American essays; Short stories, American; Western stories
Soon after Tiny's advent, a young stag-hound was given to the captain,
and him she took under her wing, though in size he could boast of three
times her own volume. Dick, I am very sorry to own, was not so well
treated as Tiny; and I smite my breast even now, and say very
penitently, "_mea culpa_," when I think of how I hurt him, one day. I
was lying on the sofa, half asleep from the heat and the exertion of
cutting the leaves of a new magazine. Presently, Dick approached, and
before I could open my eyes, or ward him off, he had jumped on the sofa
and settled full on my head and face. Angry and half-stifled, I flung
the dog with all my might to the floor, where he set up such a pitiful
crying, that I knew he must be seriously hurt. Jumping up, I saw him,
quite a distance from the sofa, holding up his foreleg, on which his paw
was dangling in a loose, out-of-place manner. Comprehending what I had
done, I carried him into the next room, and poured the basin full of
water, in which I held his paw; and then bound rags on the dislocated
limb, steeping the paw into the water occasionally, to keep down the
swelling till the captain should come. Sorry as I felt for having
inflicted such pain on the poor animal, it was a perfect farce to watch
his proceedings, and I had laughed till my sides ached before the
captain got home. It so happened that mother and one or two other near
friends came in during the course of the day. As soon as any one entered
the room, Dick, who had been allowed to take up his quarters on a
blanket in the sitting-room, would hobble up, hold out his rag-wrapped
paw, and, elevating his nose, would utter heart-rending cries of pain,
thus "passing his hat for a pennyworth of sympathy," as unmistakably as
I have known human beings to do many a time before. Then, with cries and
grimaces, he would induce the beholder to follow him pityingly into the
next room, where he would immerse his foot in the water, as I had made
him do, once or twice. During this performance Tiny would keep close
behind him, and with little sympathetic whines, would echo all his cries
and complainings; and this show was repeated whenever they could get a
fresh spectator.
At the same time, we had in our possession a horse, which, for sagacity,
kindness, and docility, outshone all the horses I have ever had the
fortune to become acquainted with. Not the most partial admiration of
Kitty's many virtues could lead me into believing her to be beautiful,
though she was by no means an ugly horse. A bright bay, with well-shaped
head, she was too short-bodied, though the long legs seemed to lay claim
to an admixture of English blood. Kitty was a saddle-nag as well as
buggy-horse, and the captain always chose her when he had a fatiguing
ride to take; though, for my part, I should have scorned to be seen
mounted on an ugly, stump-tailed thing like her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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