at me in
welcome, and I, espying a red rose just fall-
ing from her corsage, leaped up, quicker
than light, caught it and turned back to
Gaylord, holding forth to him the crimson
offering.

I was trying to start a gay frolic as rose-
bearer back and forth between them, but I
had to take it as a matter of course when
Gaylord bowed low to my lady, and said in
such an earnest voice:

; With your permission, Miss Bond," and
adjusted the flower in his left lapel, both
taking advantage of my part in the presenta-
tion to laugh and make jest of it all, but I

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

could see Beulah's soft cheeks blushing red
as the rose I had stolen.

How glad I was that neither papa nor
mamma, nor any one else, happened to come
on the veranda. I wanted them all to my-
self, and more than that, something told me
that they two loved to sit alone together in
this happy quiet, watching the crimson glow
over land and sea fading to dusky purple.
When the great round moon came climbing
up above the whispering pines, casting a
silvery trail over the bright, rippling waters,
they said she turned all to fairy-land, which
I felt was some implied compliment to
me, for was not my name 'Fairy-Moon-
light?"

How they laughed as I bridled my slender
head from side to side with a birdlike preen-
ing motion, and then with little whirls and
flourishes, and loud spatting of my tiny feet
on the piazza floor, I told them as plain as
day that I was impatient to show them the
way into this enchanted land.

Gaylord was not slow to take the hint.

' Shall we stroll on the shore ? the night is so

beautiful!' he asked, and Beulah answered:

Yes, little Fairy will be so delighted,

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

she is trying hard to tell us to take a ramble
so she may stretch her fleet limbs.'

So I joyously led the way, and they de-
scended the long flight of steps leading down
the wooded bluff to an Oriental pavilion,
where the row-boat lay anchored and rock-
ing on the moon-lit waters. My resolve
was quickly taken, and before they could
recall me, I had made a flying leap and
landed in the pretty white boat. I sat de-
liberately down in the prow like a little
figure-head, as though, as a matter of course,
they must come also; there was nothing else
to do.

'Of course we can't disappoint little
Fairy; she does so delight to row?' and
Beulah could not disagree.

So the boat was pulled in, and Gaylord
had to carry Beulah a little way, because
the tide was so high against the high, grassy
bluff there was no dry footing, and the trees
cast a deep shadow right there.

I watched and waited while he seated her
in the boat and drew her white ostrich-lined
cape around her fair shoulders and neck,
which were dazzling white, like chiseled
marble, in the moonlight. I could see with

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

my own eyes that she looked just as sweet
and shy as mamma's lovely Venus, hidden
among the flowers, and when he obeyed her
request to lift me and place me under the
same fluffy cape, I couldn't help feeling
that his strong hand was not quite steady,
and when Beulah gathered me close, she
was trembling too.

Then we drifted out under the full moon,
to the ripple of the waves. Perhaps I dozed
a little in my cozy nest, to the rocking of the
boat, - at any rate I always thought they
forgot I was there, for Gaylord forgot to use
his oars as they floated far out with the tide,
and their voices grew softer and lower. I
couldn't help hearing, but I will never, never
tell one of the dear, sacred words they said;
and when it grew so still, I would not have
stirred and broken that sweet spell which
bound them, for all the world.

I could feel her gentle heart beating like
the wings of a prisoned dove, but I never
looked nor stirred. I made believe I was
fast asleep and dreaming sweet dreams for
them and for me, but I waked up when I
caught a little smothered sigh from Beulah,
260

W e drifted out under the full moon.

THE
PUL

fOR. L * •

-

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and mamma's voice came softly calling from

the bluff:

* Fairy, Fairy, where are you ? '
Yes, where was I, and where were they?

Drifting through enchanted land.

Gaylord picked up his oars and made

a show of rowing vigorously in, while he

started an old song in his rich, deep

voice, and Beulah joined him in little

quavers with her sweet mezzo:

"Come where my Love lies dreaming,
Dreaming the happy hours away."

Did ever voices sound so sweet before, or
words so tender, as they floated clear and
wide on the night winds over the moonlit
sea.

And so, amid much jesting, we landed at
mamma's feet at last, and they told her how
I had decoyed them into a little moonlight
row, but when Gaylord lifted me in his arms
to give me to mamma, I knew I hadn't been
dreaming, for I felt his strong heart beating
like the thudding footfalls of a race-horse,
and it couldn't have been the rowing, for
the oars were featherweights in his vigorous
young arms.

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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

As mamma reached out to take me from
him, I saw her eyes rest on the crushed
crimson rose he treasured, which she had
seen at sundown nestling at Beulah's fair
throat, and she might have caught a breath
of the young girl's favorite perfume from
the filmy lace I had helped him purloin; and
there was an undertone in their voices and
just a little tremor in their gayety that must
have told her more.

For she did not linger, but said, " Good-
night, good-night, my children,'' more ten-
derly than usual if anything, and left them
standing on the shore.

Was it a drop of night dew from the over-
hanging branches, or was it a tear that fell

0 o

on my little head, as she climbed the steep
steps with me and bore me toward her cham-
ber, for mamma sighed deeply and said:

4 Oh, would that these young hearts might
dream on forever, and know no rude awaken-

1 55

ing!

I never told a word, but the next morning,
when the soft chime had sounded for the
family to gather, and I hurried joyfully, as
I always did, to join them, then Gaylord
took Beulah boldly by the hand, and they
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

came and stood before papa and mamma
by the great fire-place, while he said :

' Pray give us your blessing, dear friends,
against the day when her Bond-age shall
end, mine has already begun. '

Beulah could not look up, for glad, shy
tears were bedewing her long lashes; but
mamma kissed her white forehead and said :

' God bless you and keep you ! '

A little song-sparrow, on the oak-tree
outside the door, wrarbled a sweet Amen.

Then Gaylord, to relieve the silence that
fell, suddenly stooped and petted me, and
said gayly:

'This is the little good Fairy who has
aided and abetted in my capture, all the way
through, -bless her little heart!'

Joyful benediction! I was blest indeed,
and my little heart swelled with proud satis-
faction to think how I had helped Cupid to
tangle and tie the silken cords of Love.

265

CHAPTER XVII

c<

DIDST thou not watch for hours our track,
And for the absent seem to pine,

And when the well-known voice came back,
What ecstacy could equal thine ? '

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

1

"AHERE came one dark October
night I shall never forget. We
were on our way again for doc-
tor's and aunt Mary's. The wind came up
off the sea and sighed through the trees,
like a sad song of parting. A shadow fell
over my little heart that had been so full of
love and trust all its life; a dread and fear
seized upon me, I could not tell wrhy. I
felt it when mamma held me close over her
heart, and sat silently in the dark; and when
we got to aunt Mary's and the bright lamps
were lighted, I still clung close around her
neck with my slender arms, and would not
be put down upon the carpet, to play with
old Sportum and caper around the way I
always had done.
266

She looks at me with such great pleading eyes.

<

-

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

They said, half whispering, ' How can
the little thing mistrust it ? '

That's just what breaks my heart," said
mamma ; ' she knows it already, and she
looks at me with such great pleading eyes.
She hasn't seen one thing to tell her; they
surely can read our very thoughts.'

'I know they can,' said aunt Mary.
'But you can be sure, Stella, that \ve wrill
do all in our power to make her happy.
She will be thinking every day that you are
coming back, and she will play with Spor-
tum, and the doctor will talk to her, to help
pass the time away, the same as he always
does."

I shook and trembled as though I had an
ague chill; the terrible dread at my heart had
taken shape mamma and papa were go-
ing away to leave me!

I know, now, that mamma had almost a
mind to give it up for days, as, with a sober
face, she found me curled inside her half-
packed trunk or an open suit-case.

I had seen the packing every fall and
spring, but I never was so apprehensive
before. I would not let papa nor mamma
go out of my sight for one moment, but

269

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

followed them, stealing from room to room
with wistful eyes. At night I would be pil-
lowed in their arms, rousing at the slightest
move, and clinging, trembling, to mamma's
neck not daring to sleep and dream my
sweet, happy dreams, as of old.

Christmas day came, cold and bright.
Mamma buttoned on my brow^n, fur-
trimmed blanket, and a brand-new steel-
trimmed harness, with a shining plated
chain to lead me by, and started out to walk
with papa, to dine with aunt Mary and the
doctor. There were bells on my harness
and bells on my collar; my gay trappings
and the rattle of the chain all seemed quite
impressive, and some little boys we passed
stood still and whispered, one to another,
There goes a bloodhound!' They had
somewhere seen performing dogs led by
chains. This made papa smile, as I looked
more like a tiny doe than I did like the
bloodthirsty canine they imagined. But for
once all my proud array, and the walk,
which was usually my delight, failed to
cheer me.

When I arrived at aunt Mary's, she took
off all my little things and hung them in
270

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

the hall closet, and when I went in the sit-
ting-room, there was my little white basket.
How had it been spirited over from the
island ? She had lined it all new with lovely
blue, and covered cushion and all. I knew
I understood; I was to stay behind; there

were all my little worldly goods. I crept in
and crossed my fore paws, and looked out
at them all with wistful eyes and listening
ears. I was too sad to be proud of my
beautiful face and form against the soft blue
background.

Aunt Mary said I was a little beauty and

271

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

the doctor said, 'Fairy is the doctor's own
little baby-dog," but I couldn't run and
nestle my head against him, in my bird-like
way, as aunt Mary called it, in answer, for
my heart was too heavy. How it yearned
to hold those four dear faces within the
vision of my watching eyes.

But as the sun was sinking in the west
and lighting all the sea and skv with crim-

O O v

son and gold, mamma took me gently from
my little basket and held me close in her
arms, while she stood and looked across at
our dear Island Haven, flooded with the
rosy light. I could feel her heart beating
fast and heavily as she pressed her cheek
upon my little head, and her tears fell on my
silky ears when she laid me in aunt Mary's
arms and said:

'My darling little Fairy is going to stay
with aunt Mary and the doctor/

I understood it all. I tried to be brave
and obedient, but I gave her such a look of
pain and longing and reproach, out of my
great, startled, loving eyes, that it haunted
her many a day when she was far awray,
and she had hard work to speak and say
good-by to the friends she loved.

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Papa took me in his arms a moment and
fondled me tenderly and said, ' Good-by,
little Sweetheart!' and passed me back to
aunt Mary.

They all shook hands with long, strong
clasp, and the waiting carriage drove away
with them. I watched it with straining
eyes, welling with tears. I could see papa
waving his hat and mamma her white
handkerchief in a long farewell, and aunt
Mary and the doctor waved back. We
could see them as the carriage whirled by
the big oak and Hope spring, around the
Cove, in the western sunlight - - on past
the red bridge, till they turned from my
wistful, straining sight into the wood, near-
ing the station.

I knew they were going far, far away,
beyond our city home, and my little heart
was following after like a winged bird. It
followed them over the stormy ocean, the
burning deserts of Egypt, the stony moun-
tains of Palestine, and the snowy passes of
Syria, clear through the lands of the Sphinx,
the Cross and the Crescent; and at every
halting-place dear faithful aunt Mary sent
a letter to meet them, to tell them that their

273

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

little Fairy was trying to be brave and good
and happy. I understood that her letters
were going to mamma, and I would kiss
them and try so hard to speak. Sometimes
aunt Mary would put the pen in my little
slender fingers, and let me write, 'Fairy
sends her love!' with her aid. Once, she
inked the tips of my little finger-toes, and
let me make a precious footprint for a
postscript to one letter which was to meet

them at Jerusalem, where aunt Marv said

i/

they were tracing the footprints of Him
who was the first to teach that the heart of
God went out to all His dumb creatures,
and that they, too, were His children, for
whose welfare He holds man responsible.

274

Old Sportum.

«T

X

CHAPTER XVIII

a

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 wrinter days,
about the rats and the mice. Old Spor-
tum, the big tan-and-white bull-clog, 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

277

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

get right down and give me the warm spot.
So I loved him dearly, and was very proud
when the doctor would say, as we sat beside
him :

4 O-l-d Sportum is my g-r-e-a-t b-i-g bull-
doggie, and Fairy is my 1-i-ittle bull-dog-

• »»
gie!

Then we would crowd up to him for a
hand-pat, with our tails wagging, but old
Sportum gave me the first place in every-
thing. How noble it was in him to be so
kind to me, in his own home, when I came
a little stranger.

Then, there was dear old Jimmy, aunt
Mary's black and white kitty, who was just
as kind and loving to me as he could be, and
would roll and tumble and frolic from room
to room, just to amuse me.

He would lie, sometimes, between old
Sportum's big paws, purring away under his
chin, or snuggled close against his white
breast in a round black ball. Or if Spor-
tum was walking, Jimmy would whisk about
his forelegs, in and out, rubbing his silky
length caressingly against Old Dog, as they
often called him.

And he soon went through the same show
278

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

of love for me. In fact, aunt Mary thought
that Jimmy was giving me full more than
half his heart, as the days went on ; he would
'Pur-r-r-a-me-ow!' so loud and long to
find me, and run so joyously to meet me,
even though I took the stern duty upon me
of chastising him for playing with aunt
Mary's palms and ferns, ever after I saw
her snap his ears for doing it. He knew it
was wrong, but he was possessed to do it
whenever her back \vas turned, and the
pretty umbrella plant, in particular, he was
determined to nibble.

After I heard aunt Mary say, - ' Jimmy,
I shall not allow you to do this - I've got
to punish you every time I catch you at it ! '
I took the whole responsibility of guarding
the plants upon myself; and fond as I \vas
of Jimmy, whenever he forgot himself, and
went clawing up a lovely great palm, or
nibbling away at the green points, I pounced
noisily upon him and pinched his black tail
with an indignant high-pitched: 'mind
what you are about, Jimmy!' that brought
him to his sober senses, and made aunt
Mary and the doctor laugh merrily when
they were within earshot. They said

279

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

there was a little smack of self-righteousness
about my discipline; but such big words
made me feel all the more important. I
own up to hoping aunt Mary would hear

.-,

the little fracas and come hastily in to add
her reproaches to mine, as she often did.

But Jimmy knew well enough that down

deep in my heart I loved him dearly too, and

from those winter days forth, he would never

leave me. Wherever I went, his little white-

280

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

nosed, white-breasted, white-mittened figure
went gliding after. Wherever I slept, he
watched and waited for my waking, wTith
his plaintive and oft-repeated 'Pur-r-ra-
me-ow ! '

I began to be happy and content, because
I was surrounded by love, the true Heart' s-
ease. Aunt Mary would read aloud to the
doctor mamma's letters all about the won-
derful lands they were journeying through,
and the letters always ended with thanking
them both for all the love and care they were
giving her little Fairy, and sent her love and
papa's to me. So I began to hope I should
sometime see their dear faces again, but
aunt Mary found she must not say they
were coming:, because I watched and lis-

o"

tened so intently day in and day out.

I would lie in the big reclining-chair be-
side her while she made beautiful lace, in
the long winter evenings, and I slept on her
arm at night. When the early spring days
came, I had a splendid race all around the
garden with old Sportum every morning;
I was so spry, he had to cut across lots to
catch me.

Sometimes I would have on my brown

281

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

velvet blanket and big blue bow, and go up
to the minister's house, and around the little
village among the church people, with aunt
Mary. I would caper along the country
road, tossing my head and looking back at
her, to see if she were coming, and she found
there was no need for using my chain, where
all was so safe.

I followed the doctor around, when he
was planting the big vegetable garden, for
it had made him \vell to work out in the
bright, fresh air, and he had always led such
a busy life, he loved to be doing something.

The singing blue-birds, the red-breasted
robins, and the swreet song-sparrows flitted
around us, coming in crowds to meet the
spring.

" The voice whose welcomes were so glad,

Feet pattering like summer showers,
The dark eyes which would look so sad
If gathering tears were dimming ours. '

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

The sweet mayflowers had come and
gone, and the rosebuds were opening their
red hearts to the warm sunshine, when, one
lovely morning, early at breakfast, I pricked

282

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

up my little brown ears, for I heard aunt
Mary say :

"Is it best to tell her, yet?"

'Oh yes, I think so," answered the doc-
tor, 'for if all went well, the steamer got
into New York yesterday and they are on
their way here now.'

They thought they were talking low, but

I caught a note of expectancy in their voices.
I sprang from my basket and laid my little
fore paws on the doctor's knee and looked
in his face, with such great, eager, question-
ing eyes, while little tremors shook my
form, that he said:

'The secret's out, aunt Mary; little Fairy
knows what we are talking about; she knows
her papa and her mamma are coming home
to-day!"

283

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

Oh, how I danced about then! How 1
flew to the window; how I listened at the
door, and strained my eyes to watch the long,
curving driveway, and looked out to the
eastward across the Cove, where I had seen
them disappearing, so many months before.

"It would be dreadful for the little heart,
now, if they should not come,' said aunt
Mary.

So, between hope and fear, we watched
and waited. The clock kept telling off the
hours, more than I could count. The day
was almost half gone, when, suddenly, there
came the rattle of wheels in the gravel drive,

- a carriage was approaching, hidden by
the shrubbery, from the south entrance.

I flew through aunt Mary's palms and
ferns, I never knew how, and pressed my
little face against the glass, trembling from
head to foot, my eyes big with anxious ex-
pectancy.

I couldn't find a voice to bark, my feelings
were too intense; my breath came with little
quivering gasps.

Yes! Oh yes! A lady was stepping
from the carriage. Was it mamma ? I had

never seen that dress nor that hat before,

284

.>

/ flew through Aunt Mary's palms and ferns.

'

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

and I was not far-sighted, but the moment
she turned toward the house, her very first
movement told me, and, with a glad cry, I
bounded to the front hall, aunt Mary fol-
lowing eagerly, and, before the door could
swing wride on its hinges, I was in mamma's
arms to claim a thousand kisses and caresses.
The long lost was found ! But with a sudden
fear at my heart, I stopped and looked with
searching gaze in her face.

Where \vas my dear papa? I ran back
and forth between her and the door; I vi-
brated between joy and sorrow. Aunt
Mary turned the same look of swift inquiry
on mamma, as soon as the first eager greet-
ing was past.

4 He is here," said mamma, 'but we
feared it would be too much for little Fairy,
so he stayed behind at the driveway en-
trance with the doctor, who wras watching
for us there.'

I caught at her meaning and cleared the
steps with a bound, just in time for papa,
who was hurrying up, to catch me in his
welcoming arms, while I went all over him,
kissing, crying, quivering with delight. And
so we were all re-united.

287

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

' I was afraid her little heart might burst
for very joy, if we both came upon her at
once," said papa.

This was a parting which had a happy
ending; and when the island home was
opened, there were many welcoming guests

and many curios from foreign lands which
papa and mamma had brought home. I
sniffed them with my long, keen-scented
nose and knew they came from the lands
where the far-away letters did.

I sat in one of the old Damascus chairs,
inlaid with pearl, to have my picture taken
288

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

for you. Old Damascus! Where Saint
Paul was going, mamma said, when he met
the Christ, who turned him from his cruel
purpose toward men. You think He never
showed Himself in pity to a humble little
creature like me, but you must not be too
sure.

289

CHAPTER XIX

O FAITHFUL follower, O gentle friend,

If thou art missing at the journey's end,

Whate'er of joy or solace there I find

Unshared by thee I left so far behind,

The gladness will be mixed with tears, I trow,

My little cronie of the long ago.

For how could heaven be home-like with the door

Fast-locked against a loved one ever more ? v

(By Permission.) RICHARD BURTOX.

I CLUNG to mamma closer than ever
now. I never wished to see those dread-
ful trunks and bags with their foreign
labels. The sight of the necessary packing,
in going to and from our city home, made
me ill with fear, and something seemed to
lay heavy on mamma's heart, for one soft
spring evening, when we had gotten back to
the island home, she said to papa:

4 1 shall never leave little Fairy again so
long as she is spared to me. She shall never
watch and wait for me, in this world, any

more.'

290

She could see a sad, mysterious something in
my brown eyes."

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

I gave a little quivering sigh, as I lay on
her arm and crept closer to her heart. She
could see a sad, mysterious something in
my brown eyes, that no words, no human
words, could express. The shadow of part-
ing lay heavy and dark on my sensitive
spirit, despite her comforting words, and
the shadow grew deeper.

They took me to ride often, behind dear,
gentle Don and Dora, whose chestnut coats
glistened in the bright sunshine, as we spun
along through the green wood, or over the
white shell road overlooking such lovely
views of the blue shimmering sea, with its
fleet of snowy sails, because I loved riding
so. I tried to be brave and cheery,

293

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

but a dull pain was growing in my little
breast.

I had slipped and fallen across the car-
riage step some years before, and hit hard
on its iron edge; but the injury did not show
as anything serious for a long while. Now,
however, it grew rapidly worse, and despite
my best efforts to mingle with the life and
pleasures of the household, mamma's anx-
ious eyes saw I was hiding my suffering.
Papa's face was very sad, when she told him
her grave fears, and they called a kind and
skilled veterinary surgeon from the adjoin-
ing town. He, too, shook his head gravely,
when he examined my ailment, and said:

'I fear I can do nothing; she is too deli-
cately organized to survive the treatment,
even if there were a chance of cure/" and he
added in a low voice:

'Madam, I must tell you I have never
been able to save a little dog, after that sad,
haunted look comes into their beautiful
eyes. There is something very strange and
mysterious about it; they can read fate and
the future far better than we; and I must
say, used to these things as I am, as a sur-
geon for many years, the look that many a
294

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

tender household pet has given me, when
they have lain down under an operation,
never to wake again, has haunted me for
many a day. No, madam, you love her
too well, I must be frank with you.':

Papa thanked him, in a sad voice, as he
drew rein at the station, and the kind
stranger stepped aboard the departing train.
I had heard his prophetic words, but I
knew it all before.

But my own dear doctor, who had asked
for this consultation, said he could not bear
to give me up without every effort to save
me by milder means.

I had seen him, so often, tenderly bind the
broken wing of some poor bird, and that of
Dandy Jim, the black crow, when the gale
once caught him, with his feathers dripping
wet, in the oak tree, and tore and broke his
poor wing. The doctor whittled two nice
little braces of light pine and dressed and
bound it, so it got well and handsome as ever.
I had seen him sew and dress old Sportum's
wounds, and even those of his enemy, when
he had gotten into a melee beyond his years,
in defence of me. Sportum wouldn't even
own he was sorry, not even when the sharp

295

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

needle was stitching through the ragged
edges of his wound, and the doctor saw it in
his eyes, and said:

'I believe you'd do it right over again,
you old rascal, you!'

Sportum was just saucy enough to thump
out: ' Yes, I would!' with three sharp raps
of his tail, which was the only part he could
move wThile he was being sewed up, and he
gave me a sly wink out of the corner of his
eye.

I had seen the doctor, too, leave his busy
cares to rowT out hastily and rescue from a
watery grave a fledgling robin who had es-
sayed too boldly on his untried wTings. So
tenderly did he feel toward every little living
thing, that I had perfect trust in him. I
had heard mamma say:

The doctor has more of the spirit of the
Great Physician, who healed and comforted
by the sea of Galilee, than many a louder-
mouthed professor, who has never thought
of all the tender creatures outside the pale
of man, nor read, between the lines of Holy
Writ, God's constant admonition to be kind
to all His children, even His little four-
footed ones.'
296

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

So my little heart was comforted ; and day
by day, through the beautiful June, she took
me in the carriage to the skilful friend, whose
hand was guided by a true and tender love
for me, whose every touch was gentleness,
and whose every word soothed and com-
forted me, in my sore distress.

" Or is there something yet to come,

From all our science still concealed,
About the patient creature dumb
A secret yet to be rerealed ?

"A happy secret still behind

Yet for the mute creation stored
Which suffers, though it never sinned,
And loves and toils without reward ? '

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

I would hurry, of my own accord, into my
clear doctor's office-room, while old Spor-
tum and the handsome new dog, Donnie,
with his shining brown-and-black brindled
coat, with white dress front, and four white
stockings, sat sorrowfully by.

I would climb on his table, and lie down
upon my back before the doctor, and fold
my little fore paws across my heart, so pa-
tiently, and look up in his face with such

297

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

faith and trust, and kiss the hand that sought
to aid me, though it had to give me pain,
that often his eyes were dim with tears as
he dressed my wounded breast, and aunt
Mary and poor mamma, who sat beside to
aid him, could not restrain their own.

Aunt Mary had made me three pretty

little harnesses of white strapping, with

small gilt buckles, to hold the dressing in

place, because she said I was too beautiful

to wear anything unsightly, and every day

I had on a fresh one. When the dressing

was nearly complete, the doctor would say:

'Little Fairy will never, never scold her

298

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

dear old doctor, 'cause she knows he can't
help hurting a little bit. Now the doctor's
going to say Roily-poly! pretty soon, pretty
soon.''

Thus his playful words helped me bear
the long ordeal, for I knew he was about to
roll me gently over, and buckle the last little
gilt buckle. Then I would spring on my
feet and put my little arms around his neck,
in joyful gratitude, and try to smile through
my pain, out of my great brown eyes.

• t>

299

CHAPTER XX

: HE knows, who gave that love sublime,
And gave that strength of feeling great,
Above all human estimate."

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

BUT, in spite of all that those who so
dearly loved and so earnestly sought
to save me could do, my strength
failed as the hot summer days drew on apace
and my hold on this beautiful world was
loosening. I had made a long, brave fight
for life.

Poor mamma watched and tended me
day after day; she had no heart for the sails,
the rides, the laughter of her guests, since I
could take no part with them. Early and
late she strove to ease my pain, and papa
strove to help her.

I would lie on my pillow beside her at
night, and look out on the lonely sea, that
seemed to lead so far, far away in the moon-
light, and try to bear my pain and loneliness
300

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

while mamma slept for a few brief hours;
but sometimes, when the pain and loneli-
ness grew too great to bear, I would touch
her cheek softly with my little paw and give
just the gentlest, saddest cry to waken her,
for I could not even turn now without her
help.

She would waken quickly and arise, and

strive with all her power to ease my suffer-
ing. Often she would take me in her arms,
and go out and walk slowly with me, in the
cool of the summer midnight. I loved to
drag my little faltering steps to the lily-pond
and the fountain, and moisten my parched
throat with the sweet waters I loved so well.
Or, again, to stand in the moonlight, under
the great crimson-rambler roses by the stone

301

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

well-house, and as their crimson shower of
falling blossoms, shaken by the night winds,
fell over my little fawn-like figure, like a sad
prophecy, poor mamma's heart would ache,
as though its own ruby drops were falling.
She had learned to love me so in the thir-

teen sweet years that my every heart-beat
had been for her and papa, and the dear
friends who had shown me affection. My
wistful eyes strained long over every depar-
ture; my watchful, silken ears rose and fell
at sound of every approaching footstep ; my
airy, dancing, caressing welcome was for
every glad return.
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YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

She thought, too, with sad foreboding,
how, in the beginning of my illness, four
blood-red, molten spikes, from the drift-
wood fire, had fallen, welded in a perfect
cross, on the hearth-stone of Island Haven,

- could it presage the loss of my faithful,
loving presence ?

No, no, dear hearts! Love is immortal,
if invisible. Although, in that beautiful
Sabbath morning, when the rosy dawn was
suffusing sea and sky, and rested like a bene-
diction on the two homes, I folded my meek
little fore paws over my snow-white breast,
and looked with long, tender farewell into

303

YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART

your tearful eyes, and my faithful spirit
fluttered out into the Unknown Country,
still, am I so far away? Can love like mine
ever sleep the sleep of forgetfulness, or
death ? Will it not watch, and wait, and
hope for you ?

" Into the Unknown Country.

304

EPILOGUE

" Where does the true Shekinah shine ?
Not far away. That Love doth brood
O'er lives the lowliest and most rude.
An angel's song, a bird-note clear,
Rise to the same all-listening ear."
(By Permission.) MRS. MARY JOHNSON.

1

"A HAT little form was laid in her snow-
white basket, whiter with interwoven
flowers. Too beautiful, too dear, she
seemed, to pass from sight, as they lowered
her, on her bed of blossoms, by the long white
ribbons to the pretty cedar house her dear
doctor had builded with his own hands. Be-
cause she loved Sportum's house so well,
he had builded it just like it, for he could
not bear to see that lovely form laid in the
common earth.

That little grave was lined with soft green
ferns, and the twenty-four pitying guests of
Island Haven gathered around, and each
cast a mist-white amaranthus flower upon
that fawn-like sleeper; one there was who

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EPILOGUE

laid a sweet white rose in the little folded
arms.

Then a real servant of God broke silence,
and told how many of the noblest song-sing-
ers of this world had paid tribute to lives
just like hers, Byron, Scott, Browning,
as well as later poets without number, whose
hearts had been moved by the undying love
and gratitude of some one of her humble
race, when the friends of their own had
turned false or cold.

He closed with his own tender lines on her
faithful life, as they laid her sleeping form to
rest by the watching Hebe of the fountain,
by the heart-shaped lily-pond, in the very
spot where she had run so often with joyous
feet to pose for a picture.

A fair-haired child stood there and wept
with them, and many a day, from that hour
to this, she has gathered the sweet wild
flowers and laid the last pale roses of sum-
mer on that little grave.

From that day to this, that loving pres-
ence speaks to one heart through all God's
gentle creatures; through all their soft, dark
eyes look forth eyes softer, brighter still;
every glad bird song sings to her of the great
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3C

EPILOGUE

all-encircling Heart, that holds and restores
all that is £ood and beautiful and true.

o

That gentle life bore its sweet mission
well. It taught all whose path it crossed
that love, and love alone, is invincible; for

by love alone it opened all hearts to itself;
it was all it had, - - all it needed, to offer.

In those days of pain and suffering, who
can ever forget that brave example of pa-
tience, and perfect trust, and obedience;
how, in dying, the love-light shone forth
undimmed from those beautiful eyes, to the
last little fluttering sigh ? Who can ponder

309

EPILOGUE

well and not be led to ask, whence cameth
and whither goeth this gentle life ?

So, one who can never forget, listens to
the matin hymn of the tiny song-sparrow,
trilling forth so close beside that little
mound, and sees that dear name spring
forth in flowery tracery of sweet crocus
bloom, amid the soft green, above that little
grave, sleeping in the sunshine, and is com-
forted.

Fairy, dear little Fairy! He who created
thy faithful, loving heart, He who watcheth
against the sparrow's fall - will He not
watch over thee ?

LIBRARY,

NEW YORK..

310

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JFairp'0 Kequiem j

READ AT HER GRAVE BY THE AUTHOR

THE REVEREND ALAN HUDSON

OUR FRIEND AND GUEST ON THAT SAD DAY

"PooR gentle thing! thy life at last is ended,

Thy days of pain and weakness over - - past;
With higher life thy little heart has blended,
While softly lies thy head beneath the grass.

"We place thee here beside the sunny fountain,
Where o'er thy head will blow the breath of

June;

The limpid waters thou did'st lap in often
Will murmur at thy grave their gentle tune.

"No sombre robe thy wounded breast shall

burden,

No long procession bear thee to the sod;
The flowers alone shall be thy loving guerdon.
The murmuring sea thy requiem to God.

'Thy little life was like a summer blossom,
Unknown to men who passed thee idly by;

But hearts there were who stooped to learn

thy lesson
Of friendship, pure and constant as the sky.

'Thy love though humble never knew deception;

Thy tongue though speechless ne'er con-
cealed a lie;
Thine eyes, as soft as tinted autumn lichen,

A truth revealed that was not born to die.

'O Thou who see'st the fall of sparrow wounded,
Whose hand in pity binds the bruised reed,

Teach us thy lawr in all creation grounded -
Unselfish love, the one and only creed.

'When human hearts deceive and round us

deaden,

When human lips our sacred trust betray,
Help us to stoop in humbleness unbidden
The love of low'ly creature to essay.

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' We cannot part the curtain of the Future,

We cannot tell what lies beyond the veil;
We only hope the love of friendly creature
On other shores may evermore avail.

"So, little friend, we lay thee down at sunset,
As fading beams play softly on thy breast ;
About thy weary head we strew the flowerets;
We leave thee to a calm and perfect rest.

" The singing birds will be thy boon companions,
The lilies fair shall bloom beside thy grave;
The silver sea will chant its solemn stanions
For thy young life so gentle, pure and
brave."

'/ CANNOT think thine all is buried here,'

I said and sighed- -the wind awoke and blew
The morning beam along the gossamer,

That floated o'er thy grave all wet with dew ;
A hint of better things, however slight,

Will feed a loving heart ; it soothed my woe,
To watch that little shaft of heavenly light

Pass o'er thee, moving gently to and fro."

CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER.