Golden Moments | Page 4

"Only an old coat! That's what it is surely, but that old coat cost me a
good friend, it did. Poor old Tinker was worth more than a dozen
coats." So said Eli Watton, as he put the old coat over his shoulders,
and settled himself in his donkey-cart with a man by his side who had
asked for a lift.
"Who was poor old Tinker?" asked the stranger.
"My dog," answered Eli, "and a better one never followed any man.
Poor fellow! though he weren't much to look at. Well, I'll tell you how
it was I lost him, poor chap. Every Friday I have to drive into town to
fetch the clothes for my wife to wash, and I often had to go in again on
a Monday with clean ones. Tinker, poor fellow, used to go with me
most times, but I never gave much heed to him. He'd always follow

without a word. He was an ugly brute, people used to say--a sort of
lurcher, and he never got much petting from any one.
"Well, one day I drove as usual, and I had this old coat over the basket
of clothes. When I got to one house I suppose I pitched the old coat out,
but I never heeded it; and I never noticed whether Tinker was with me
or not. That night we missed Tinker; and my wife couldn't think what
I'd done with the old coat, and I couldn't remember anything about it.
"On Monday I had to go to that same house, and there I found my poor
old Tinker dead; they'd had him shot. I was in a way about it, I can tell
you. It was in this way, you see. This old coat was in a doorway, where
I suppose I threw it when I was taking down the basket. Old Tinker saw
I left it there, and he sat down upon it to keep it safe for me, showing
his teeth at anybody who offered to touch it. The servants got
frightened; they tried to beat him away, and they tried to coax him
away, but he wouldn't stir, and at last they thought he must be mad, and
told their mistress. She came and did all she could to coax the dog
away, for he was right in the way when they went out or in; but he
snarled at them all. He must have been pretty near starved, lying there
all Saturday night and Sunday, and I dare say he did get fiercer and
fiercer, so at last they got him shot.
"I've never had a dog along with me again. I don't suppose I shall ever
get one like Tinker. I always think of him when I take up this old coat;"
and Eli gave his donkey a cut with the whip, and I am not sure if there
was not something like a tear in his eye as he thought of his lost Tinker.
What did it matter that he was an ugly dog? He did his duty to the end
of his life, and which of us can do more?
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AMBITION.
I often wonder how Papa Can like to go to Town, And sit all day with
pen in hand, And write those figures down;
When he might take a boat and go A-sailing on the stream And with his

rod and line and reel Go fishing for the bream.
I think it must be that he likes To take the train and ride But I would
travel round the world And see the other side;
Find out where the Equator's drawn And what the Poles can be, And
where the sun goes when he's Beyond the shining sea.
F. Wyville Home.
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THE GOOD AND BAD FAIRIES.
Two houses stood side by side, as much alike as two twins.
Honeysuckle and sweetbrier climbed over the rustic porches, flowers
bloomed gayly in the gardens, and the warm sun shone equally on both.
In each lived a little girl who had an invisible fairy companion. The
children were the same size, the same age, and had the same
advantages, with this difference, that the one fairy was good and the
other bad.
A ray of sunshine glides through the window into the first house, and
shines encouragingly on little Minnie, who is trying to do her lessons.
But the bad fairy has set her pygmies to work. One persuades her that
she will do her lessons better if she sits in an easy-chair, another puts a
cushion at her back, while a third fans her face so gently that the soft
breeze, fragrant with honeysuckle and sweetbrier, soon sends her off to
sleep, but not to rest. To her dismay the pygmy sweep comes round