The Adventures of a Dog, and a Good Dog Too | Page 7

do with making me feel so,
but--I was still very young. Taking courage, I went on tiptoe to the
great lady, and begged her to buy a box of "fire-flies" of a poor dog
who had no other means of gaining his bread. Now, you must know
that these matches had not a pleasant smell--few matches have; but as
they were shut up in the box, the odour could not have been very
sensible. However, when I held up the article towards her ladyship, she
put her paw to her nose--as though to shut out the odour--uttered a low
howl, and, though big enough and strong enough to have sent me head
over heels with a single blow, seemed on the point of falling to the
ground. But at the instant, two male servants, whom I had not seen, ran
to her assistance, while I, who was the innocent cause of all this
commotion, stood like a silly dog that I was, with my box in the air and
my mouth wide open, wondering what it all meant. I was not suffered
to remain long in ignorance; for the two hounds in livery, turning to me,
so belaboured my poor back that I thought at first my bones were
broken; while the young puppy, who, it appears, was her ladyship's
youngest son, running behind me, while I was in this condition, gave
my tail such a pull as to cause me the greatest pain. They then left me
in the middle of the road, to reflect on my ill success in trade, and
gather up my stock as I best could.
I do not know what it was which made me so anxious to learn the name
and rank of the lady doggess who had been the cause of my severe
punishment, but I eagerly inquired of a kind mongrel, who stopped to
help me collect my scattered goods, if he knew anything about her. He
said, she was called Lady Bull; that her husband. Sir John Bull, had
made a large fortune somehow, and that they lived in a splendid house,
had about thirty puppies, little and big, had plenty of servants, and
spent a great deal of money. He could hardly imagine, he said, that it
was the odour of the "fire-flies" which had occasioned me to be
knocked down for upsetting her ladyship, as she had been a butcher's
daughter, and was used to queer smells, unless her nose had perhaps
got more delicate with her change of position.
He said much more about her and her peculiarities than I either
remember or care to repeat; but, imagining he had some private reasons

for saying what he did, I thanked him for his trouble, and bid him good
day.
Whatever the cause of my failure, it seemed that I was not fitted for the
match-business. At all events, the experience of that morning did not
encourage me sufficiently to proceed. So, returning the unsold
"fire-flies" to old Fily, I made him a present of the time I had already
spent in his service, and, with a thoughtful face and aching bones, took
my way towards the kennel by the water-side.

CHANGES.
The sun was just going down as I came in sight of the river and the row
of poor kennels which stood on the bank, many of them, like our own,
projecting half over the water. I could not help wondering at the pretty
effect they made at a distance, with the blue river dancing gaily by their
side, the large trees of the wood on the opposite bank waving in beauty,
and the brilliant sun changing everything that his rays fell upon into
gold. He made the poor kennels look so splendid for the time, that no
one would have thought the animals who lived in them could ever be
poor or unhappy. But when the rich light was gone,--gone with the sun
which made it to some other land,--it seemed as if the whole place was
changed. The trees shivered as though a cold wind was stirring them.
The river ran dark and sullenly by the poor houses; and the houses
themselves looked more wretched, I thought, than they had ever
appeared before. Yet, somehow, they were more homelike in their
dismal state than when they had a golden roof and purple sides, so,
resuming my walk, for I had stopped to admire the pretty picture, I
soon came near the door.
It was open, as usual. But what was not usual, was to hear other sounds
from within than the voice of the old doggess, making ceaseless moans.
Now it seemed as if all the doggesses of the neighbourhood had met in
the poor hut to pass the evening, for there was such