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VER5MT ur 
 ALIFORNiA A 
 
STORIES ABOUT - 
 
'Baflantgne %pm& 
 
 BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
One Lilly "black gentleman to gee Massa. — p. 20 
 
STORIES ABOUT 
 
 By LADY BARKER, 
 
 author of "svbil's book." 
 
 Bciu Coition, 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LONDON: * 
 
 FREDERICK WARNE AND CO, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. ABOUT MONKEYS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 II. ABOUT JAMAICA 28 
 
 III. AUNT ANNIE'S STORIES ABOUT HORSES ... 78 
 
 IV. FOUR MONTHS IN CAMP 105 
 
 V. ABOUT DOGS l68 
 
 VI. ABOUT BOYS 200 
 
 VII. 'EDINBUPGH CASTLE ' 23O 
 
 VIII. THE GRAVE BY THE RAKAIA 266 
 
LIST 
 
 OF 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 TURK AND JESSIE . ~. , 
 
 Title-page 
 
 'ONE LILLY BLACK GENLEMANS TO SEE MASSA ' To face page 26 
 
 MASTER GRANNY AND HIS PETS o 
 
 >> ,, 52 
 
 NETTLE AND THE ELEPHANT 
 
 M J» 144 
 
 punch's toilet 
 
 ,, 180 
 
*+* Of these Stories some are reprinted from the pages of 
 ' Good Words for the Young.' 
 
ABOUT MONKEYS. 
 
 I never can tell a story properly unless there are 
 several little listeners gathered round me, and I 
 like to have one rosy-cheeked darling to cuddle 
 up on my lap ; so now we must fancy all these pre- 
 parations made, a bright fire burning, before which 
 we have settled ourselves comfortably, and we know 
 that nurse is not coming with her fatal tap at the 
 door (which must be instantly obeyed, remember'; 
 for a whole hour yet. I think I hear a chorus of 
 little voices say, ' Go on, please.' 'What shall the 
 stories be about to-night ? Let me see ; what do I 
 know about monkeys ? not out of books, or from 
 other people's lips ; these will be monkeys of ray 
 personal acquaintance. 
 

 
 2 STORIES ABOUT [i 
 
 In case any little boys or girls wish very much 
 to have a monkey for their very own, I will first warn 
 them by telling them of three attempts I made to set 
 up one of these animals as a pet. My first monkey 
 was brought to me early one morning at Lucknow, a 
 great city in India, a few years ago. I had only been 
 a fortnight in India, and about two days at Lucknow. 
 The evening before, at a dinner-party, I happened to 
 say how much I should like to have a monkey, and 
 immediately four voices said, ' Oh ! I will give you 
 mine with pleasure.' When I thought of this after- 
 wards, it looked very suspicious that the owners of 
 the monkeys should be so ready to part with them ; 
 it seemed as though they had been rather trouble- 
 some pets ; but at the time I only felt how good- 
 natured everybody was, and how much I should like 
 to be able to accept all four monkeys ; but as this 
 was impossible, I contented myself with selecting 
 one whose master gave him an excellent character. 
 My last thought at night and my first in the morn- 
 ing was one of joy and impatience to see my 
 
i] MONKEYS. 3 
 
 — — * 
 
 new pet. It is the custom in India, as I daresay 
 you have heard, to get up very early, so by six o'clock 
 I was dressed in a loose muslin wrapper, and sitting 
 under the shade of a beautiful clump of trees in the 
 garden. The lady with whom we were spending a 
 few days was with me, and we had some delicious 
 coffee and biscuits on a table before us for our chota- 
 hasseri, or 'little breakfast.' Our husbands had 
 gone to a review, and we two ladies intended to be 
 very industrious, and take a lesson in Hindostanee 
 from a Moonshee with a long white beard. The old 
 gentleman had not yet arrived to teach us, so I in- 
 quired whether my dear monkey had made its ap- 
 pearance, and heard that it was in the 6 compound ' 
 or courtyard, and that its late master had sent the 
 servant who always took care of it, in case I wished 
 to secure his services. I wanted to have the mon- 
 key brought to me at once, but as the Moonshee could 
 now be seen coming slowly up the garden-walk, 
 looking very clean and nice with his snow-white 
 
4 STORIES ABOUT [i 
 j 
 
 robes and turban, Mrs. E persuaded me to wait 
 
 till our lesson was over. 
 
 I am sadly afraid that, although I was big enough 
 and old enough to know better, the poor Moonshee 
 had one rather idle and inattentive pupil that morn- 
 ing, and I was very glad when the time came for 
 shutting up the books with their dreadful crabbed 
 
 letters, and Mrs. E kindly said, ' Xow, shall we 
 
 send for the monkey?' I need not tell you how 
 eagerly I answered 6 Yes,' to this proposal ; and a few 
 moments afterwards I saw a tall swarthy Indian ser- 
 vant approaching us, making low bows down to the 
 ground at every step. He was leading a monkey by 
 a chain round its waist, and carrying a plate in the 
 other hand. I could not tell the height of the ani- 
 mal on account of its shambling way of half-walking 
 half-crawling, but it turned out afterwards to be 
 about as tall as the table ; it was not quite black, 
 but very glossy. When they were within two or 
 three yards of us, the ' mater ' (as that class of low- 
 caste servant is called in India) said, ' Salaam, Bob- 
 
!] MONKEYS. 
 
 bee,' and Bobby put his black paw up to his forehead, 
 and slapped it several times, bending low as he did 
 so, exactly in the way the mater had been going on 
 ever since he came in sight. It is the Indian way 
 of saying ' How do you do? ' or ' Good morning.' I was 
 delighted of course, and thought Bobby had charm- 
 inc manners, but when he came closer I did not 
 quite like his being so big and strong, or so very in- 
 quisitive ; he did not seem in the least shy, but 
 made himself at home directly, and when his servant 
 put the fruit and cake which he had brought for 
 him on the table before me, Master Bobby quickly 
 climbed up and seated himself on my knee, as if he 
 had known me all his life. As soon as he had 
 finished his breakfast, — and he did not take long 
 about it, — the mater took away the empty plate, and 
 with many more salaams retired leaving Bobby still 
 on my knee, very busy examining my buckle and 
 ear-rings, pricking his fingers with my brooch, and 
 every now and then stroking my hair. I was not at 
 all easy in my mind, but sat quite still, and tried to 
 
1 STORIES ABOUT / |_i 
 
 conceal from Bobby that I disliked bis company or 
 felt frightened. After a little while he noticed some 
 ribbon on my sleeve, and tried to pick it off with 
 his finger and thnmb, as if it had been a flower ; he 
 next set to work diligently to roll up the wide open 
 sleeve of my dressing-gown into a long narrow 
 bundle : this he did very slowly and neatly, chatter- 
 ing softly to himself all the time. By degrees he 
 got it all rolled up to my shoulder, leaving* my arm 
 quite bare. I sat patiently waiting to see what he 
 was going to do next, when he gave a sort of yell, 
 dug his nails and teeth into my arm, and tore it 
 down to the wrist, leaving four or five rows of bleed- 
 ing scratches on it. I jumped up with a scream, 
 which brought all the servants out to see what was 
 the matter ; not one of them would touch him, but 
 some ran to call the mater, who carried Master 
 Bobby off kicking and fighting like a naughty child. 
 
 He had fastened on poor Mrs. E 's foot after I 
 
 had shaken him off my lap, and was biting and 
 scratching it with all his might. 
 
!] MONKEYS. 
 
 In the meantime my arm was smarting dreadfully ; 
 it did not bleed much, but the pain was really very 
 severe, and I had to keep wet cloths wrapped round 
 it all day. The servants told us that the mater had 
 already confessed that Bobby was 'very bad to 
 Mem-sahibs,' and did not like them at all ; so after 
 our breakfast I wrote a polite little note to his former 
 master, and returned Bobby to him with many 
 thanks. This was the end of my first attempt to 
 have a pet monkey; he was only mine for two 
 hours. 
 
 A year or so afterwards I was on my way back to 
 England, and the ship stopped at Ceylon for a few 
 days. I had been told that most beautiful little 
 monkeys were to be bought there ; and all the time 
 we were at Point-de-Galle I tried very hard to find 
 one to purchase, but it was too early in the spring 
 for the young ones to be taken from their mothers, 
 so there were none in the market. I returned, after 
 a week's absence on shore, very disconsolately to the 
 ship without having succeeded in procuring a monkey ; 
 
T 
 
 STORIES ABOUT t / fi 
 
 but the first person I met on board was the fat, good- 
 natured old captain nursing tenderly in his arms a 
 wee monkey of a beautiful tawny-golden colour, 
 and with the gentlest, sweetest little face. The 
 moment the dear old gentleman saw me he came 
 up, and before I could speak, handed me the trea- 
 sure, saying, ' I knew you would not be able to 
 get one at this time of year, and a friend of mine 
 promised to keep one for me, so here it is for your 
 very own.' You may imagine how delighted I was ; 
 this was exactly the sort of monkey I had always 
 wanted, and I did not know how to leave off thanking 
 the captain. For the next day or two I nursed and 
 fondled my monkey incessantly ; it was very shy, and 
 as quiet as a little mouse, but the most engaging 
 gentle creature. Its timidity was not at all like 
 stupidity, for it was very intelligent, but seemed 
 completely dazed by the noise and bustle of a large 
 steamer full of passengers. There was a squalling 
 baby on board, whom it never tired of watching, I 
 suppose because it was nearest its own size ; and 
 
il MONKEYS. 
 
 when this infant was on deck and set up one of its 
 shrill shrieks, the monkey used to stop its ears with 
 its tiny fingers, and look up piteously in my face, 
 as much as to say, ' What a horrid noise ! ' 
 
 Unfortunately for my pretty little pet, I fell ill, 
 and could not have the monkey in my cabin, but I 
 was assured that the head steward, in whose care it 
 was solemnly placed, looked after it, and reported 
 well of its state of health. As soon as ever I could 
 get on deck I asked for my monkey to be brought 
 to me, but saw at once that something was wrong, 
 for every one to whom I applied put me off with a 
 different excuse ; so after dinner, in the cool of the 
 evening, when our dear old captain came to speak to 
 me, I begged him to take me ' forrard ' (as the front 
 part or bow of a ship is called) that I might find 
 out how and where my monkey was. I could only 
 walk very slowly, for I was weak still ; and whilst we 
 were crawling towards the place where the sheep and 
 poultry were kept, the captain told me there was a 
 very large fierce monkey also on board called ' Jenny,' 
 
10 STORIES ABOUT \ V [i 
 
 belonging to the crew, and that she had caught sight 
 of my poor little darling, seized it in her arms, and 
 that nothing would induce her to part with it for 
 an instant night or day. She seemed very fond of it, 
 but her affection was evidently so disagreeable to my 
 little pet, that the sailors had watched her incessantly 
 to try and get it out of her clutches ; however, as 
 she always vented her rage at these attempts on the 
 unoffending monkey, whom she cuffed and shook 
 heartily, the men thought it best to leave her alone, 
 hoping she would tire some day of her plaything. 
 When the captain and I came upon her she had my 
 poor monkey tucked under one arm, and was skip- 
 ping about the bulwarks. You never saw anything 
 so forlorn as the little one looked. One of its eyes 
 was bleeding from a scratch its nurse had just given 
 it, and it went to my heart to see the melancholy 
 way it put its little black paw up to the wound, and 
 showed me the blood on its fingers. 
 
 Weak and ill as I still was, and armed only with 
 my parasol, I determined at once to rescue my 
 
i] MONKEYS, / 11 
 
 monkey from Jenny's tender mercies, so I let go the 
 captain's arm; and though he and everybody else 
 entreated me to take care, for Jenny was very 
 ferocious when roused, I boldly attacked her, and 
 fairly drove her into a corner where there were no 
 ropes by which to escape up the rigging. I made 
 up my mind not to care in the least for scratches or 
 bites ; I suppose Jenny perceived that I was des- 
 perate, and, sooner than let me have her favourite 
 plaything, she seized it by its tail, whirled it round 
 her head, and flung it into the sea ! Oh ! how 
 grieved and angry I felt. It was quite useless to 
 attempt to save my poor little pet, for we were going 
 full speed, and no one could see even where it fell : 
 it must have been drowned in a minute. I fairly 
 sat down and cried, and I should have liked Jenny to 
 have been well punished ; but no one dare touch her, 
 so she escaped to the rigging, from which she chat- 
 tered defiance at us. 
 
 My third and last pet monkey was not mine at all ! 
 Joey belonged to some one else in the house, but 
 
12 STORIES ABOUT [i 
 
 attached himself to me from the moment he arrived, 
 as his friend and protectress, and I never saw any- 
 animal so fond of a human being as Joey was, and 
 I may say is, of me, though he no longer lives in 
 the same house, having been exchanged by his owner 
 for a musical box! Since his departure from his 
 first home I have been to call on him once or twice, 
 and he is always delighted to see me, and cries 
 piteously when it is time for me to go away. 
 
 Joey came last year from the great forests near 
 Panama, and when I first saw him after his sea- 
 voyage I thought him more like a little black imp 
 than anything else. He was very small and hideous, 
 quite black, with a white beard and enormous eyes ; 
 having lived in a rough box or cage on board, he 
 had rubbed all the hair off his body and tail, and 
 was very thin and dirty besides : he was made to 
 undergo a whole course of warm baths on his arrival, 
 which he hated ; but they improved him immensely, 
 and in a few weeks he became completely clothed in 
 a coat of long glossy black hair, and as handsome as he 
 
MONKEYS. 13 
 
 •was capable of looking, which, however, is not saying 
 much. Joey never was shy ; his intelligence and 
 cleverness were extraordinary; bnt it was impossible 
 to make a pet of him on account of his incurably 
 dirty habits, and his unceasing mischief. He was 
 never still for a second, and always doing something 
 wrong, and yet he was so inexpressibly ridiculous 
 that no one had the heart to punish him ; he quite 
 understood that he had been naughty, but he had a 
 way of scratching his head when we were scolding 
 him, and looking at us as much as to say, ' "Well, 
 now, really I didn't think that was any harm.' Our 
 home at that time was in the country, so Joey had 
 a wide field for mischief; and, as he arrived whilst 
 it was still summer, he commenced some extensive 
 gardening operations of his own at once, which 
 resulted in depriving me of every leaf and blossom 
 on my creepers. No chain could keep him confined; 
 it was merely a question of time. Joey sat down 
 to consider how to get rid of every attempt to fasten 
 him up, and his little clever fingers always contrived 
 
 l^ 
 
14 STORIES ABOUT / [i 
 
 
 
 to free himself. He would eat or drink almost any- 
 thing, but he was not at all greedy ; the food he 
 liked best was bread and milk, but he took very 
 little of even that. How you would have laughed 
 to see Joey and his favourite companion the kitten 
 shaving their morning meal of milk ! He soon 
 taught the kitten that he was to have the first drink, 
 and would lift the little cup up to his lips, take as 
 much as he wanted, placing it on the floor for the 
 kitten afterwards ; but whilst she was lapping slowly 
 and with great difficulty, Joey would get impatient, 
 and shake the cup to hasten her movements, walk all 
 round her, tweaking her tail or nipping her fur ; but 
 the kitten never stopped lapping, and when he could 
 bear it no longer he used suddenly to drag her head 
 up by both her ears, snatch away the cup, and either 
 break it to pieces as the shortest way of disposing of 
 it, or nimbly mount up on a table or chair and put 
 it out of poor Pussy's reach. The worst of this play- 
 fellow for Joey was that she wanted to play ill 
 night and sleep all day, whereas Joey never was still 
 
T| MONKEYS. 1-3 
 
 for a second in the daylight, but, as soon as it became 
 dusk, he rolled himself up in his blanket and went to 
 sleep. He could not bear to be disturbed, and used 
 to get into furious rages with the kitten, after vainly 
 trying to pursuade her to be quiet and share his 
 blanket with him. I had to watch Joey incessantly 
 on account of his love of hearing the crash china made 
 in falling ; the cook could not keep a cup or plate 
 on the dresser — they had to be stowed away in 
 drawers, and for several weeks Joey tried to get at 
 a thermometer which hung outside the house : it 
 baffled him for some time, but at last he discovered 
 a projecting nail, round which he curled his long 
 tail, swung himself up, and had the great satisfaction 
 of making a splendid smash of it. Fortunately the 
 only room in the house into which he would not 
 venture alone was the drawing-room. On each side 
 of the fireplace stood screens of stuffed Indian 
 pheasants of bright and gaudy plumage. Joey was 
 horribly afraid of these, and when I took him into 
 the room never ceased clinging tight round my neck 
 
16 STORIES ABOUT [i 
 
 with one slender paw, whilst he covered his face 
 with the other, and peeped at the birds with evident 
 awe. One day I heard extraordinary sounds of 
 choking proceeding from a bedroom as I passed it ; 
 the door was closed, but not fastened, so I first 
 knocked, and then, as no one answered, looked in. 
 There was Joey seated on the dressing-table, with 
 his head back, waving his long arms, his eyes start- 
 ing out of his head, and at the last gasp for want of 
 breath. I found he was trying to swallow a largo 
 signet-ring which he had found, and it had stuck in 
 his throat ; there was enough of it in his mouth for 
 me to take hold of, and I got it up with much 
 difficulty ; but that was very nearly Joey's last trick, 
 for if some one had not passed he must have died 
 soon. He had previously put everything in the room 
 which could be squeezed down its neck into the 
 water-jug; the soap and sponges were there, so were 
 several trinkets lying about and a small pincushion ; 
 the candles (he had broken the candlesticks) and a 
 slipper were sticking out at the top. 
 
I j MONKEYS. 17 
 
 I must tell you one more amusement of Joey's, 
 and that will be the last about him — for a wonder 
 it was not destructive mischief. I missed him one 
 morning, and spent at least two hours in hunting 
 for him, feeling sure he was doing something very 
 naughty by his being so quiet. I searched the 
 house first thoroughly, then the stables, even the 
 coal shed, looked into the washhouse, without 
 seeing him, when just as I was leaving the last 
 place I heard a very gentle chirrup proceeding from 
 behind a pile of empty boxes, and I immediately 
 went softly to see what he was doing. In one of 
 the boxes was a quantity of feathers, and on these 
 the old cat and her kitten had lain down to have a 
 quiet sleep. Joey had found them out, and as they 
 would not wake up and play with him, he amused 
 himself as well as he could by covering them up 
 with feathers; he had succeeded in hiding the 
 kitten completely, and the cat's ear was the only 
 part of her to be seen. Joey was doing his best to 
 hide this also, but however gently he laid a small 
 
/!L 
 
 <8 STORIES ABOUT / L i 
 
 feather on it, the cat twitched her ear, and the 
 feather came off. Joey hunted among the boxful 
 for a still lighter feather and tried again, laying it 
 down with the utmost care, but in vain. After 
 many attempts he brought me one and made me 
 try, but my clumsy touch had no chance when his 
 tiny paw had failed. I left him still trying to cover 
 that restless ear. 
 
 Now I think perhaps you would like to hear a 
 little of monkeys who were not pets by any means. 
 Whilst I was in India we went up to Simla very 
 early in the season, before the houses were filled 
 with people ; and as the place is nearly deserted in 
 the cold winter months, the monkeys, bears, and 
 panthers get very tame, and I am told almost live 
 in the verandahs of the empty houses. I never saw 
 either a bear or a panther, — they betake themselves 
 to the woods the moment they catch sight of any 
 one more alarming than the two or three old 
 watchmen who take care of the town for four 
 months of the year; but the monkeys are not so 
 
MONKEYS. 19 
 
 easily dislodged. Soon after I arrived at Simla, 1 
 had to complain to my ayah or maid, that every 
 night the lamp went out, and it was not to be 
 wondered at, for when I examined it in the morning 
 there was no oil in it. In vain she protested that 
 it was regularly filled — if ever I awoke the room 
 was dark, and I did not like this, especially as, 
 though it was an upstair room, and consequently 
 safe from thieves, my window was open. I deter- 
 mined to watch, and saw a big monkey come in 
 very softly at the window and blow out the light, 
 then I could hear him drinking off the oil and 
 smacking his lips over it. On another occasion I 
 was told I could not go out riding because my 
 saddle was unsturfed. As it was perfectly new, I 
 was very mucn surprised, but it turned out that 
 when my syce or groom was leading my horse with 
 the saddle on, he had lain down to rest, taking the 
 saddle off first, lest the horse should nurt it by 
 rubbing. The syce fell asleep, and when he awoke 
 
^_ 
 
 20 STORIES ABOUT \ y/Yi 
 f 
 
 a crowd of monkeys were gathered round my poor 
 saddle, out of which they had taken every bit of 
 horsehair stuffing. I suppose in time they would 
 entirely have destroyed it, but the lining was the 
 easiest for their strong clever fingers to unpick 
 first. 
 
 I had a little terrier who could not endure 
 monkeys, and barked and chased them whenever he 
 saw them. They soon learned to dread and hate 
 him, and when Fury and I were out walking alone, 
 pieces of dry stick, showers of leaves, and boughs 
 of rhododendron blossom would come down on our 
 heads, but Fury only barked and chased our assail- 
 ants more ferociously than ever. One day the 
 narrow path led through a verv thick clumD of 
 evergreen oaks, with branches hanging low down 
 on the path. As Fury and I were making our way 
 under these boughs, a long skinny arm was stretched 
 down, Fury was grasped firmly by his long hair, and 
 carried off. I was in despair. I heard my poor 
 dog's snaps and barKs and yelps, but could do 
 
il MONKEYS. \ , 21 
 
 nothing. The sounds mounted higher and higher, 
 till at last I caught a glimpse of poor Fury handed 
 about from one to another among a group of mon- 
 keys, who were pinching, and pulling, and buffeting 
 him well. When they were tired of this amuse- 
 ment, and had tortured their little enemy to their 
 hearts' content, they dropped him over the pre- 
 cipice, and there was an end of poor Fury at 
 once. 
 
 But the worst trick the large mountain monkeys 
 Clangours' they call them at Simla) ever played 
 me was one evening when I had a dinner-party. 
 I must explain to you that the house we lived in 
 was placed on the top of a sharp-pointed hill, and 
 the very little flat ground which remained after the 
 house was built had been left in front of it, so that 
 at the back, where the dining-room stood, there was 
 quite a precipice steep down, with large rhododen- 
 dron and oak trees growing against the side of 
 the hill. Their trunks were out of sight, but 
 the top-most branches came against the windows, 
 
22 STORIES ABOUT \S^ [i 
 
 and it was very beautiful to see clusters of bright 
 crimson flowers almost thrusting themselves into 
 the room. 
 
 I was very anxious that this, my first party, 
 should be a pretty one, and instead of the heavy, 
 old-fashioned Indian dinners, with quantities of 
 food in big silver dishes, I had the table arranged 
 a la Russe. I wonder if my little readers know 
 what that is. All the meat and puddings and 
 pies were to be handed by the servants, and 
 nothing was put on the dining-table except pretty 
 things. There were little white china boys holding 
 baskets of fruit, vases of flowers, preserved fruits 
 and bon-bons from Ohrnter's, all sorts of new-shaped 
 goblets and water-jugs, &c. &c. I took a great 
 deal of trouble to see all this properly done by my 
 crowd of stupid servants, and when it was at last 
 arranged stopped to take one more look at it before 
 going to dress, thinking it was all as pretty and 
 nice as possible. I desired one of the men to 
 remain in the room, and went off quite happily to 
 
MONKEYS. >- 23 
 
 make my toilette. When I had dressed, instead of 
 going into the drawing-room, I thought I should 
 like to have one more look at my dinner-table, and 
 went softly into the dining-room. What a sight 
 met my eyes ! No servant was there, he had gone 
 off to smoke his hubble-bubble the moment my 
 back was turned, and the table was surrounded by 
 monkeys, who had got in by the trees which grew 
 close to the windows. They had not contented 
 themselves only with eating up my fruit and cakes, 
 but they had upset the glass dishes, and smeared 
 the preserves all over the table-cloth ; they had 
 broken the water-bottles, knocked the heads off half 
 my little china boys ; in short, you never saw such 
 a mess in your life, and there they stood grinning 
 and chattering, hardly moving even when I rushed 
 at them brandishing my fan as if it had been a poker. 
 I rang the hand-bell furiously, and that frightened 
 them mere than anything else. In a moment the old 
 K.hansaman s or butler, and nalf-a-dozen other ser- 
 vants o<*nifc r A p. x pomted to the table, for X was too 
 
*7 
 
 24 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 c« 
 
 angry to speak; and the kansamah, bowing low, 
 joined his hands, and tried to console me by saying 
 in Hindoostanee, ' Pearl of the Universe, it is the 
 will of Heaven.' I could not stop to argue this 
 point with him, as my guests were arriving, so I 
 told him to get dinner ready in the usual way as 
 quickly as possible, and went to the drawing-room 
 feeling very much as if I should like to have a good 
 cry over the ruin of all my pretty things. In con- 
 clusion, I may tell you that we did not get any 
 dinner at all for more than an hour, and that it was 
 extremely nasty when it came, for everything was 
 over-cooked and spoiled ; so I think, considering all 
 things, I have a right to feel angry with langours 
 whenever I remember that unfortunate evening. 
 
 We have just five minutes more before nurse 
 comes, so I will end with a short story my father 
 told me, of something which happened many years 
 ago in Jamaica. A new Governor was expected to 
 arrive by the following steamer: he wa? coming; 
 from Demerara, where monkevs .ibonrcl * ^is wife 
 
i] MOXKETS. --b 
 
 . — ■*-"* i 
 
 was very fond of these pets, and had sent on before 
 her a large iron cage full of monkeys of all sorts 
 and sizes, in charge of a servant. These animals 
 created great excitement on their arrival in Spanish 
 Town, especially among the negroes, who had never 
 seen a monkey, and fancied they were inferior 
 beino-s of the same class as themselves. The cage 
 was fastened outside the ' King's House ' (where the 
 Governor was to live), and for a few days all went 
 well. I must explain to you that the next house to 
 this was one where the President of the Council 
 lived, and was only separated from it by a large 
 garden. Owing to the carelessness of the servant, 
 the cage door was found open one morning, and the 
 monkeys were disporting themselves in the Presi- 
 dent's garden, making sad havoc among his fruits 
 and flowers. They were all captured after a little 
 ime, except one huge baboon, who climbed into 
 a high tree, and hid himself so cleverly that he 
 could not be found. "When the coast was clear. 
 .Mr. Monkey came down, and set out on his travels, 
 
 E 
 
26 STORIES ABOUT y /[] 
 
 making his .first visit to the President. The black 
 hall-porter was so astonished and alarmed at this 
 unwonted visitor, that he hastily ran upstairs, the 
 baboon following him closely, flung the door of the 
 breakfast-room open, and said in trembling tones : 
 ' One lilly black genlemans to see massa,' and then 
 retreated as fast as he could, shutting the door 
 behind him. jSow the poor old President had only 
 one leg, and his wooden substitute lay on a chair 
 near him, for he never put it on unless he wanted to 
 move about. He was very indignant at the impu- 
 dence of his uninvited guest, who immediately 
 began to help himself to the dainties on the table, 
 and he flung his wooden leg at the intruder, never 
 reflecting that he could not stir without its help. 
 "When my father happened to look in an hour after- 
 wards he found the old gentleman speechless with 
 rage, still helpless on his chair, and the monkey 
 scrimmaging all over the room, upsetting inkstands, 
 breaking china, and creating the greatest havoc 
 among the President's books and papers. 
 
i j MONKEYS. 27 
 
 ^ — 
 
 Now, there is nurse ; do you know those charming 
 lines at the end of Miss Procter's pretty poem, e The 
 Comforter ? ' — 
 
 So good night to my darling Effie : 
 
 Keep happy, sweet heart, and grow wise ; 
 
 There's one kiss for her golden tresses, 
 And two for her sleepy eyes. 
 
28 STORIES ABOUT \y / (p- 
 
 ABOUT JAMAICA. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 I am going to give you an account of the first 
 adventure I ever had ; and, although it happened 
 so many years ago, I remember all about it quite 
 well. I was only six years old at the time, but it 
 was talked of in the family for long afterwards, is 
 you may suppose, and this prevented me from for- 
 getting it. Then, by and by, as soon as the younger 
 ones grew old enough to like stories, thev would 
 often beg their eldest sister t o tell them tie famous 
 one of the ' great upset.' Since those &ys I have 
 told the story many times to other piildren, and 
 now I am going to repeat it once moj£. 
 
 I daresay you would not wish m/ to begin with 
 
 / 
 
n ] JAMAICA. *9 
 
 the geography or history of Jamaica, though I hope 
 any little boy or girl who is interested in these 
 stories will ask their papa to tell them where it is, 
 and how it came to belong to us long ago, and 
 that they will try to remember all about it. I will 
 only say that it is a most beautiful island, with 
 splendid scenery, lovely flowers and delicious fruits 
 growing wild, parrots flying about the woods, and 
 humming-birds flitting among the aloe-blossoms. 
 But then, on the other hand, it is not nearly so nice 
 a place to live in as our dear old England, in spite 
 of her fogs and grey skies ; for in Jamaica, as well 
 as in all our West Indian Islands, the climate is 
 very bad, except in the high mountains : there are 
 earthquakes and hurricanes, snakes, mosquitoes, 
 scorpions, and quantities of poisonous berries and 
 blossoms. Children are seldom taken or kept there 
 after two or three years old, and they have not the 
 free out-door life of English boys and girls ; for they 
 are never allowed to go out except very early in the 
 morning and late in the afternoon, on account of the 
 
20 STORIES ABOUT ^S [:i 
 
 __^ ■* 
 
 hot sun, which would probably give them fever, or 
 even kill them. 
 
 When I first remember Jamaica, we had been 
 there only a few months. My dear mother was too 
 delicate to live in England during the winter, 
 and my father had been fortunate enough to obtain 
 what was in those days an excellent Government 
 appointment. It was the year that Slavery was 
 abolished : I am always glad to think it was done 
 away with before I knew anything about the 
 country ; and the negroes, as I saw them, were only 
 a good-humoured happy race for ever laughing and 
 singing. 
 
 The c we ' I have spoken of above included, be- 
 sides Mamma and Papa, a young aunt of whom we 
 children were excessively fond, an English nurse, my 
 sister, and myself. Jessie was about four years old, 
 the prettiest little fairy imaginable, and the idol and 
 pet of every one. I am sorry to say I was very 
 ugly, tall, thin, and sallow, and a regular Tom-boy, 
 besides being the most mischievous child in the 
 
II] JAMAICA. K Xz\ 
 
 world. I did not mean to be naughty, but it 
 seemed so dreadful to be always told to be quiet. 
 Xo one ever thought of finding me any occupation, 
 and, as I was forced to seek it for myself, spending 
 my time in a series of scrapes, I am afraid I did not 
 choose proper employments. Lesson hour was the 
 happiest part of the day, but unfortunately it lasted 
 only a short while ; I used to envy the servants their 
 reo-ular duties, and whenever I read in little books 
 of children being obliged to work hard for their 
 parents, I thought it must be much happier than 
 having nothing to do, which was my constant com- 
 plaint. Our nurse could not at all understand this 
 ceaseless a ctivity, and often drew a mortifying con- 
 trast between me and gentle, pretty little Jessie, 
 whom she declared was ' a born lady,' implying that 
 I was just the reverse. 
 
 We remained in Spanish Town, the capital of 
 Jamaica, where my father's office was, until the 
 hot weather set in, about March, and then we all 
 got ill cne after the other. 1'apa, was looking cut 
 
32 STORIES ABOUT , / [n 
 
 for a cottage in the mountains, in which to spend 
 the summer, when a friend, who was going to 
 England, offered us the use of his country-place in 
 the centre of the island. The climate was very cool 
 there, but to get to it we had to climb a high 
 range of hills, and the lowest pass by which we 
 could cross them was so steep and dangerous 
 that it still kept the name of c Monte del Diavolo,' 
 or ' Devil's Mountain,' by which the Spaniards had 
 christened it nearly 300 years ago. When the time 
 came to start on our journey, the English coachman 
 was too ill to accompany us. My father therefore 
 drove the britschka ; Joe, the black groom, was on 
 the box next him; and inside sat Mamma, Aunt 
 Nelly, the nurse, and Jessie and I. We had a 
 journey of fifty miles before us, but the horses were 
 very valuable ones, and had just arrived from 
 England : we therefore only travelled in the early 
 morning and the cool evening, as they could not 
 endure the tropical sun at mid-day. These horses 
 had an unfortunate (Uslike : or dreads of the negro 
 
ul JAMAICA. 33 
 
 grooms, and when we began to ascend the Monte del 
 Diavolo on the afternoon of the second day, my 
 father gave strict orders to Joe not to leave the 
 coach-box on any account, but to take the reins, 
 saying that he himself would go to their heads if 
 necessary. You must know that the road was 
 exceedingly steep, and so narrow that even a man on 
 horseback could not pass a carriage. In several 
 places a recess had been blasted by gunpowder out 
 of the side of the mountain ; a negro mounted on 
 a mule preceded us, and blew a shell loudly, to 
 warn any country carts that might be blocking up 
 the way to draw aside into one of these recesses 
 till we had passed. Child as I was at the time, 
 I remember the grandeur of the scenery, and 
 how I jumped about the carriage from side to 
 side, admiring first the steep cliff rising straight 
 up from the narrow path along which we drove, and 
 next the precipice, which sunk away almost from 
 beneath the horses' feet ; the tops of the tall cedar, 
 mahcgany, and cotton trees were on a level with the 
 
 F 
 
34 STORIES ABOUT X""^ 1 
 
 road, and numbers of bright-plumaged birds flitted 
 about among their branches. At the bottom of 
 this ravine there sparkled what looked like a thin 
 thread of water. I immediately begged for some 
 to drink, and Mamma was explaining to me that 
 what I saw really was a large river, and that 
 its great distance below us made it appear to be 
 only a brook, when my attention was attracted 
 by the warning notes of the shell. Whilst I 
 listened intently, Mamma tied the strings of my 
 cottage-bonnet securely under my chin. You will 
 see presently why I mention this. My little bonnet 
 was very hot and uncomfortable, being exactly like 
 those charity-school girls now wear ; but in the days 
 I write of it was quite fashionable. The hood of 
 the carriage was still up, though the sun was 
 sinking below the high hills towards the west, and I 
 thrust my restless head beyond it to see what was 
 going on. How well I remember it all ! Just at 
 that moment a second discordant blast came from 
 the shell; the horses pricked up their ears and 
 
n] JAMAICA. 
 
 slightly started, enough to send one of the hind 
 wheels to the very edge of the steep precipice. My 
 father encouraged them with both voice and whip, 
 and all would probably have been right, if poor well- 
 meaning but stupid Joe had not forgotten all his 
 master's cautions. He jumped off the coach-box, 
 and was at the spirited animals' heads in a second. 
 At the sight of a figure dressed entirely in white with 
 jet-black face, hands, and bare feet, the horses 
 backed a little more, and the off hind wheel slipped 
 over the edge of the precipice. What follows takes 
 much longer to tell than it did to happen. The 
 horses tried to drag the carriage up again, but in 
 vain; every instant added to the weight. I can 
 distinctly recollect my father's blanched face as I 
 saw him fling down the useless reins and whip, and 
 spring to the horses' heads to help Joe to drag 
 them back by main force on to the road. We re- 
 mained quite still and breathless where we sat. I 
 remember the sensation of the carriage gradually 
 slipping back and dragging the horses nearer the 
 
86 STORIES ABOUT [n 
 
 edge ; their frantic struggles — I saw them dig their 
 front hoofs, as a eat might its claws, into the bank 
 over which their hind legs had now slipped. That 
 was the last I saw, for we heard a sort of scream 
 from the terrified animals, mino'lino- witli the men's 
 voices of encouragement to them, and I felt Mamma 
 suddenly snatch me into her arms and fold me tight 
 with my head buried in her breast. Then came a 
 swift rushing through the air, which soon took away 
 my small senses ; and I never can forget my 
 amazement, on awaking from what I thought a deep 
 sleep, to feel a soft weight preventing me from 
 stirring. I must have made a slight movement, for 
 Mamma gave me a little shake and asked me if I 
 was alive. We have often laughed at that question 
 since, but you must remember that our wits were 
 rather scattered after such a fall. I assured her I 
 was very much alive and anxious to get up, if she 
 would only move ; which she accordingly did very 
 slowly, poor darling, for she was a good deal bruised 
 arid shaken. I was on my feet in a second, and 
 
ii] JAMAICA. 37 
 
 rather delighted with the novelty and excitement. 
 Mamma and I had fallen ont on the first landing, 
 as it were, of the steep monntain-side, not very far 
 from the top. She desired me to tell her what I 
 could see of the others, so I rushed about in great 
 excitement and delight, reporting my observations. 
 In a tall cotton-tree below us I caught a glimpse of 
 the nurse and Jessie lodged like birds in the upper 
 branches. I announced that nurse was lying quite 
 still, holding Jessie's frock, but the poor little girl 
 was kicking vigorously and crying to be taken 
 down. 
 
 Papa I could see on the road above, with his hat 
 and coat off, and literally tearing his hair out with 
 his hands — the only time in my life I have ever 
 seen any one do this. There were bonnets, shawls, 
 books, &c. strewn all about, and I was particularly 
 delighted to perceive a very smart embroidered 
 parasol belonging to Aunt Nelly lying near me. I 
 must confess to being very naughty indeed about 
 this parasol, and I will tell you how. Mamma 
 
33 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 a^ked me if the carriage or horses "were to be seen, 
 but though I fancied there was something dark in 
 the bed of the river below us, it was impossible to 
 tell what it might be, and, selfish, naughty little 
 girl that I was, I felt very anxious to get away from 
 her with my prize, the parasol, which I had always 
 been strictly forbidden to touch. I suggested, 
 therefore, calling Papa to help Jessie and nurse out 
 of the cotton-tree, and so escaped with the parasol 
 tucked under my arm. Poor Papa was very glad to 
 see me unhurt, and to hear that Mamma was also 
 safe, and on my pointing out the cliff under which 
 she was still lying, he prepared to go to her 
 assistance first. Joe had been already despatched 
 to a place where a detachment of soldiers was 
 quartered in those days, about three miles off, with 
 an entreaty from Papa to the commanding officer 
 to send a cart directly to our help, and also the 
 surgeon. The sun was now fast setting, and I 
 thought with sorrow that my precious parasol would 
 soon be useless, as there would be no sun from 
 
ill JAMAICA. 3J 
 
 which to shelter : but I determined to avail myself 
 of the few moments left ; so I opened it and strutted 
 up and down the road. What a ridiculous little 
 object I must have looked ! — my frock, ccc. torn to 
 ribbons, my bonnet crushed quite flat, and now 
 hanging down my back (the doctor said afterwards 
 its thickness had saved my head from a frightful 
 blow, as the straw was quite cut through in one 
 place), and my thick shock head of hair all blowing 
 about my face : think of the contrast of this little 
 beggar-girl's appearance to a very smart light- 
 coloured parasol embroidered in bright silks ! I 
 can distinctly remember my surprise at rinding that 
 my successful piece of disobedience did not make 
 me so happy as I expected it would ; on the con- 
 trary, my conscience began to prick me horribly. I 
 seemed to hear a voice telling me quite plainly how 
 wicked it was to take advantage of my poor aunt's 
 absence to do what she had forbidden ; in short, I 
 was so tormented by the clamour of these internal 
 reproofs, that I hastily closed the parasol and put 
 
40 STORIES ABOUT [a 
 
 it carefully on one side, resolving to confess my 
 naughtiness as soon as possible. I must tell you 
 here that I went about with this burden on my mind 
 for many days before any one would listen to my 
 penitent acknowledgment, and then I was fully and 
 freely forgiven, and never wished to touch the parasol 
 again. 
 
 I have only fitful gleams of memory as to what 
 followed. I fancy I see dear Mamma sitting on 
 some of the carriage cushions and leaning against 
 the rocks by the roadside. I see Jessie in Papa's 
 arms, choking and coughing, and I heard afterwards 
 that in her struggles she had fallen from the branch 
 which caught her head-foremost into the hollow of 
 the old cotton-tree, and had been nearly smothered 
 by a fine powder, caused by decay, with which the 
 vast trunk was filled. Here I am going to make a 
 little digression to explain something to you. The 
 cotton-free of which I have spoken is quite different 
 from the cotton-plant which furnishes us with all 
 our calico and our pretty cotton frocks. That cotton 
 
JAMAICA. 
 
 is the snow-white contents of a small pod about as 
 big as an egg. First there is a bright yellow 
 ilower on the shrub (for it never grows more than 
 eight or nine feet high), then a pod succeeds quickly 
 to the blossom, and when this bursts the little tree 
 looks so pretty with these tufts of cotton on it, each 
 with some seeds inside. It grows freely in Jamaica, 
 but is not cultivated to any great extent. Most of 
 the cotton we use comes from India and America, 
 and some even from the South Sea Islands. Now the 
 cotton-trees, into one of which poor Jessie fell, grow 
 in the forests and are as big as elms or beeches, and 
 with very thick trunks. They also bear a pod full 
 of cotton, but it is quite useless, though exquisitely 
 soft and fine. In the first place, it is of a light-brown 
 colour, just like a mouse's back, and in the next 
 place it is quite full of little seeds the size of apple 
 pips. Sometimes the negroes collect this silky 
 down to stuff a pillow, but to pick out the little 
 seeds takes .so long that it is not worth much for 
 other purposes. I hope you now understand quite 
 
42 STORIES ABOUT [n 
 
 clearly the difference between the cotton-tree and 
 the cotton-plant. 
 
 We must go back to the slowly-assembling party 
 by the roadside. Nurse was still in the tree, for, 
 warned by Jessie's fate, she thought it better to stay 
 quite still till plenty of help arrived, which it did in 
 a wonderfully short time ; for long before we thought 
 Joe could even have reached the Moneague he had 
 returned, accompanied by every officer and soldier 
 in the place-, and a couple of carts with mattresses 
 and pillows inside, and, best of all, some large stone 
 bottles of water, for we were all dreadfully thirsty. 
 How kind everybody was ! I can remember a big 
 soldier attempting to tidy me a little, and saying, 
 ' AVhy, little lady, you'll frighten your poor 3Iamma 
 to death if she sees you like this ; ' and he actually 
 contrived to make me more presentable by arranging 
 my hair, tying my sash properly, rough, kindhearted 
 nurse that he was. But all these were triiles com- 
 pared to the great anxiety every one felt about poor 
 Aunt Nelly's fate. After a hurried searcn among 
 
Il] JAMAICA. 43 
 
 the upper terraces of the steep mountain-side and 
 along the track of broken boughs caused by the 
 rapid descent of the carriage and horses, it was re- 
 solved that a party of soldiers, Papa, and the surgeon 
 should go quite down to the bottom of the precipice 
 and search for her. I do not remember how long 
 they were away, I only know I was very unhappy ; 
 for all my first excitement had died out before the 
 real trouble and sorrow around me. I was so fright- 
 ened to see Mamma's pale face and closed eyes. 
 Xurse, who had been extricated from her lodging 
 among the topmost branches of the tree, was giving 
 her something out of a teaspoon, and whenever I 
 came near she said, half-crossly, ' Xow go away, Miss ; 
 pray go and play with Miss Jessie : ' but Jessie and 
 I had no heart to play ; we were getting very hungrj 
 and sleepy, and thoroughly terrified at the position 
 of affairs. 
 
 The most vivid of all my recollections of that sad 
 afternoon is hearing a soldier say that he saw the 
 exploring party returning, and he added, ' The young 
 
44 STORIES ABOUT T 
 
 F» 
 
 lady is alive too, I am certain.' I rushed off to Mam- 
 ma with the news, but I suppose, as usual, I managed 
 to tell it in the worst way, for my joy was damped 
 by Xurse saying in great anger, ' There, Miss, you've 
 made your poor Mamma faint again ; now go away, 
 c?o.' So I returned, just in time to see Aunt Nelly, 
 who had been brought up in a shawl carried by 
 soldiers, lying on the white dusty road, her pretty 
 dress all torn and soiled, her dark curls dabbled in 
 blood, the kind, smiling eyes closed, and her face as 
 white as the handkerchief with which the doctor was 
 preparing to make a bandage. I am told that I 
 gave such a shriek of terror and dismay that my 
 voice roused her from the long swoon in which they 
 had found her; and nothing which happened yes- 
 terday is half so plain before me as her bewildered 
 iace, as she unclosed her eyes, and looked at me. 
 To the surprise of every one, she almost immediately, 
 raised herself on her elbow — and, oh ! how well I re- 
 member the deep, horrible cleft in her head which I 
 then saw I — and, putting up the other hand to clear 
 
JAMAICA. 
 
 away the blood which was streaming over her face, 
 said feebly, ' My hair is getting into my eyes, I wish 
 you would keep it away,' and then sank back again. 
 I think my story is getting so much too dismal that 
 I must hasten to tell you she is alive and well at 
 this moment, and the only lasting consequence of 
 her terrible fall was that the hair which grew 
 where the cut on her head had been turned quite 
 grey. It does not matter now, for all the rest 
 matches it, but for many years this long thick lock 
 of silver was very conspicuous among her brown curls. 
 Now that I have eased your minds a little, I will go 
 back to that dreadful evening. We were packed 
 in the carts and conveyed to the barracks, where 
 everything was done to make us as comfortable as 
 circumstances would admit of; but I do not remem- 
 ber much after my fright at the first glimpse 
 of my dear pretty aunt with her head cut open. I 
 have been told since that she had passed her arm 
 inside the long strap at the side of the carriage, just 
 ns she knew we were going to have an accident, 
 
46 STORIES ABOUT [a 
 
 Y. 
 
 thinking to save herself from tumbling out; but 
 when they found her at the bottom of the precipice 
 she was lying near the dead horses, and the surgeon 
 said he fancied the blow on her head must have been 
 given by a kick from one of them. The carriage 
 was broken into little pieces, so small that each 
 bit could be carried up the hill again in a man's 
 hand. The poor horses were frightfully battered 
 and cut, but fortunately they were quite dead, and 
 so was a little pet spaniel which I have forgotten to 
 mention, and which had been lying under the box- 
 seat during the journey. Our own escape was so 
 marvellous, and we were so thankful to God for pre- 
 serving our lives, that I never heard a regret wasted 
 on either horses or carriage, though I mourned in 
 secret for a long time over the sad fate of poor beau- 
 tiful Whitefoot and Firefly. 
 
 Aunt Nelly lay for many days dangerously ill, 
 and the moment she could bear the voyage Papa 
 sent her, Jessie, Nurse, and me back to England, 
 where we remained till I grew up into a tall 
 
nj JAMAICA. 47 
 
 young lady of sixteen, when we returned to Jamaica 
 and spent two very happy years there. Another time 
 I intend to tell you all about our pets and the sort 
 of life we led ; but before I finish for the present I 
 think I must add one great piece of naughtiness 
 which I committed before we left Jamaica with Aunt 
 Nelly. The curious part of the story is that I had 
 no intention of being naughty, nor any idea that my 
 experiment would have been better left untried. 
 
 To make you understand how the idea came into 
 my head I must explain that I was very tall for my 
 age, whilst Jessie was extremely short. She was 
 always longing and wishing to be as tall as I was, 
 and asking everybody if they did not think she was 
 growing bigger ; but still she remained a little fat 
 dot of a thing, whilst Nurse declared that my 
 frocks had to be let down an inch every week. I 
 was very sorry that Jessie remained so small, and 
 helped her to remedy the defect upon every oppor- 
 tunity. I had already got into trouble for abstract- 
 ing a pot of pomade from Mamma's dressing-case, i 
 
13 STORIES ABOUT y/ [n 
 
 hid it under my pillow, and as soon as Nurse had taken 
 away the light at night, slipped out of my little bed, 
 felt my way to Jessie's crib, and, with her full consent 
 and approbation, rubbed her all over from her head 
 to her feet with pink pomatum. I leave you to 
 imagine the state of the sheets, &c. in the morning. 
 When I was brought up for judgment and sentence 
 before the authorities, my only defence was that I 
 had heard Papa say, a day or two before, speaking 
 of this wonderful pomatum, ' Why, I believe it would 
 make even little Dot grow.' This was quite enough 
 to determine me to try the effect on her. However, 
 I was only lectured and dismissed without any 
 punishment, but unfortunately with the idea more 
 firmly rooted than ever in my silly little head, that 
 it was my duty, to devise some way of helping Jessie 
 to grow taller. 
 
 It must have been several weeks after this failure 
 that, upon the occasion of a large garden-party in 
 the afternoon, Jessie and I found ourselves wandering 
 p.bout the grounds of a friend's house, in our beat 
 
II] JAMAICA. y^ 40 
 
 . -f 
 
 frocks, waiting for the arrival of some other children 
 who were to play with us. We believed ourselves 
 to be very smart indeed ; and so we were for 
 those days ; but I think if you saw two little girls 
 playing in the square now, dressed exactly as we 
 were, you would think they looked very odd. We 
 had on very pale pink silk petticoats, over which 
 were muslin pelisses — I remember mine had a frill 
 round my waist ! — pink drawn silk bonnets (hats had 
 never been heard of for little girls), very big, hot, 
 and uncomfortable, tied tightly under our chins, 
 muslin trousers with lace and work round our ankles, 
 and pink silk boots ! Fancy running about the 
 grass in pink silk boots. However, Nurse pro- 
 nounced that we looked very nice indeed, and I tried 
 hard to believe her, though I had great doubts on 
 the subject. We were particularly told by her not 
 to go off the smooth gravelled walks (on account of 
 these horrid boots) ; so we considered that we were 
 strictly keeping within the limits of the law when 
 we followed a narrow path which led us round rather 
 
 H 
 
50 STORIES ABOUT [11 
 
 to the back of the house, among thick shrubs. Here 
 we stopped to examine a deep hole which had just 
 been dug for a large plant. There was a watering- 
 pot full up to the brim standing temptingly near 
 it, and also a spade. I cannot recollect what led to 
 the subject, except that hardly an hour ever passed 
 without an allusion to it, but I remember Jessie 
 peering into the hole and saving wistfully, ' Oh ! I 
 wish I could grow like the plants ! ' Immediately I 
 felt a strong conviction that at last we had hit upon 
 the only way to improve her tiny stature : so I said 
 ea^erlv, 8 Well, I don't see whvvou shouldn't, if onlv 
 you could be planted : but perhaps Nurse might not 
 like the trouble of digging the hole, or of watering 
 you afterwards.' These were the only objections 
 which occurred to me ; and when Jessie timidly said, 
 8 I wonder if that hole is big enough for me ? ' I 
 immediately felt that it would be absolutely wrong 
 to miss such an opportunity of trying an experiment, 
 so I urged her to get in. She did not want much 
 persuasion, but jumped down into the hole — I think 
 
i;] JAMAICA. 51 
 
 I see her pretty little anxious face now, peeping out 
 from the frightful heavy bonnet-cap of bo\vs of rib- 
 bon and net which framed it. I asked hei how she 
 felt, and she said it was very cool to her feet ; so I 
 directly made up my mind to carry out the idea 
 thoroughly, and assured her, as if I knew it to be a 
 fact, that was the first symptom of growth, and I 
 proceeded to tilt the big watering-pot with all my 
 strength (for I could not possibly lift it), until a 
 stream began to trickle down upon the pink silk 
 boots. Jessie said, with a little gasp, half of fright, 
 4 It's very cool and nice, but I'm afraid Nurse won't 
 like it on account of my boots;' so I comforted her 
 by assurances that when Nurse saw how tall she had 
 grown she would not mind it. Soon the water was 
 all poured in, and it was too late for any hesitation 
 about the fate of the boots, or of the lace frills of the 
 little trousers and the skirt of her pelisse which were 
 hopelessly splashed and muddy. We both felt quite 
 reckless now, and I proposed to shovel in the loose 
 earth, giving as a reason that plants required earth 
 
52 S TOBIES ABOUT 
 
 as well as water to make them grow. In a wonder- 
 fully short time I had really planted my poor little 
 sister up to her shoulders, and jumped upon the 
 earth to press it in, just as I had seen the gardener 
 do, Jessie was wonderfully brave about it, and I 
 encouraged her by assurances of my belief in her 
 being a little taller already. However, it promised 
 to be rather a long process, and I felt too restless to 
 wait and watch ; so, entreating Jessie not to be afraid, 
 but to be patient and quiet, I gave her a kiss and 
 went away. No sooner had I lost sight of my vic- 
 tim than all my courage vanished, and my trouble- 
 some conscience began upbraiding me. I was in 
 such a dreadful mess myself that I did not dare to 
 go near the front of the house, but spent a dismal 
 afternoon hiding behind the shrubs, afraid to go back 
 to where Jessie was planted. At last Xurse swooped 
 down upon me, terrible in her wrath, speechless with 
 horror. Even my tongue was dumb when I saw 
 poor pale little Jessie, who had been discovered, and 
 with some difficulty dug up. I remember feeling 
 
ill JAMAICA. 53 
 
 bitterly convinced that she had not grown in the 
 least ; she appeared to be weeping tears of mud, for 
 my gardening had splashed her face a good deal with 
 earth, and her fast-falling tears melted it all. She 
 was crying for the punishment which she knew would 
 overtake me, much more than for her own misery 
 and discomfort, and I certainly would have cried for 
 myself if I could have foreseen that for three Ion a- 
 days and nights I was to be locked up in a spare 
 dressing-room. Nurse came twice a day with a 
 large piece of bread and a jug of water, but her 
 countenance was too awful for me to dare to speak 
 to her. I was quite as miserable as I deserved to be, 
 and the only ray of comfort I had was when Jessie 
 managed to escape and rush to my door, flinging 
 herself down in a perfect agony of grief outside it. 
 We never had time for more than a word or two 
 before she was recaptured and carried off; but I heard 
 with additional sorrow that she was not supposed to 
 be a bit taller, though she had been planted for 
 three hours when she was discovered and released. 
 
M S TOBIES ABOUT 
 
 PART n. 
 
 1 have no more pieces of naughtiness to relate, for 
 at the time this story begins ten years had passed, 
 and I had returned to Jamaica a tall young lady of 
 sixteen. Jessie was, as you may remember, nearly 
 two years younger; she had certainly grown taller, 
 but was still only a little creature, with large dark 
 eyes, which had a most beseeching look in them, as 
 if she was asking everybody to take care of her. I 
 have never seen anyone with such beautiful hair : it 
 was dark brown, and in such quantity, that when she 
 was sitting on an ordinary chair to have it brushed, 
 it touched the ground. She was always singing, 
 just like a bird ; and it used to be a great puzzle to 
 me how she could possibly remember the words of 
 
Hi JAMAICA. \/^ 55 
 
 •all her songs. Jessie and I bad one very decided 
 taste in common, and that was our great love of pets 
 of all kinds, especially of birds. Whilst we lived in 
 England we never conld sufficiently indulge this 
 hobby, for the school-room maid rebelled against 
 taking care of more than one cage of canaries, so 
 we were obliged to be satisfied with that ; but when 
 we returned to our beautiful summer home in the 
 mountains of Jamaica, we collected a little zoological 
 garden around us in a few months, and it is about 
 these pets I am now going to tell you. 
 
 I am sure you will like me to begin, as always, at 
 the very beginning, so I shall first mention that, as 
 soon as we were all settled in our mountain cottage, 
 Jessie and I begged Mamma to allow our rooms to 
 be changed to the only two which were downstairs. 
 In hot countries the sleeping rooms are always up- 
 stairs, partly to be cooler, and partly to avoid the risk 
 of venomous insects ; but there was no danger of 
 heat where our little summer home was built, for the 
 nights were always cold enough to allow us to use a 
 
oG STORIES ABOUT ^ [n 
 
 blanket ; and as for the scorpions, centipedes, an,te, 
 &c, we thought we could protect ourselves agaiust 
 them. We had discovered two charming little rooms 
 side Ly side, downstairs, opening with French win- 
 dows on a verandah, the pillars of which were covered 
 with beautiful creepers : from this verandah you 
 stepped on a lawn sheltered from the sun by a grove 
 of orange and mango trees, towards the south-east, 
 and beyond that lay the garden, which sloped down 
 to a long valley, divided into paddocks of the tall, 
 bright-green Guinea-grass (so called because the 
 seed was brought from Guinea, on the coast of 
 Africa), of which the cows and horses were so fond. 
 
 The chief reason Jessie and I begged for these 
 rooms was, that the verandah and the adjoining trees 
 would be so nice for all our pets, and after some 
 hesitation and a great many warnings, against snakes, 
 scorpions, and other insects, Mamma at last con- 
 sented to allow us to change ; so for a few days we 
 were happy, and busy moving all our absurd little 
 possessions down to tneir new quarters, which had 
 
n] JAMAICA. 57 
 
 hitherto only been used by gentlemen visitors, and 
 were generally called the ' Bachelor rooms.' It took 
 us some time to arrange our pictures, books, and or- 
 naments to our own satisfaction ; and dear Mamma 
 was often called -upon to give her opinion on our 
 devices. 
 
 But the very first thing to be attended to was the 
 comfort of the pets, and they certainly must have 
 approved of the change. The parrots at once estab- 
 lished themselves in a large tree, and we watched 
 them with great delight clambering about its 
 branches, nibbling at the fruit, and chattering in- 
 cessantly. They were nine in number, and had been 
 brought to us at different times in the nest some 
 months before, when their beaks were quite soft, and 
 we had to feed them on boiled rice and sugar. No- 
 thing could be tamer than these birds were ; when 
 we sat down in our rocking chairs in the verandah, 
 they used to scramble and flutter out of their tree, 
 and come waddling towards us in a great hurry with 
 their toes turned in, clambering up the arms of the 
 
58 STORIES ABOUT [n 
 
 __ r 
 
 chairs in the hope of getting a piece of sugar cane. I 
 am sorry to say, however, that not one of our parrots 
 could speak at all well ; they whistled and chattered 
 incessantly in their own way, but it was very diffi- 
 cult to teach them even a word or two, and their 
 voices were thick and husky. It required a great 
 many lessons before the cleverest of them could learn 
 so much as a bar of one of Jessie's songs ; and when 
 he began to practise, all the other birds had a most 
 insulting way of stopping their own chatter to listen 
 to his < tra-la-la,' and going off into peals of laughter, 
 mingled with the negro exclamations of 6 Hi hi,' or 
 ' My king !' This conduct affronted Master Bully — 
 that was his name, bestowed on account of his tyran- 
 nical and greedy nature — very much, and he always 
 ceased the song directly the laughter began, and sat 
 sulkily ruffling up his feathers. They were all of 
 the same kind, these parrots; rather small, of a 
 blight emerald-green colour, with a few red and blue 
 wing feathers, and a gay yellow top-knot ; their 
 beaks, were quite black, and so were their tongues. 
 
n] JAMAICA. y9 
 
 Their wings were cut to keep them from joining 
 the flocks of wild parrots which constantly hew 
 overhead. Their greatest enemies were the owls, 
 who used to swoop upon the poor sleeping JPoliy 
 and carry it off at night ; we lost two in this way 
 before we discovered the cause, but then we taught 
 them to go to roost every evening in a large wooden 
 cage under shelter of the verandah, the door of which 
 was securely fastened, and our noisy pets lived to a 
 good old age. It is the custom in Jamaica to have 
 a cup of coffee brought to your bedside every morn- 
 ing at six o'clock, and as soon as our black maid 
 ' Rosetta ' had awakened us, she used to open the 
 French windows into the verandah, unfasten the 
 door of the parrots' cage, and place a saucer of bread 
 and milk on the threshold where we could see it. In 
 a moment all the parrots were round it chattering 
 and gobbling it up ; Bully had a bad habit of getting 
 into the saucer and trampling the food into a mess, 
 so Jessie and I were obliged to take it by turns to 
 get up and drive him away and see fair play. As 
 
CO STORIES ABOUT [n 
 
 soon as they had finished their breakfast, they set 
 off as fast as they could waddle to an enormous shal- 
 low pan of water, which was sunk to the level of the 
 pronnd and filled twice a day with fresh water. It 
 was such fun to watch them splashing and dashing 
 the water over each other, enjoying their bath tho- 
 roughly ; then they betook themselves to the shelter 
 of the trees, and there dried and pruned their fea- 
 thers, spending the remainder of their time in eating 
 fruit and clambering about. In the middle of the 
 day they generally took a nap, and the quiet which 
 reigned during that time was most remarkable. 
 
 "We had also a cage full of love-birds, a sort of 
 paroquet which comes from Carthagena in South 
 America: but though these pretty little things were 
 very affectionate to each other and to us, I must 
 confess they were rather stupid pets. They sat close 
 together in pairs all day long, occasionally uttering 
 a little chirrup and caressing each other with their 
 tinv bills ; but they either had very delicate constitu- 
 tions, or else they were very greedy, for they all died 
 
ii j JAMAICA. Gi 
 
 one after another from fits caused by over-eatin^ 
 themseives and swallowing their food in a hurry. 
 One love-bird of a stronger digestion than the rest 
 survived some months, but he also had a daily fit in 
 the middle of his dinner. I was so accustomed at last 
 to this performance, that it was quite a surprise to 
 me one day to observe him lying by the side of his 
 little saucer longer than usual, and to find on a 
 closer examination that he had shared the fate of his 
 brothers and sisters. 
 
 Jessie's especial favourites among our birds were 
 her own white doves, and certainly they were lovely 
 creatures, so soft and snowy, perfectly tame, and 
 never so happy as when nestling close to their be- 
 loved little mistress. I have often thought since 
 what a pretty picture might have been made of 
 Jessie, in her white dress, seated on the marble step 
 of the verandah, its arch festooned with creepers 
 forming a frame for her figure, her dark hair twisted 
 into a thick coronet round her head, with generally 
 a wild hower stuck into it. her guitar with its broad 
 
62 STORIES ABOUT In 
 
 t 
 
 rinand lying on her knee, and these white doves on 
 her shoulder, listening apparently with great atten- 
 tion to her sweet voice crooning some quaint old 
 ballad for the delight of the younger children who 
 were seated on the grass at her feet. These doves 
 met, however, with a most tragical fate, and I must 
 tell you all about it. 
 
 Jessie always took their bamboo cage into her 
 own room at dusk for greater security; and one 
 night, just after we had all separated to go to bed, 
 I was very much frightened at my poor little sister 
 suddenly bursting into my room as pale as a ghost, 
 and perfectly speechless with terror ; she looked so 
 horrified that my alarm was quite as great as hers, 
 though I did not know what was the matter. She 
 really could not speak, though she tried to do so, 
 but seized my arm and dragged me towards her 
 room, which, as I have told you, was next to mine, 
 but with no door between. At first I thought Jessie 
 mast have gone suddenly mad, for everything there 
 looked just as usual, and f could not see any cause 
 
il] JAMAICA. 
 
 for ail this agitation. She did not, however, let my 
 arm go, but pulled me towards a recess where the 
 doves' cage stood on a low table. There, indeed, I 
 saw a horrible sight ; a huge yellow snake, with 
 loathsome black spots all over it, had forced its way 
 in through the slender, elastic bamboo bars of the 
 cage, and lay coiled up at the bottom, with its flat 
 head raised, its forked tongue sticking out, and its 
 small cruel eyes fixed on the only surviving dove. 
 It had already swallowed one, and the end of the 
 survivor was very near. Poor little ' Selim ' was on 
 the lowest perch swaying backwards and forwards, 
 gazing at the snake ; at last he sank slowly down, 
 just as if he had fainted, and in an instant had 
 aimost disappeared among the coils of the horrid 
 snake's body. I never saw anything so rapid as the 
 way the reptile crushed the dear little helpless dove 
 the momeni: it dropped within its reach. Jessie gave 
 such a shriek that I feared the snake would be 
 roused and pernaps escape, but he was too intent on 
 ms supper to mmd us, so 1 took courage, and pro- 
 
04 STORIES ABOUT [n 
 
 posed to go for' our old Portuguese but] er, who I 
 thought would kuow what to do. Jessie still clung 
 to me, sobbing, and we found the old man's room, 
 roused him up, and whilst he was dressing we 
 remembered our schoolboy brother, who would be 
 certain to enjoy a scrimmage at any hour of the day 
 or night, and, in answer to our knocks at his door, 
 he soon appeared, as quickly dressed as if he had 
 gone to bed with half his clothes on ! 
 
 When we returned with this reinforcement to 
 Jessie's room, the dove was dead, but the snake had 
 not yet quite swallowed it; and here I must tell 
 you how curiously it had prepared. the poor little 
 plump bird to go down its narrow throat, Those 
 dreadful squeezes among its coils had broken all the 
 dove's bones, and the snake had carefully licked its 
 feathers the reverse way, so that instead of being a 
 fat snowy ball, it was of a great length, and so 
 drawn out that it was quite thin ; the snake was 
 leisurely proceeding to swallow it, aud we cordd see 
 by the bulges exactly where the other dove was ; r 
 
ii"| JAMAICA. C5 
 
 its horrid body. The old butler first cut off the 
 bamboos which formed a sort of dome to the cage, 
 and then he and Harry prepared to kill the half- 
 gorged snake, but, before they struck the first blow, 
 Jessie and I went into my room, as we could not 
 bear to see it. 
 
 In a few moments Harry triumphantly announced 
 that it was all over, but he seemed rather disap- 
 pointed at the snake not showing any fight. It was 
 not venomous • none of the large snakes in Jamaica 
 are so, being only dangerous to the poultry-yard, 
 and particularly fond of newly-hatched ducks and 
 chickens or even a baby-turkey. There is a very 
 small snake, only two feet long, called the ' whip 
 snake,' from its resemblance to the lash of a driving 
 whip, which is said to give a poisonous bite, and is 
 apt to make its way into cellars, as it is fond of a 
 cold, damp place. I never heard, however, of any 
 one being bitten even by this reptile. 
 
 I killed a very large snake once all by myself; 
 and, though it was quite by accident, I felt as 
 
 K 
 
66 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 V [n 
 
 proud as if I had performed a great feat of strength 
 or valour. I was dressed for riding, and had my 
 whip in my hand, but being very thirsty I went 
 into the bath-room to see if the water in the great 
 earthenware Spanish jars was any cooler than that 
 in my bedroom. The walls of this bath-room were 
 made of jalousies, which could be left open all night, 
 so as to allow the cool air from the mountains to get 
 in and make the water in the big cedar tubs fresh 
 and nice for our morning bath. Whilst I was 
 drinking some deliciously cold water very slowly 
 and with great enjoyment, a large snake suddenly 
 thrust its head through the open jalousies, and 
 began greedily drinking out of the very jar from 
 which I had just taken a tumblerful of water. It 
 was so thirsty it did not perceive me at first, but in 
 a moment it raised its head and hissed at me. I 
 thought this so impertinent that, without thinking 
 I should hurt.it in the least, I gave it a smart 
 tap with my little riding whip. The snake 
 8hrank back, and I heard a heavy fall on the grass 
 
n] JAMAICA. C7 
 
 outside. Of course I immediately looked out of 
 the window to see where it was going, but to my 
 surprise it lay quite still, so I called Harry to hack 
 me up in case of danger, and we went to examine it 
 nearer. It was actually quite dead. Harry was as 
 much astonished as I was at my little blow having 
 had such an effect, and he immediately proceeded to 
 measure my victim, triumphantly proclaiming it to 
 be over six feet long. 
 
 We used often to find the skins of these snakes in 
 old stone walls, for they shed them every year, and 
 the roughness of the stones helps the snake to pull 
 its skin neatly off its head, turning it inside out 
 like a glove. We generally found them quite 
 perfect and unbroken : in this state they were very 
 pretty, pure white, the little scales glistening in the 
 light with all the colours of the rainbow, just as if 
 they were made of the thinnest fibre of mother-of- 
 pearl, and even the places where the snake's eyes 
 had been were perfect little circles. 
 
 But now I must come back to the pets. The 
 
68 STORIES ABOUT AC\ 
 
 * 
 
 tortoises were very quiet, but not very amusing 
 proteges ; they lived in a little pond with some 
 rock work in the middle for shelter from the sun. 
 They were no bigger than half-crowns when we first 
 got them, and they grew very slowly. We used to 
 feed them twice a day with raw meat cut up into 
 very fine pieces ; at our whistle the tortoises would 
 leave the shelter of their rocks and come paddling 
 slowly towards us, looking out carefully for danger. 
 If anything alarmed them they would draw in their 
 queer little heads, tuck up their fins, or rather 
 feet, and sink down to the bottom of the pond; 
 but we generally took care not to frighten them, 
 and they would eat their dinners very leisurely off 
 the point of a pin. They all disappeared in time ; 
 and as we never could find any trace of their bodies, 
 we fancied they must have contrived to escape 
 and make their way to some of the very large 
 reservoirs which were in the paddocks for the cows 
 and horses to drink from, as there was no river 
 near. 
 
n ] JAMAICA. 69 
 
 Then we had owls and hawks, and once we had a 
 beautiful pair of Egrets given to us. We did not 
 know what these birds were at first, as no one had 
 ever seen any like them, and it was only by hunting 
 through the picture-books about birds that we 
 discovered their likeness under that name. They 
 were flying overhead when some tiresome person, 
 who happened to have a gun in his hand, shot at 
 them, wounding the female, who fluttered to the 
 ground, and her mate would not desert her, and was 
 easily captured. They were exquisitely beautiful, 
 though with fierce wild natures. Their legs were 
 bright red and rather long, but their plumage was 
 very peculiar — milk- white, and the feathers which 
 composed their tails and their large crests or top- 
 knots were fluffy, like marabout, or the down of the 
 eider duck. We fed them on raw meat at the risk 
 of having our eyes pecked out, and our fingers 
 were soon covered with wounds, but we bravely 
 persevered, and tried all the surgical art we pos- 
 sessed to heal the poor broken wing of the female 
 
70 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 _j: 
 
 but she only lingered a few days, and then died in 
 great pain, I fear. Her mate became still more 
 fierce and untameable, and we were afraid to let 
 him out of his large cage lest he should share his 
 wife's fate. He ate well and seemed healthy, but 
 very restless and miserable, and we could only keep 
 him alive for three or four months. 
 
 I must tell you how we came by our most 
 favorite owl. One of the spare rooms had a large 
 open hearth in it which was generally covered up 
 by a board, and against this was placed a chest of 
 drawers, as the fireplace was neither ornamental 
 nor useful, for it was never cold enough to make 
 a fire really necessary, even on the high table-land 
 in the middle of Jamaica, where we spent our 
 summers. However, after a week of heavy rain, 
 Jessie and I took it into our heads that we should 
 like to have a fire in this particular room. I really 
 believe our only reason was a wish to see a blaze 
 again, it was so long since we had enjoyed one ; and 
 as some visitors were coming in a few days, we 
 
ii] JAMAICA. 71 
 
 pretended to be very anxious lest the room might 
 have got damp during the late rains. Nothing was 
 easier than to have some sweet-scented chips 
 brought and some great dry logs of cedar, which 
 made a delicious perfume ; and Jessie and I rejoiced 
 in a splendid fire, though we were obliged to have all 
 the windows open on account of the heat, and the fire 
 was never replenished. We soon left the room, and 
 one of the housemaids, who looked in on passing, 
 thought the fire was quite out, as she could only see 
 a heap of white feathery ashes, so she carefully re- 
 placed the board and moved the chest of drawers 
 back again to its place against it. In a short time 
 the house was filled with the most unpleasant odour ; 
 we all began hunting about for the cause ; and 
 although we tracked the smell to this spare room, 
 it never occurred to us to have the board removed 
 again until Mamma appeared on the scene and im- 
 mediately had it taken away. I don't know which 
 was the- worst, the sight or the smell. The great 
 draught caused by putting up the board must have 
 
72 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 ~TT 
 
 carried some of the light ashes which were not 
 quite extinguished up to the top of the chimney, 
 where a whole colony of owls had built their nests 
 for years past. The twigs and straw were soon 
 ablaze, and as the bottom of the nests gave way, 
 the young owls came tumbling down the chimney to 
 meet a lingering death on the hot bricks of the 
 hearth. There were owls in every stage of roasting; 
 some quite dead, and others struggling among the 
 hot ashes. They were more hideous to look at than 
 you can imagine, for, at its best, a young owl is a 
 frightful looking object, with its awkward unwieldy 
 body, quite bare of feathers, with patches of down on 
 it ; and then its wide face and great goggle eyes 
 blinking and staring at you. Whilst we were in our 
 first moment of horror and disgust, another victim 
 fluttered and fell down the wide chimney, but before 
 it could reach the hot hearth Harry had rushed for- 
 ward and seized it, so it was quite uninjured, and 
 Jessie and I immediately took possession of the ugly 
 little creature, making a great pet of it, and rearing 
 
n] JAMAICA. 73 
 
 it most successfully. As soon as it came to years, or 
 rather weeks, of discretion we gave it its liberty, but 
 ' Moses ' always retained a grateful recollection of 
 our care ; and if we called him at night when we saw 
 other owls flitting about, he was sure to come to us 
 and allow himself to be stroked and petted as of old. 
 I used to like to bury my face in the soft feathers at 
 the top of his head, and ' Moses ' would perch quietly 
 on my finger whilst I did this, only his claws became 
 very long and sharp, and as he held on very tight 
 by them to my hand whilst I was petting him, I 
 soon got tired of having wounds all over my fingers. 
 We had also a cage full of 6 Cardinals,' most beau- 
 tiful birds with bright scarlet feathers. In fact, they 
 were scarlet all over, their legs and even their eyes 
 included. They were very healthy and apparently 
 very happy in a sort of hut at one end of the 
 verandah, with plenty of room to fly about, and, 
 above all, a constant supply of water for their inces- 
 sant baths ; whenever they wanted something to do 
 they took a bath ! These birds do not belong to 
 
74 STORIES ABOUT ^ |_n 
 
 Jamaica, but are brought from South America, and 
 so were our beautiful ' Tropioles.' Never have I 
 heard such a clear sweet note as these last-named 
 beauties possessed ; it had all the gladness of the 
 skylark's, as well as the sweetness of the blackbird's. 
 They were our only musical pets, and their song 
 awakened us at daylight. They seemed very happy, 
 and were quite tame, eating fruit out of our hands. 
 Their plumage was magnificent, rich glossy black, 
 and the most brilliant orange-coloured markings. 
 Such bright fearless birds they were, about as large 
 as a thrush, but of a much more graceful shape. 
 
 The last pet birds of which I am going to tell you 
 were not at all successful. Outside our window 
 grew a tree called the ' sandbox ;' its foliage is some- 
 thing like a horse-chestnut, and it bears a pod of 
 a round shape, made up of the most symmetrical 
 divisions like the quarters of an orange ; when this 
 pod is ripe it goes off like a small pistol, and 
 scatters the seeds all about. In spite of this dis- 
 agreeable habit of exploding suddenly, the tree is 
 
ii] JAMAICA. 
 
 very popular on account of its deep shade, and on 
 one of its lowest boughs Jessie and I watched a beau- 
 tiful pair of ruby humming-birds build their tiny 
 nest. They made it of tufts of cotton and an occa- 
 sional horsehair to keep all together, lining it with 
 down from their own shining breasts. Presently, 
 during the morning absence of the hen, we discerned 
 two eggs, exactly like little white sugar-plums, and 
 for some weeks we never wearied of seeing the cock 
 flitting backwards and forwards with a drop of honey 
 in his long slender beak, for his mate's refreshment. 
 He did not alight whilst he fed her, but would flit 
 like a winged jewel towards the nest, and just hover 
 over her for a second ; we could see the dear patient 
 little hen raise her bill, which he touched ; then 
 with a little cry he would dart off again into the 
 brilliant sunshine. I cannot find words to tell you 
 how beautiful the sight was ; one felt as if it was 
 fairy-land, for such exquisite and tiny creatures did 
 not seem to belong to this great big rough world of 
 ours. Presently, after nearly three weeks of watch- 
 
STORIES ABOUT , X [n 
 
 ing, we saw the hen also very busy carrying honey, 
 and then by gently moving a sheltering leaf we 
 peeped in to see two little birds, each no bigger 
 than a bee. Can you fancy a bee with a beak ? for 
 that was exactly what they were like. We asked 
 the opinion of several people as to whether it would 
 be cruel to take the nest as soon as the young ones 
 grew a little bigger, and at last we very carefully 
 cut the twig it rested on, and transferred the branch 
 to a cage, which we hung outside our window, under 
 an awning. The parent birds saw it directly, and 
 flew in and out of the open door, feeding their 
 young ones just as regularly, till their feathers came 
 and they looked quite full grown. The papa and 
 mamma now deserted them, and Jessie and I shut 
 the cage door and tried to induce them to feed 
 themselves with honey out of the same flowers from 
 which we had seen their parents bring them their 
 incessant meals ; but no, they were either too lazy, 
 or too stupid. We then endeavoured to feed them 
 ourselves with honey, or with sugar and water, but we 
 
t ] JAMAICA. 
 
 saw in a very few days that it would only end in their 
 death. They drooped and lost the burnished look 
 of their plumage, so we very reluctantly opened the 
 cage door, and after a few preliminary flutters our 
 lovely little captives darted away into the free air. 
 "We watched them hovering over a bough of honey- 
 bearing blossoms, and feeding themselves quite 
 cleverly, and then they were off like a glancing sun- 
 beam, and we never saw them again ! 
 
78 STORIES ABOUT [in 
 
 AUNT ANNIES STORIES ABOUT HORSES. 
 
 No doubt some of my young readers have ponies of 
 their own ; but I am sure that even those who have 
 not, like to hear stories about horses. Nearly all 
 boys and girls in town or country have noticed in how 
 many ways these strong and beautiful animals do 
 good service to man ; most of us, even grown up 
 people, take pleasure in watching a carriage go by 
 with its well-groomed pair trotting proudly together, 
 and have often admired the enormous creatures 
 which drag with equal pride heavy carts and 
 waggons. But you need not fear from this begin- 
 ning that I am going to write you an essay upon 
 the uses and habits of the horse, for you will learn 
 
ml HORSES. 
 
 all this in good time from natural-history books, or, 
 what is much better, from your own observation; 
 besides, ladies are not supposed to know much about 
 horses, and I might make sad mistakes if I were to 
 write of them in this fashion. But though my horse- 
 talk may not be quite as accurate as a groom's, 
 still in my time I have seen so many horses of all 
 sorts and sizes that I may perhaps be able to amuse 
 you by some stories of those I have ridden or known ; 
 and I will begin with an account of our first steed 
 6 Grenadier.' 
 
 He was a shaggy little Shetland, no higher than 
 the table, and more like a broad-backed Newfound- 
 land dog than a pony. It was most absurd to see 
 this tiny creature in its stall on a line with those of 
 the big horses, and to read its name printed in 
 large black letters on a white China tablet hung 
 over its little toy manger ; the name was so big, and 
 ' Granny ' (for we children soon shortened his name 
 to that") was so small. He was an old pony when he 
 was given to us, and so we could not expect to alter 
 
80 STORIES ABOUT [in 
 
 - 
 
 or improve any of his ways or manners. His chief 
 peculiarity was his love of children : we must have 
 teased him a great deal, yet he was always perfectly 
 gentle and patient to us, allowing us to pull his 
 tail, lift up his legs one after the other, creep under 
 him, though we very soon grew too big for this ; 
 in fact, he would let us children do anything we 
 liked with him. But the moment a grown-up 
 person approached, Granny's whole nature seemed 
 to change; his eyes gleamed with rage under his 
 shaggy forelock, he snorted with indignation, and 
 the groom used to declare he was always in terror 
 of his life whilst he was feeding or cleaning the 
 pony. I remember well how delighted my sister 
 and I were at some one saying, after listening to the 
 stable-helper's eloquent account of what he endured 
 at Granny's legs, c Why, my man, don't you lift him 
 up and put him in the manger, out of your way, 
 whilst you clean his stall ? ' It seemed quite pos- 
 sible. 
 
 One of my earliest recollections takes me back to 
 
Ill] 
 
 HORSES. 81 
 
 a summer afternoon in the country; on the hall- 
 door steps my father was standing with some other 
 gentlemen, and they were talking about horses 
 which were dangerous or difficult to ride. Grena- 
 diers name very soon came up in this discussion, 
 and my father sent for him. I think I see the little 
 creature now ; a groom held the halter quite close 
 to his muzzle, and he approached the group on the 
 steps with many bounds and kicks, behaving in fact 
 more like a lion than a discreet old pony, warranted 
 ' very quiet with children.' He was so perfect of 
 his kind that he excited a great deal of admiration ; 
 but all the gentlemen agreed that he seemed anything 
 but amiable. However, at last the groom was in- 
 duced by the promise of half-a-crown to mount 
 Master Granny, but I don't think he kept his seat 
 for more than two minutes ; then one of the gentle- 
 men tried ; and, lastly, my father, who was an ex- 
 cellent rider : but they all shared the fate of the 
 groom, and were speedily deposited on the grass. 
 By this time Granny had worked himself up into a 
 
82 STORIES ABOUT [in 
 
 fury, and would hardly let any one approach him : 
 we were called to pacify him, and -the moment we 
 came near with our little hands outstretched, and 
 our childish voices scolding him, Granny changed 
 as if by magic, and first one and then the other 
 little girl was lifted up and seated on the broad pad 
 which was the only saddle on which we learned to 
 ride. I can remember quite well the look of alarm 
 on the gentlemen's faces, and their entreaties to my 
 father not to be so rash. I believe they expected to 
 see us both — fearless little creatures that we were — 
 killed before their eyes; but nothing was further 
 from dear old Granny's mind than hurting us in any 
 way. With Jessie and I clinging to each other, and 
 to his shaggy mane, he ambled gently and carefully 
 about the lawn, taking the greatest care not to turn 
 round sharply, or in any way peril the very slight 
 amount of balance by which we kept ourselves on 
 his back. As soon as he thought we had ridden 
 long enough, he deliberately walked to where our 
 nurse was, and stood perfectly still while she helped us 
 
TfeJa$ 
 
 M 
 
 Master Granny and his Pets. — p. 82 
 
i/" 
 
in] HORSES. 83 
 
 down; indeed, I am ashamed to say that my 
 favourite mode of alighting was to scramble to my 
 feet on the pad, and then with a whoop of defiance 
 at my unfortunate nurse, to jump off, tearing 01 
 soiling my frock in this exploit. Dear eccentric 
 old Grenadier ! he died long ago at an advanced 
 age, petted and tended to the last by his little child- 
 friends ; one of his tiny hoofs was mounted as an 
 inkstand, with his name and age engraved under- 
 neath it, and for many years Jessie and I used to 
 cherish the China tablet painted with his name as a 
 precious relic. 
 
 The pony to which I was next promoted was 
 called 'Vic' He was much larger, but so very 
 good and well-behaved, that I cannot find anything 
 amusing to tell you about him ; and we must pass on 
 to c Alarm,' a most beautiful bright bay pony with 
 black points, the sole property of our school-boy 
 brother. Harry was very proud of this animal, but 
 it really was a most dangerous beast to ride. My 
 father's theory about ' Alarm ' was, that in his youth 
 
8-4 STORIES ABOUT [in 
 
 lie must have been cruelly beaten or knocked about ; 
 for although he was treated with the utmost gentle- 
 ness whilst in our possession, his temper never im- 
 proved, and up to the last he could not be saddled 
 without first having his eyes bandaged, as the sight 
 of the saddle always seemed to drive him nearly 
 wild with rage or terror. 
 
 AVhen once Harry had scrambled on Alarm's 
 back, he contrived to stick on by the same wonder- 
 ful power of adhesion which keeps sailors as well as 
 schoolboys on horse and pony back, when, accord- 
 ing to all the laws of gravitation, they ought to fall 
 off. 
 
 I only saw Harry once pitched off Alarm, and 
 then it was in so absurd a way, I must tell you 
 about it. Jessie, Harry, and I were returning 
 quietly home from a long ride, and at the turn of 
 a lane we suddenly came upon a load of cut green 
 grass by the roadside: there was no cart or any- 
 thing near it — nothing but the soft green heap. 
 Alarm shied violently at this, and absolutely re- 
 
in ! 
 
 HOUSES. 
 
 fused to pass it ; so Harry begged Jessie and me to 
 go on first ; we did so, and then turned round to 
 watch our brother's efforts to get the refractory pony 
 up to the grassy heap. The groom entreated Harry 
 to get off, and allow Alarm to be led past ; but of 
 course he would not listen to this suggestion, and, 
 by dint of sundry coaxings and pattings, Alarm was 
 induced to approach the object of his dread. But 
 Harry would not be content until he had made the 
 pony go quite close up to it, informing us, with an 
 air of superior wisdom, that ' that was the only way 
 to prevent his being so foolish again ; ' and at last 
 he actually got Alarm's nose near enough to smell 
 the grass. But it seemed as if the pony did not 
 approve of its perfume, for with a loud snort he 
 flung up his heels so suddenly and so high, that 
 poor Harry turned a somersault in the air, and was 
 nearly buried in the heap of grass ; whilst Alarm 
 trotted off with his tail standing straight out, and 
 arching his lovely glossy neck, as if he were very 
 proud of having won the victory. 
 
86 STORIES ABOUT //Tin 
 
 k 1_ 
 
 Alarm's fate is unknown : he was sold, when 
 Harry grew too big to ride him, to a gentleman who 
 was very anxious to give him to his little boy ; but, 
 about three weeks later, his new owner returned to 
 his home on foot, having started on Alarm's back, 
 and announced that the pony had thrown him and 
 then got away. For some days after this, fragments 
 of the saddle and bridle were brought in ; but poor 
 Alarm was never more seen or heard of, in spite 
 of search and inquiry. It was a very hilly part of 
 the country, and we can only suppose that he 
 fell down some precipice and was killed. Harry 
 mourned long and bitterly for his favourite, and 
 never ceased regretting having consented to part 
 with him. 
 
 Before Alarm passed out of our possession he was 
 concerned in a wholesale massacre, of which I must 
 tell you. I was extremely fond of taking care of 
 the poultry, and had just persuaded Mamma to 
 depose an old woman, who used to look after them, 
 and I reigned in her stead. But, alas ! my subjects 
 
in] HORSES. 87 
 
 died in the most terrible way, as soon as I assumed 
 the reins of government, and I had an uneasy con- 
 sciousness that, unless things improved very soon, 
 the old woman would be triumphantly restored to 
 her post. It was in the spring, when the turkeys 
 were bringing out their broods, and the books 
 on poultry-keeping, which I studied attentively, 
 desired me to turn the young turkeys out every 
 morning into a grass paddock, and to feed and 
 shut them up again at night. Now there was ex- 
 actly the paddock I wanted close to my poultry- 
 yard, and into it I turned my turkey-hens, each 
 with twelve or fourteen dear little chicks, crying 
 ' twee-twee-twee ' around her. When the time for 
 shutting them up arrived, the turkey-mothers all 
 answered my call, but they returned with only one 
 or two chicks each, and looked disconsolately about 
 them for the remainder. This was very dreadful, and 
 in the course of two days I had lost about fifty baby- 
 turkeys. I searched the paddock carefully, and found 
 several flattened little bodies, but with no mark of 
 
88 STORIES ABOUT is [in 
 
 a bite on them. There was nothing in the paddock 
 except Alarm, and he, I thought, was perfectly 
 quiet and harmless. I was in despair, and next 
 morning prepared to spend the whole day sitting 
 under a tree to watch what befell my last batch of 
 young turkeys. Presently my attention was at- 
 tracted by seeing a hen turkey, with outstretched 
 wings and loud cries, flying at Alarm's legs ; it 
 seemed very odd that she should assault the pony in 
 this way without any provocation, so I came softly 
 up behind him, and arrived just in time to see his 
 uplifted foreleg descend on a youthful turkey, 
 crushing it quite flat and dead with one pat. Yes ! 
 this was the way in which Alarm had amused him- 
 self for some days past, the result being, that out 
 of at least a hundred fine healthy young turkeys, I 
 had only about ten left. The worst of it was, that 
 no one pitied me. Harry evidently thought it very 
 clever of Alarm to devise this amusement ; the old 
 woman told Mamma I ought to have had the coops 
 placed in the paddock, so as to keep the chicks with- 
 
in] HORSES. 89 
 
 in bounds ; and the end of it was that I had to re- 
 sign my place ! 
 
 After I grew up, my wandering destiny led me 
 into many countries, and it so happened that, in the 
 course of my travels, I had to ride a great deal, and 
 became acquainted with horses of various tempers 
 and tricks ; yet, with all this practice, I could not 
 ride at all well. I was always frightened, never 
 feeling quite at home on horseback. I do not like 
 riding : perhaps for the reason that I have had 
 too much of it all my life. Eiding for pleasure, 
 as you do in England, is very different from being 
 obliged to take a long ride every day, and having 
 no other means of getting about than on horseback ; 
 and then, in these foreign countries, the horses are 
 generally only half-broken, and would not here be 
 considered fit for a lady to ride. 
 
 One horse I was obliged to ride used to lie down 
 in water, whenever we came to a river or brook, 
 which was every day in the course of a long journey 
 of several hundred miles. ' Claude ' used to double 
 
90 STORIES ABOUT /[in 
 
 up his legs at what he considered was a suitable 
 place in the stream, and lie down deliberately for 
 two or three minutes. It was so impossible to pre- 
 vent him from doing this, that at last I looked 
 upon it quite as a matter of course, and jumped 
 off as soon as he showed the first symptom of a 
 wish for a bath. By this means I seldom got wet 
 much above my ankles ; whereas, if I remained 
 on whilst he lay down, he always tried to roll, 
 and I got my saddle spoilt into the bargain. If 
 Claude had done this only with me, I should of 
 course have thought it was my bad riding; but 
 he went through the same performance with excel- 
 lent riders on his back, and quite regardless of all 
 the chastisement they gave him. I must say I 
 was delighted to find he was just as tiresome with 
 other people. 
 
 During this long journey I rode several horses at 
 different times : sometimes, if the stage was a very 
 long one, and had to be accomplished quickly, we 
 changed horses in the middle of it ; and upon one 
 
ml HORSES. 
 
 occasion, just as I had mounted my second horse, 
 and before I had gathered up the reins, or got my 
 knee over the pommel of the saddle, he jerked his 
 head free in some mysterious way, leaving his bridle 
 in the hands of the groom who was holding him, 
 and bolted home as hard as he could gallop ! I 
 held tight on with one hand to the front and with 
 the other to the back of the saddle, and on we flew 
 for seven or eight miles. We were not lono* about 
 it, I can assure you, and we went so fast that every- 
 thing appeared to be racing past us. My hat came 
 off, my hair tumbled down my back, and I must 
 have looked like a lunatic, sitting or rather cling- 
 ing in this extraordinary way, with a very pale, 
 ■scared face and bare head. At last we reached the 
 place from which we had started ; it was quite 
 deserted, so I slipped off ' Rajah's ' back, went into 
 the verandah and sat down, feeling most dreadfully 
 shaken and frightened. Therewas no one there to look 
 after the horse ; but I was so disgusted at having 
 all the way to go back again, that I did not care 
 
S2 STORIES ABOUT [in 
 
 what became of him, and left him to his own de- 
 vices. Presently I heard a great noise on the floor 
 of the verandah, and there was Eajah coming to 
 look for me, poking his pretty grey nose into my 
 hand for his accustomed lump of sugar ! Did you 
 ever hear of such impertinence ? 
 
 There never was his equal for bolting ; once he 
 bolted with me at an inspection of cavalry, taking 
 offence at the sudden flashing of the soldiers' sabres 
 as they drew them to salute their inspecting officer. 
 I must acknowledge it was rather startling ; but the 
 worst of it was that the horse upon which was 
 mounted one of the high officials assisting at the 
 ceremonial, bolted too, and the faster Eajah flew 
 with the bit between his teeth and his tail standing 
 straight out, the more the other horse tried to over- 
 take him. It was a regular race for four miles, and 
 I had no breath left at the end of it, for the pace 
 was tremendous ; nothing but a thoroughbred Arab 
 in good condition could have kept it up so long : 
 but I did not feel afraid of tumbling off upon that 
 
m] HORSES. 
 
 occasion, for I was fairly in the saddle, and had 
 nothing to do except — as a dear little boy once said 
 to me — t stick on like a plaster.' The ride back 
 was very disagreeable, for my fellow-runaway was 
 dreadfully sulky, and evidently thought the mis- 
 adventure my fault, whereas I considered that if he 
 could have pulled up his own horse, Eajah would 
 have stopped much sooner. 
 
 But running away is nothing to kicking. I had 
 once to ride a horse who never saw a pony without 
 wanting to fight him ; he used to paw at them with 
 his forelegs and try to bite them ; or, if he could not 
 do that, he would make a grab at the poor rider's 
 leg, and often give it a nip. Whilst riding him, I 
 did not dare to take my eyes off his ears ; for when 
 he laid them back, and I could see him trying to find 
 out if I was watching, I knew what was coming. 
 He would stop dead short in the middle of a canter, 
 and begin to kick or suddenly dart across the road 
 to bully another horse ; fortunately, c Afreet ' had a 
 tender mouth, so if I was on the watch, and could 
 
94 STORIES ABOUT [in 
 
 get his head well up in time, I had some chance of 
 stopping his little game. 
 
 But as a contrast to all these horses I have been 
 telling you about, who were the reverse of the pro- 
 verb about ' Handsome is, &c.,' I must give you a 
 short memoir of ' Jack,' who was not at all handsome, 
 bub who was the most clever and sensible animal I 
 ever knew, as well as the most hard-working. I 
 made dear old Jack's acquaintance out in New 
 Zealand three or four years ago, and I am happy to 
 say he is still alive and well, gradually sinking into 
 a green old age, beloved and respected by all who 
 know him. Jack did not belong to any one person 
 in particular : on the station where I lived he was 
 called a 6 station screw,' and was used by all who 
 wanted him. Now I don't exactly know what a 
 ' screw ' means. I believe it is something unkind 
 when applied to a horse ; but I know that whereas 
 the more valuable horses used occasionally to meet 
 with accidents, or have some ailment, Jack was never 
 ill or unable to do what was required of him. I am 
 
Ill 
 
 HOUSES. 
 
 afraid Jack's exterior was clumsy and rather of the 
 plough-horse kind; but then he could go like 
 4 Eclipse ' on an emergency ; you could ride him all 
 dav ; he would carry you a long weary journey, and 
 when grander horses would be too tired to eat, Jack 
 would calmly munch his oats as if he had not been a 
 mile away from home, and look as fresh as a daisy 
 next morning. If ever I have to ride in a circus. I 
 will send for Jack ! Anv one could stand up on his 
 back and jump through hoops or perform feats of 
 agility, and Jack would canter or walk steadily 
 round and round all the time. I have often ridden 
 for miles on Jack with the reins knotted on his neck, 
 and my hands in the pockets of my jacket to keep 
 them warm. ^Vhen my own showy mare was laid up, 
 I rode Jack. If any one wanted to look for a stray 
 horse or cow, they rode Jack. If a horse was wanted 
 on a pinch to draw a cart or even a dog-cart, Jack 
 was ' all there.' If mutton was wanted from the 
 home station, ' Where is Jack ? ' was the first ques- 
 tion. Other horses were verv difficult to catch, but 
 
96 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 Jack walked confidingly up to yon when he saw the 
 halter in yonr hand. One defect he had, and only 
 one ; he certainly was very greedy. Jack wonld do 
 anything for a feed of oats. He has been known to 
 eat his own feed and that of two other horses also ; 
 and as for a haystack, Jack scented it miles away, 
 and no fence could keep him out ; at least no New 
 Zealand fence, for they are only wire railings about 
 three feet six inches high, and Jack quietly and 
 cautiously steps over them, one leg at a time. I 
 saw him caught in a fence once, as he was getting 
 over it into a paddock of beautiful clover, and in- 
 stead of struggling, he stood perfectly still; and 
 when he saw me in the verandah, he whinnied to 
 attract my attention, knowing I would come and 
 help him at once. 
 
 Jack preferred a steady, sober pace, but upon 
 occasion he could go very fast, as I will tell you. 
 The horses in New Zealand are seldom or never 
 kept in stables or even in paddocks, but roam all 
 over the c run,' in what are called ' mobs ; ' that is, 
 
in] HORSES. 97 
 
 several of them together. If a horse is wanted out 
 of the mob, the only way to get it is to drive all the 
 others, as well as the one you require, into a stock- 
 yard, or enclosure made of strong, high posts and 
 rails. On these occasions I generally begged to be 
 allowed to help, for the sake of the pleasant ride on 
 a lovely afternoon among the hills, and the excite- 
 ment of finding the mob and driving them into the 
 stock-yard. The horses were often very difficult to 
 catch. If one saw us coming, perhaps he would 
 give the alarm, and the whole mob would set off up 
 the gorge of a river, or over a steep hill-pass, and 
 we would have to go round a long way to turn and 
 drive them back. The gentlemen of the party 
 carried stock-whips, which they cracked from time to 
 time, the report echoing among the quiet lonely 
 valleys like that of a pistol. Sometimes I rode my 
 own mare, Helen, but the galloping and shouting 
 used to excite her very much, and it was all I 
 could do to take care of myself when I was on 
 her back ; so I preferred dear, quiet, old Jack, 
 
98 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 whenever he was not wanted for the real business of 
 the expedition ; generally, however, he was in great 
 request, as he was one of the best s stock-horses ' in 
 all the . country-side. Upon this occasion we had 
 found the mob without much trouble, driven them 
 into the stock-yard, caught the chestnut pony which 
 was wanted, and were all returning quietly home in 
 the gloaming, enjoying the beautiful sunset, and the 
 fresh, sweet air which steals down the glens after a 
 hot summer day. I was on Jack's back, ambling 
 gently along, when suddenly a wild cat started up 
 under our feet and bolted into a large, thick bed of 
 fern close by. In a moment the gentlemen were off 
 their horses and, with many shouts and yells, were 
 trying to help the dogs to get poor pussy out of her 
 cover. I offered to hold the chestnut's flax bridle, 
 but my assistance was declined, and the sort of lead- 
 ing rein (also made of flax) was securely fastened to 
 the stump of a Ti-ti palm close by. Jack evidently 
 distrusted this arrangement, or else he knew more 
 of the chestnut's sly tricks than we did. At all 
 
ml HORSES. . ^^ 99 
 
 events, he edged up to where the horse was hitched, 
 and stood quite close to him, watching every move- 
 ment attentively. And it was well he was so careful, 
 for in the most exciting moment of the cat-hunt, 
 when everybody's attention was engaged, the pony 
 threw up his head, gave a violent plunge and a 
 pull back at the same time ; a badly tied knot in 
 the flax halter gave way, and off he flew like the 
 wind to join the other horses, which were feeding 
 in a large mob just in sight, at the entrance of the 
 gorge of a river. 
 
 Before I knew what had happened, Jack was off 
 after the runaway. Never have I been carried at 
 such a pace. Jack did just as he liked ; instead of 
 going warily and carefully over the rough country, 
 he jumped every hole or prickly bush which came in 
 his way, to save the time required to go round it ; 
 when we reached a creek, instead of discreetly seek- 
 ing for the best place at which to cross it, JacK 
 scrambled down its steep, crumbling banks, splashed 
 through the water, and was up the other side like a 
 
S TOBIES ABOUT t\f [i 
 
 100 STORIES ABOUT \/ fm 
 
 cat, and on again, matching every turn of the chest- 
 nut, who was doing his best to join the mob, with 
 them to make a final bolt up the gorge and escape 
 us for that night. Jack felt bound in honour to 
 prevent this, so he laid himself well out to his work, 
 and with the most wonderful instinct availed him- 
 self of every inch of ground by which he could gain 
 the entrance to the gorge before the mob. He not 
 only succeeded in heading the horses, but actually 
 turned them into the stock-yard close by ; and when 
 I recovered my presence of mind, I found myself still 
 on Jack's back, who was standing across the open 
 place where the slip-rail ought to have been put. 
 He quite understood that I was incapable of jumping 
 off and getting the long pole into its proper position, 
 so as to keep all the horses in, and therefore he took 
 this duty on his own shoulders. How he shook him- 
 self when we had reached this point ! I was already 
 jolted nearly to death, for I am bound to say that 
 dear Jack's paces were very rough when he galloped 
 fast, and to be shaken violently directly after such a 
 
in] HORSES. is^ 101 
 
 skelter was too trying. When the gentlemen came 
 up, they could hardly speak for laughing, at which 
 I was much affronted, for I felt we deserved great 
 praise for our exertions ; but it seems that we looked 
 very absurd, tearing along like a whirlwind (both 
 Jack and I being ordinarily very quiet and deliberate 
 in our movements), jumping all obstacles, disap- 
 pearing sometimes in the bed of a creek, and finally 
 gaining the victory single-handed against some 
 twenty horses. 
 
 I have one more story to tell you, and it takes me 
 back again to the time when I was a little girl. 
 My father came home one day, and announced that 
 he had bought a very handsome horse to go in single 
 harness. First of all we inquired what colour he 
 was ? A bright bay. Then we asked about his mane 
 and tail ; and lastly, some practical person demanded 
 what price was to be paid for ' Tom.' I well remem- 
 ber the astonishment when my father said how very 
 little his owner asked for him. Of course, the next 
 question was, ' Is he sound ? ' ' Oh yes, he is all 
 
102 STORIES ABOUT a / [ ra 
 
 right,' Papa said ; { but he has fits of obstinacy, and 
 stands quite still for hours : however, I don't think 
 he will try any of his tricks with me.' 
 
 In due time Tom came home, and a very handsome 
 horse he was, large and powerful, with splendid 
 action, and very showy. I had overheard the gentle- 
 men talking together about his having c a sullen 
 eye,' and I immediately flitted off to the stable to 
 see what this sort of eye was like. To my disappoint- 
 ment, Tom's eyes were just like those of all the 
 other horses. Every morning, Papa used to take 
 Tom out in a sort of light gig, with a groom by his 
 side. I anxiously inquired how Tom had .behaved ; 
 the answer was always the same, 6 Perfectly well.' 
 There was nothing I liked so much in those days as 
 going out with my father for a morning drive, and 
 at last, after some weeks of excellent behaviour on 
 Tom's part, and earnest entreaties on mine, I was 
 allowed to accompany Papa again. Tom went as 
 peacefully as a lamb ; he was often tried by having 
 to stop to allow a gate to be opened, but he never 
 
in] HOUSES. 1^^ 105 
 
 minded this check, and went on amiably afterwards, 
 until one unlucky day, when Papa and I were alone. 
 We came to a large white gate — how well I remem- 
 ber it now; I jumped out to open it as quickly as 
 possible, so as not to try Tom's temper ; but running 
 past him to scramble up again to my perch, I saw at 
 once what they meant by a sullen eye. It was a 
 look of sheer rage and obstinacy, such as you would 
 not believe a horse could assume. It did not surprise 
 me to find that Tom made no movement in reply to 
 Papa's 'click.' First of all, kindness and petting 
 were tried ; I did what I could to help by coaxing 
 and patting. Tom stood as if he were carved out of 
 wood ; then my father beat him ; Tom never winced. 
 I remember Papa's laughing at my suggestion that 
 we were in fairy land, and that a wicked enchanter 
 had turned Tom into stone. It really seemed like 
 it, for time passed and Tom was motionless. The 
 whip was broken, and my father's arm was tired ; 
 still Tom did not stir. At last, when no one was 
 touching him, he gave a sudden bound into the air, 
 
104 STOSIES ABOUT [m 
 
 \ L 
 
 all four legs off the ground at once, and fell between 
 the shafts, which snapped short off, sending Papa 
 and poor little me flying into the dusty road. As 
 goon as we had picked ourselves up and found we 
 were not hurt, we went to Tom, who was lying 
 perfectly still, with some blood on the dust by his 
 head. He was quite dead ; and after I grew up, and 
 reminded Papa of that adventure, he told me that a 
 veterinary surgeon examined poor Tom's body, and 
 found that he had burst a large vessel in his heart, 
 from rage or indignation, we dont know which. I 
 was so sorry for Tom ! 
 
 I have now told you all the horse-stories which I 
 can remember, and must try to think of something 
 else to amuse vou with next time. 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. ^^ 105 
 
 FOUR MOXTHS IN CAMP. 
 
 I daeesat many of my child readers think that it 
 mnst be delightful to live in a tent. And so it is ; 
 for a few years ago I passed four months under can- 
 vas, and found them very pleasant, especially as the 
 tent was moved to a fresh place every day. There 
 are so many railroads in India now, that I suppose 
 the marching of troops from one end of the country 
 to the other is given up ; but, at the time I write of, 
 there was no other way of transporting them, and a 
 regiment or an army sometimes had to make a jour- 
 nev of one or two thousand miles. We, who live in 
 a little island, can hardly imagine how vast a region 
 is even one Indian province. If you look at the 
 map you will see that all England might be laid 
 
 p 
 
106 STORIES ABOUT [jv 
 
 down on the plains of Bengal, and leave a margin as 
 large in proportion as yonr little hand would leave, 
 if laid down on this page. 
 
 I shall begin the story of my tent-life from the 
 evening before I joined the camp, a day's march from 
 Lucknow. First, you must know that I had arrived 
 from England only two weeks before, and conse- 
 quently knew nothing of the language or the ways 
 of the people. Xow I expect you to get the map, 
 and find Lucknow in the north-west province of 
 Oudh; then we can make the journey together, — it 
 will take us right up to the Himalaya mountains, 
 and I hope to be able to amuse you by the way. 
 
 We had been staying for three or four days at 
 Lucknow, having travelled thither from Calcutta 
 partly by railway, and partly in a most uncomfort- 
 able and jolting carriage, like a very bad cab, in 
 which we slept at night. Grlad to think this kind of 
 journeying over, I looked forward eagerly to my first 
 glimpse of the white tents which were to be our 
 home for some time. But before we joined the 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 107 
 
 camp, there was a great deal to "be done in the way 
 of buying things, hiring servants, and making 
 various arrangements for our comfort, and you must 
 remember that I knew nothing at all about what 
 was wanted, and had every moment to ask some 
 kind person's advice, just as you would be obliged to 
 do. The camp which we were ordered to join was 
 composed of five thousand soldiers, who were to take 
 what was called 4 a military promenade ' from one 
 end of Bengal to the other, to see that the country 
 was quiet, the forts in good repair, and the various 
 garrisons doing their duty properly. We marched 
 in great state, for the Commander-in-Chief was with 
 us, and all the heads of departments. There was an 
 immense number of servants and kelasses, or men to 
 pitch the tents every day. I have heard that the 
 camp numbered more than ten thousand people, 
 though barely half of them were soldiers ; there were 
 only four ladies, including myself! 
 
 Fortunately for me, the lady with whom I stayed 
 at Lucknow had made just such a journey only the 
 
108 STORIES ABOUT X O 
 
 year before, so she told me exactly what was best to 
 do and to buy, and great fun I thought it making 
 such odd purchases. First there was the cook to be 
 hired : he required several assistants, a little cart 
 drawn by bullocks to carry all his pots and pans, and 
 a wire-gauze safe to keep his provisions in. Poor 
 man ! he had no kitchen, and yet he used to send us 
 up capital meals three times a day. All we had to 
 do was to pay his daily bill ; everybody took it for 
 granted he cheated us immensely, but still I think it 
 was very clever of him to manage so comfortably. 
 We were allowed a certain number of camels and 
 elephants to carry our tents and baggage, but the 
 odd thing was that we had to buy two sets of every- 
 thing, even two sets of pretty blue and white cotton 
 carpets ; these were made just like the Turkey car- 
 pets you probably have often seen, only of cotton 
 instead of wool ; they could be easily washed when- 
 ever we came to a river, and were besides much 
 cooler and lighter than an ordinary dining-room 
 carpet. Two sets o-f basket chairs had to be bought, 
 
IV] CAMP LIFE. 
 
 with cushions of picked cotton, and pretty chintz 
 covers to fit them ; two sets of beds, of jugs and 
 basins, cups and saucers, plates and dishes ; our 
 clothes, brushes, combs, books, &c, all had to be 
 divided into two sets, and packed in two sets of 
 camel trunks. The only things from which we never 
 intended to part were a despatch-box and my 
 travelling-bag ; that was given into my ayah's care, 
 which reminds me that we had to buy a light sort of 
 palanquin for her, and to provide two sets of bearers 
 to carry it. 
 
 I, thinking it would be so very hot in India, had 
 left all my winter clothes behind me in England ; 
 but I had to buy plenty of flannel and warm stuffs 
 at Lucknow, for everybody assured me the cold 
 would be intense early in the morning and late at 
 night, and so it was. "Whilst at dinner in the tent, 
 I often had to send for a thick shawl to wrap myself 
 up in. Among our servants was an excellent durzie, 
 or tailor, who made all my clothes and mended 
 everything. Nothing affronted him so much as to 
 
110 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 even see me sew on a button to my glove ; he 
 thought it was a reflection on his industry. He 
 worked very hard during those few days at Lucknow, 
 and got my wardrobe into excellent marching order 
 by the 12th December, the day fixed for our joining 
 the 6 Head-quarters Camp,' at a place called Byram- 
 Grhat, about thirty miles from Lucknow. We did 
 not start until late at night ; all day we were busy 
 superintending the packing and seeing off all our 
 worldly goods. I took especial delight in watching 
 the loading of the camels ; they were brought up to 
 the verandah at the back of the house, and there 
 made to kneel down and have their pack-saddle put 
 on. Then came trunks, whose weight was evenly 
 balanced on each side ; a charpoy, or light bamboo 
 bedstead, was fastened on the top ; upon this sat the 
 camel-driver, guiding his steed by means of a string 
 rein fastened to a little bit of wood stuck through 
 its nose. The camels made a great fuss about their 
 loads ; they gurgled and groaned in the most heart- 
 rending manner, and I was very sorry for them, 
 
ivl CAMP LIFE. Ill 
 
 until I saw what a bad mother one of them was. 
 She had a dear little baby camel, and she was dread- 
 fully unkind to it, biting and kicking it whenever 
 it came near her. Just as she was going to start, 
 having had a very light load put on her saddle, the 
 camel-driver gently threw the little camel down, 
 tied its legs with an old turban of his own, and 
 finally had it lifted up and laid on the charpoy 
 behind him ; so the unkind mother had to carry her 
 child after all, against her will, I daresay. 
 
 I must not forget to tell you about the pets, who 
 had a servant all to themselves. There was a 
 beautiful parrot, a small cage full- of Java sparrows 
 (who, by the way, are the stupidest little creatures 
 in the world), and another of paroquets from 
 Ceylon. These were sent on with their attendant, 
 but I kept my latest favourite to travel with me. It 
 was a most beautiful thoroughbred Persian cat, as 
 white as snow, with long silky hair instead of short 
 fur ; she had also two white knobs hanging down by 
 her jaws, one eye was blue and the other green, all 
 
112 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 of which characteristics belong to the true Persian 
 breed. She was large and powerful, but as gentle 
 and playful as a kitten. My difficulties with this 
 animal began at once, for no sooner was I packed 
 into the palanquin in which we were to make our 
 journey from Lucknow to the camp, than Miss 
 Pussy discovered some cold pigeon, which my 
 hostess had kindly put on the little shelf inside the 
 palkee (as palanquins are generally called) ; and 
 when I wanted my early breakfast at six o'clock, the 
 coffee was forthcoming, but neither the bread nor 
 the pigeon was to be found. Pussy did not attempt- 
 to deny the robbery when taxed with it, but sat 
 licking her paws with a self-satisfied and contented 
 air. I must explain that Puss only answered to the 
 name of 'Billy,' although she was a most elegant 
 young lady ; but a word which has something of the 
 same sound is Bengalee for cat, and she had no other 
 name. I think I shall tell you her fate here, so as 
 not to interrupt my story when once we get fairly 
 into camp. She was very good and quiet during the 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. \yS^ 113 
 
 day, and slept contentedly on my lap, or curled her- 
 self up like a white heap on my writing-table ; but 
 at night she was as bad as a teething baby. Not a 
 wink of sleep would she let me have ; mewing, purr- 
 ing, jumping up on my bed to awake me, begging 
 me in the most earnest cat language to let her go 
 outside the tent, and play in the moonlight. I was 
 warned not to allow her to do this, and of course I 
 ought not to have given way ; but at the end of a 
 week I was so tired of these disturbances, that I got 
 out of bed, pulled up the fastening peg of the tent- 
 door, or rather curtain, and out poor Billy bounded, 
 with a little cry of joy, into the bright moonlight. 
 I looked after her to watch if she would go far ; but 
 her last moment had come. I think I see her now, 
 standing in the soft shining light, -with her pretty 
 head well up, her small ears pointed, and lashing her 
 long bushy tail from side to side. Alas ! she had no 
 instinct of her coming danger, for in a moment, from 
 the rear of the tent, a small band of wolves dashed 
 forward — I heard a cry, a snarl, some short greedy 
 
 Q 
 
114 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 snaps, and all that was left of my poor Billy was a 
 little tuft of blood-stained fur, or rather hair. She 
 was eaten up in a moment before my eyes. It was 
 all my fault for letting her go out, but she begged so 
 hard ! 
 
 We shall never get on if I stop by the way to tell 
 you the fate of all my pets, so let us keep steadily 
 to our camp life. Leaving Lucknow, we travelled 
 all night in our palanquins, and, about six o'clock in 
 the morning, I was just beginning to feel dozy, 
 when one of the attendants drew aside the curtains 
 of my palkee and pointed to a large clump of trees, 
 saying something I could not understand ; however, 
 I sat eagerly up and saw my movable home looking 
 quiet and peaceful in the early morning. We never 
 see such splendid tents in England ; they were all 
 double poled, and arranged so as to form a long and 
 wide street, with the Commander-in-Chiefs tent 
 across the top. The standard was flying in front, 
 with the sentries pacing up and down before it. At 
 the back of the camp were rows of very small tents 
 
nr] CAMP LIFE. 
 
 for the housekeepers, the cooks, and other outdoor 
 servants : the horses, some four or five in number, 
 were picketed in the rear of their owners' large tents ; 
 behind these again were a swarm of smaller ones for 
 the soldiers, and still further off, among the trees, I 
 could see on one side the camels' camp, and on the 
 other that of the elephants. All looked orderly and 
 quiet in the early morning, and very different to 
 what I soon discovered was its usual aspect. The 
 camp had halted at this Ghat for a few days, to 
 collect all the stragglers and arrange the order of 
 march. 
 
 We soon passed the first row of sentries, then the 
 next, and trotted and jolted up to the entrance of 
 one of the largest tents at the upper end of the 
 street. Amid much chattering and jabbering, and 
 entreaties to each other to be ' very careful of the 
 lady-sahib,' my bearers put my palkee down in 
 front of my new home, and I sat up in it, feeling 
 very sleepy, and dusty, and tired, to have my first 
 look at a real tent to live in. I had made up my 
 
116 STORIES ABOUT \/V w 
 
 mind that it would be something like the gipsy 
 encampments one sees on a common in England, 
 and that the life would be a rough and uncom- 
 fortable one, but there was nothing of the sort. 
 Our old Khansamah appeared at the entrance as 
 beautifully clean in his snowy robes and turban as 
 if he had just come out of a bandbox, and with many 
 salaams ushered us into a sort of verandah which ran 
 all round the tent, and then into the centre compart- 
 ment. It looked just like a very spacious and lofty 
 drawing-room. On the sand was spread first the 
 thick striped drugget which matched the linings of 
 the tent, pale buff and blue, and over this our own 
 pretty cotton carpets and rugs. There were tables 
 with gay covers, books, writing materials and vases 
 of flowers, plenty of straw arm-chairs, and a long 
 folding chair which made a very good sofa. What 
 I thought the prettiest of all was a sort of trophy 
 of green boughs arranged round the poles, and 
 another of whips, guns, spurs, and swords. It all 
 looked quite homelike and pretty. On a side table 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 117 
 
 the cloth was laid for the early breakfast, and in a 
 few moments we had some delicious coffee and rusk3. 
 At each side of this centre compartment was another 
 room, that on the left hand being fitted up as a very 
 nice bedroom ; a portion of the verandah outside it 
 was curtained off for a bath-room, and contained a 
 laro-e india-rubber bath full of fresh water. The 
 
 o 
 
 division on the right was arranged as a dressing- 
 room (also with a bath-room), and in it was a writ- 
 ing-table on which the important despatch-bos was 
 soon placed. 
 
 I now understood how necessary was the second 
 set of everything. All was packed and ready to start 
 as soon as the order of march was issued, so we 
 lived in one tent whilst the other was on its road to 
 the next camping-ground. We very soon set out on 
 the march ; I will describe the routine of a single 
 day to you, and then you will know exactly how we 
 managed for four months. Every Sunday we halted 
 and had morning service in the Highlanders' portion 
 of the camp, and, in the afternoon, fall service in 
 
118 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 the Commander-in-Chiefs tent. When we arrived 
 at a large station we rested for three or fonr days 
 whilst His Excellency inspected the garrison. There 
 were a great many balls and parties given in our 
 honour, but the account of these festivities would 
 not interest you much, so I must go back to the 
 daily camp life. 
 
 At half-past four o'clock every morning the bugle 
 sounded. We all got up immediately and dressed 
 as quickly as possible, I in my riding-habit ; at five 
 the second bugle blew, and instantly, as if by magic, 
 the walls of the tent fell flat disclosing us drink- 
 ing our coffee. As soon as possible afterwards we 
 started ; it was pitch dark and very cold, so we rode 
 for the first few miles on the back of our baggage- 
 elephant. This used to amuse me very much, though 
 I never quite liked the getting up and down. The 
 elephant I rode was larger than those you see in the 
 Zoological Gardens, but quite as tame His driver, 
 or ' mahout,' sat on the poor beast's head, and hit 
 him hard with a small battle-axe, or prodded him 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. i/ 112 
 
 with the sharp iron point of a spearhead, when lie 
 wanted him to go faster. The elephant did not 
 seem to mind this severe correction in the least, so 
 I hope it did not hurt him. He always knelt down 
 for me to mount, and then a ladder was placed 
 against his side, and I scrambled up on the pad 
 which was my only saddle. Now it is very difficult 
 to go quickly up a shaky ladder in a long habit, 
 and I was always glad when I found myself safely 
 perched on his back. From this height, as soon as 
 the day began to dawn, I could see the endless 
 line of the procession : not only were there all the 
 soldiers horse and foot, but innumerable camp- 
 followers, with droves of sheep, of cows, of poultry : 
 carts of all sorts and sizes, with ammunition, knap- 
 sacks, provisions, the wives and children of the hun- 
 dreds of servants, the washer-men, the water-carriers, 
 and many more than I can remember, all wending 
 their way in silence amid clouds of dust. Every now 
 and then a jingling of bells would herald the swift 
 passing of an orderly mounted on a camel, who was 
 
120 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 hurrying on with orders, his steed gay with trappings 
 of green and crimson to mark that it belonged to 
 the 6 Camel Corps.' I used to see regularly every 
 morning on the line of march a very seedy-looking 
 pony about as big as a Newfoundland dog, with a 
 cock perched on its back. "Whenever the poor little 
 pony stopped the cock flapped his wings and set up 
 a loud crow ; I never could discover that the pony 
 had any other duty to perform except to carry that 
 cock. 
 
 As soon as the day dawned, which was not much 
 before six, we began to look out for our horses; they 
 had been sent on, and were awaiting us by the side 
 of a wall or under a tree. We soon mounted and 
 set off as hard as we could gallop so as to get out of 
 the dust. Ten miles of fast cantering brought us to 
 the new camp, and we rode up to the entrance of a 
 tent precisely like the one we had left an hour or 
 two before. There was breakfast ready, and every- 
 thing looking as if we had lived in the tent for years. 
 The first thing to do was to get rid of the dust, then 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 121 
 
 we had a good breakfast ; after that I saw the Khan- 
 saraah, paid his bill for yesterday, and gave orders 
 for to-morrow. At first I was obliged to have an 
 interpreter whilst arranging my household affairs, 
 but very soon I could get on by myself. Of course 
 I made absurd mistakes ; as when I told the poor 
 Khansamah one morning to bring in more bundles 
 of firewood for breakfast ! I meant to order eggs, but 
 the words are not in the least alike in Hindoostanee. 
 I never shall forget the poor man's look of astonish- 
 ment at my insisting on being obeyed, nor did I 
 discover my mistake till the woodcutters filed into 
 the tent, one after another, each carrying a large 
 faggot which he laid at my feet, and the old Khan- 
 samah looked at me, as much as to say, ' I hope you 
 are satisfied now.' 
 
 After my interview with the cook, I settled down 
 to my lessons, and very hard I had to work, I as- 
 sure you; for, whatever clever people may say about 
 it, I only know I found Hindoostanee exceedingly 
 difficult to learn ; it is tolerably easy to pick up a 
 
122 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 few sentences, just enough to give orders to the 
 servants, but it is quite another thing learning a 
 language where some of the letters of the alphabet 
 are only two little dots, or a dot and a stroke, or a 
 little dash ; and I never could feel at home begin- 
 ning my copy at what we consider the end of a line, 
 on the right hand, and writing backwards. Then, 
 after studying for some time very attentively, and 
 hoping I had got on very well, I made the humili- 
 ating discovery that I could only read my own writ- 
 ing, any one else's being to me as undecipherable as 
 hieroglyphics ! By the time my studies were over 
 it was time for luncheon ; after lunch I had a nap, 
 getting up about four to change my dress for a 
 hunting expedition. All along the line of march we 
 could find game a little off the main road, so every 
 afternoon our ' shikari,' or huntsman, came to the 
 tent-door with his elephant, and some coolies to beat 
 for us. He made it his business to discover the 
 best and nearest place for red-legged partridges, wild 
 ducks, snipe, peacocks, or antelopes ; we seldom had 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 123 
 
 to 2:0 more than four miles before we dismounted 
 from the elephant ; we then went into the jungle, 
 and the gentlemen shot until it got too dark to see 
 the game. I acted as dog upon these expeditions, for 
 English pointers are exceedingly rare, and very sel- 
 dom of any use ; the native servant who takes care 
 of each couple is always dreadfully afraid of his 
 charges, and never thinks of keeping them in order ; 
 he pampers and pets them, letting them do just as 
 they like, and always speaks of them as 6 Kootah 
 Sahib,' or 6 Mr. Dog.' So I used to beat the bushes for 
 partridges, and whenever we put up a covey I marked 
 them down, ran off to the bush where they took 
 shelter, and waited there till the sportsmen came up. 
 I carried a gun myself once, and only once. I never 
 had courage to fire it, but once it went off of its 
 own accord and shot a porcupine. Poor little 
 creature ! I was so sorry for it ; there was nothing 
 to be seen after the explosion but a few quills, which 
 I have kept carefully ever since. 
 
 Stalking the antelopes was the best fun : they 
 
124 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 were so clever and so fleet that we could hardly ever 
 get near enough for a rifle shot, but then the 
 triumph was all the greater when we returned to 
 camp with a fine fat buck slung on the elephant. 
 As soon as I dismounted at my tent-door, the 
 mahout ordered the elephant to 'salaam,' so he 
 lifted up his long trunk and slapped his great wide 
 forehead with it three or four times, just as the 
 natives do. I always gave him something for his 
 civility, a piece of cake or a large lump of sugar ; 
 but what he liked best was a bottle of beer ; it was 
 so curious to see how carefully he took it up in his 
 trunk and poured the contents slowly into his huge 
 mouth. I only gave him a pint bottle, so I suppose 
 he considered that a mere sip ! "We had just time to 
 dress for dinner, which was always at seven. We 
 often dined out, or had officers to dine with us, for 
 everybody was very sociable and pleasant ; but it 
 seemed rather odd to me that all guests were ex- 
 pected to send to the tent where they were going to 
 dine, their own chair, plate, tumbler, wineglass, 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 
 
 knife and fork, and spoon ! However, if you think 
 of it, it would have been impossible to carry about 
 things enough for a dozen extra guests. We four 
 ladies were made a great deal of, and used often to 
 dine at the mess tents of the various regiments : 
 but there was no sitting up late ; everybody in camp 
 — servants and all — was fast asleep by ten o'clock, 
 and there was not a sound to be heard but the lauo-h 
 of the hyasnas, or the loud baying of the wolves. 
 
 There was no packing or unpacking to be seen ; 
 everything was done in the new tent before we 
 arrived, and in the old one after we had left it. The 
 country was so flat and level that it was difficult to 
 believe we were getting on, until our arrival at some 
 great town marked our progress. I don't think any 
 one was ill the whole time we were marching, and 
 we had only one accident. A dear little girl called 
 Eose (a very white rose she was, poor child) set her 
 pinafore on fire one evening, just as we were all 
 dressing for a dinner-party at the Commander-in- 
 Chief's. I heard a shriek from the tent opposite to 
 
126 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 . ^ 
 
 mine, and rushed across the wide space to see what 
 was the matter. I was only in time to see Rosy's 
 mamma seize a little pillar of flame — which turned 
 out to be the child — in her arms, thereby setting all 
 the lace trimming on her evening dress in a blaze. 
 My toilette was not so far advanced, and I had on a 
 very large wide flannel dressing-gown, so I threw my- 
 self upon the blazing heap, and in a second the tent 
 ropes had been cut, and the canvas came huddling 
 down on us. This put us all out at once, but for 
 fear we might still be smouldering, the fire-engines 
 began to play upon us, until I really thought we 
 should have been drowned ; I struggled *.o free my- 
 self, and shouted, as loud as I could, entreaties to 
 the kelasses to leave off pumping, and to lift up the 
 flaps of the tent ; but, alas ! all my Hindoostanee 
 went out of my head, and I could only remember 
 one word, which means ' take care ; ' so the more I 
 shrieked this out, the more they replied, 'Very 
 good, lady-sahib, we are taking care,' and pumped 
 with greater vigour than ever. Poor little Rose and 
 
rvj CAMP LIFE. 127 
 
 her mamma had both fainted, one from pain and 
 the other from fright. At last some gentlemen came 
 to our rescue and got the canvas up and extricated 
 us ; how dripping wet we all were ! Eosy's arms and 
 chest were much burned, and the poor little girl 
 suffered terribly ; but she was very good and patient, 
 and in a few weeks got quite well. I don't think 
 she will ever hold her pinafore over a candle again. 
 The first large station we came to was Bareilly ; 
 this was after three weeks' marching; ; but our doings 
 there would not interest you much. We had re- 
 views in the daytime, or rather in the early morn- 
 ing and late in the evening, and balls at night. 
 The only thing I find noticed in my diary of those 
 days is an account of some feats of horsemanship, 
 which we were invited to witness one afternoon. 
 The performers were the soldiers, a regiment of 
 Irregular Cavalry, who marched with us. They 
 were mounted on wild-looking horses ; and though 
 the trappings were gay, the effect of the whole was 
 somewhat shabby. But the pace they went at was 
 
123 STORIES ABOUT [rv 
 
 wonderful. We stood in a tent verandah, and in 
 front of the open space before it were some empty 
 soda-water bottles planted in the sand with just 
 their necks sticking out ; at a signal some twenty or 
 thirty horsemen dashed out of the ranks — the regi- 
 ment was drawn up opposite to us, but a long way 
 off — and with wild cries swooped down like eagles 
 on these bottles, sticking the points of their long 
 slender lances into the mouth of the bottle and lift- 
 ing it out of the ground : fancy doing this as you 
 pass at full gallop! They did the same thing to 
 a tent peg; then there were some more bottles 
 planted, and the men fired their carbines at them as 
 they passed rapidly, and I find it recorded that only 
 two missed out of twenty-eight riders. After that, 
 the whole line charged past us like a whirlwind, 
 the men flung themselves out of their saddles as 
 they rushed by, holding still on to their bridle-reins 
 however, ran a few steps by the side of their horses, 
 and then lightly vaulted in the saddle again. The 
 next feat was performed by a solitary horseman, who, 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. .^129 
 
 with the reins lying loosely before him, jumped up 
 on his saddle as he swept past us, fired off his car- 
 bine at a mark (they hardly ever missed), then 
 throwing his arms round his horse's neck, clung on 
 for a few yards, at its side, so as to shelter himself 
 from a supposed enemy ; when the imaginary danger 
 was over, he swung back into his saddle and quickly 
 reloaded his piece : all this at full gallop. The bits 
 they use are tremendously powerful, so that they 
 can check their horses instantly, if necessary. They 
 would have gone on much longer if it had not been 
 for the dust, but that was so dense after all this 
 riding about, that when His Excellency sent for the 
 commanding officer to thank him and pay him 
 compliments on the skill and cleverness of his men, 
 we could hardly see either of them for the clouds 
 of it, and the pretty speeches were made and 
 answered amid paroxysms of choking and coughing. 
 After leaving Bareilly we had a very monotonous 
 time, only once enlivened, when we halted for a 
 day at a place called Gunnespore, by a visit from 
 s 
 
130 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 the Nawab of Eampore, through whose territory we 
 were passing. He had behaved very well to the 
 English at the time of the Mutiny, three or four 
 years before, so we made it a point to be very civil 
 and nice to him, for these native princes think a 
 great deal of ceremonious attention. The main 
 street, formed by the principal tents, was lined with 
 soldiers as a guard of honour, and His Highness was 
 received at the door of the Commander-in-Chief's 
 tent by His Excellency in person, with a brilliant 
 staff behind and around him, bands playing, colours 
 flying, and everything as smart and gay as possible. 
 As we ladies had a great wish to see the show, some 
 curtains (or ' chicks ' as they are called) of scented 
 grass had been hung up, so as to screen off a corner 
 of the great tent, for the Xawab would have been 
 terribly shocked to see unveiled ladies, or indeed 
 ladies at all, assisting at a state ceremonial. Our 
 presence would have spoiled it, so we were carefully 
 hidden away and entreated to keep very quiet! 
 However, in spite of these difficulties, we saw very 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 131 
 
 : 
 
 well, and had an excellent view of the XawaVs ele- 
 phant, who was not only a huge creature with a 
 splendid howdah of silver and ivory on his back, but 
 had on his best clothes, consisting of a magnificent 
 saddle-cloth to go under the howdah, about the size 
 of a small carpet, and several enormous tassels hang- 
 ing about his head, the largest of which was of silver, 
 and hung down his nose in a most imposing manner. 
 There were several other elephants, also very smartly 
 caparisoned, and as soon as they reached the proper 
 place, they all knelt ; the Xawab and his attendants 
 scrambled, in as dignified a way as they could, down 
 their ornamented ladders; cordial and affectionate 
 greetings were exchanged through the medium of 
 the interpreters, and the gay group entered the tent. 
 I was so disappointed in the Xawab ! He was very 
 fat and good-natured looking, but in spite of his 
 purple satin robes, embroidered in silver and edged 
 with large emeralds and pearls, he looked like an old 
 cook in a dressing-gown ! It must have been his 
 cap which made me think directly of Griinter's men, 
 
s 
 
 / 
 
 132 STORIES ABOUT / [iv 
 
 for although it was of white satin, and almost 
 entirely covered with jewels, it was just the same 
 shape as theirs. At this part of the ceremony, 
 6 necklaces of honour ' were put on, and I am very 
 much afraid we giggled at the ridiculous appearance 
 of our husbands and acquaintances, bedizened with 
 large strings of silver knobs, or even flowers in some 
 cases ; the contrast was so great between their stal- 
 wart forms, bearded faces, and weather-stained 
 uniforms, their breasts covered with medals, and 
 these trumpery wreaths hung round their necks! 
 However, it was kindly meant, and consequently 
 well received. Trays of sweetmeats were handed 
 round, and they had to eat them ; you would not 
 consider this a penance, I daresay, but wait till you 
 are forty years old, and have been in a great many 
 battles : gunpowder spoils your taste for comfits, I 
 fancy. The visit lasted about twenty minutes, and 
 was occupied entirely by mutual compliments. At 
 last the servants reappeared, bearing salvers covered 
 with beautiful embroidered cloths ; underneath the 
 
CAMP LIFE. 
 
 cloths were vases of filagree silver containing ex- 
 quisite scent-bottles filled with attar of roses : these 
 were handed round. It was all very nice except the 
 perfume — that was horrible : the attar was in the 
 stage when it smells like turpentine. I know it to 
 my cost, because I insisted afterwards on seeing the 
 box, and stole one drop of the scent ; it was so 
 nasty I had to throw away my pocket-handkerchief, 
 and nearly scrubbed the skin off my hands trying 
 to get rid of the smell. After they had all gone 
 through the pantomime of pouring the scent on 
 their hands, the Xawab retired and mounted his 
 grand elephant, and, with many bows and pretty 
 speeches, they all went away to the sound of a salute 
 of artillery. In the evening the Commander-in- 
 Chief, his staff, and the principal officers, went in 
 state to return His Highness's visit, and the next day 
 we resumed our march. 
 
 We reached Meerut about January 16, remained 
 there for nearly a week, and then three long 
 marches brought us as far as Delhi, which I thought 
 
134 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 [■V 
 
 the most beautiful place I had ever seen. There 
 are ruins in every direction, but I have not time 
 or space to tell you about them here, as we must 
 remember that this is only an account of camp life. 
 A terrible famine had raged the whole of the past 
 year, and the sights and sounds we encountered at 
 this town were heartrending. Every officer and 
 soldier belonging to our camp subscribed a day's 
 pay for the starving people, and a large sum was 
 left in the hands of the Relief Committee. As for 
 me, I never went outside the tent without a bas: of 
 small coins called ' pice,' which was emptied in 
 about two minutes. Returning one day to the tent 
 with my usual exhausted purse, a poor woman 
 threw herself before me holding up a child of about 
 two years old in her arms. There was no need to 
 tell me they were starving, for their bones were 
 literally sticking out of their skins, and they had 
 scarcely a shred of clothing over them. I told 
 her as well as I could that I had no more money, 
 but if she would wait a little she should have food, 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 1.35 
 
 so I hurried into the tent and snatched off the 
 luncheon table a loaf of bread with one hand and 
 a large cake with the other, intending to return for 
 some milk ; I saw the poor little starving baby's 
 eyes glisten ravenously, and he clutched the cake, 
 but before he could touch it, the mother had struck 
 both the bread and the cake out of my hands, and 
 trampled them under her feet, scolding me loudly 
 all the time for attempting to ' break her caste.' 
 She was so deeply affronted, that she would not even 
 accept some pice which I offered her afterwards. 
 
 A few days after leaving Delhi we reached Kur- 
 naul, where we had very good snipe-shooting, but 
 did not halt there, as it was important to push 
 on for Umballah. The heat was fiercer day by day, 
 and the Commander-in-Chief was anxious to break 
 up the camp before the hot winds set in. Between 
 Kurnaul and Umballah we came in for a dust- 
 storm; and as I do not suppose you ever saw, or 
 perhaps ever heard of, such a thing, I must tell you 
 a little about it. 
 
136 STORIES ABOUT |_ IV 
 
 Just as we had settled down quietly for the day 
 in our tent, we were startled by hearing the Hap 
 tap ' of the kelasse's heavy wooden hammer on the 
 tent-pegs. As they never require to drive the pegs 
 further home, except in case of a sudden storm, 
 we knew at once that they expected something of 
 the kind ; but as there was no symptom of rain, we 
 could not imagine why these precautions were ne- 
 cessary. However, all was bustle and activity : the 
 horses were led round to the lee side of their owners' 
 tents, and, instead of being fastened to a peg in the 
 ground, each syce stood by his horse's head, holding- 
 tight on to the halter, so as to soothe and pat it 
 when it got frightened. All the servants who had 
 nothing to do, huddled themselves together in a 
 corner of the verandah ; the saddles were brought 
 under the same shelter, and at last the preparations 
 were completed by the Khansamah bringing in the 
 candlesticks, with the candles alight, and placing 
 them in the centre compartment of the tent. My 
 ayah was hovering about me with a long strip 
 
IVj 
 
 CAMP LIFE. 137 
 
 of white muslin in her hand, and made out from 
 her incoherent speeches that she wanted to tie up 
 my head in it, but before I consented to this, 
 I took one more peep out of doors. From the 
 weather-quarter a dense black cloud was moving 
 swiftly up, and every now and then the wind rose 
 in a sharp, short gust, which whistled and screamed 
 among the cordage and flaps of the tents. All 
 around me I saw hasty preparations for shelter 
 going on, and my last glimpse was of the poor, 
 much-enduring cook abandoning the little mud 
 ovens he had just constructed as a substitute for a 
 kitchen-range, and hurrying, with his assistants and 
 quantities of pots and pans, towards a little bell-tent 
 which the kelasses were pinning firmly down to the 
 ground with great wooden pegs. It is of great 
 importance in a dust-storm to have the tent firmly 
 secured all round, for, if tho wind once got under- 
 neath the canvas, the whole tent would be whisked 
 off to the sky in a moment ! I am very much afraid 
 I should rather have liked to see some one else's 
 
 T 
 
138 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 tent flying away, it would have looked so funny : 
 however, the kelasses had made such good arrange- 
 ments that no accidents happened. 
 
 In the camels' camp I saw all the drivers making 
 their charges kneel down with their backs to 
 the coming storm, whilst the men themselves 
 crouched on the lee-side of the camels, but there 
 was no time for me to notice what the elephants 
 were going to do, for the storm was almost upon 
 us; the outer air already felt suffocating, so I 
 very reluctantly retired to get my turban put 
 on. Scarcely had the servants fastened firmly to 
 the ground the large curtain which formed our 
 tent-door, and which was generally festooned back 
 with green wreaths of mango-leaves, when the tent 
 shook and swayed backwards and forwards, and in a 
 few moments everything was thickly covered with 
 the finest dust, which had filtered through the 
 numerous folds of the canvas. It was impossible 
 to read or work, the candles only gave a little 
 gleam of light through the dense atmosphere, 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 
 
 and all we touched was gritty. For four long hours 
 our imprisonment lasted, and it was not until sunset 
 that the kelasses pronounced it safe to release us. 
 As soon as the tent flaps were lifted up we all burst 
 out laughing at each other — such objects you never 
 saw ! Xo one had an eyebrow or an eyelash to be 
 seen ; the bronzed and red complexions which out- 
 door life had produced, were all hidden under a 
 thick coating of dust, and we needed only a few 
 streaks of paint to have looked like Clown in the 
 pantomime, for our faces were quite as white as his. 
 We could see the dense cloud moving on to the 
 south-west, but all was beautifully clear behind it ; 
 only a slight haze between us and it showed that 
 the atmosphere was not quite free from dust a little 
 beyond us. I looked at the horses, — they were all 
 as white as if they had been powdered with flour ; 
 so were their syces ; and the ' bheesties,' or water- 
 carriers, were very busy filling the large goat-skins 
 which serve them as water-jugs, to give every live 
 thing which had been outside a good drink, and to 
 
140 S TOBIES ABOUT / [iv 
 
 wash the dust out of their eyes and ears. The 
 camels had buried their noses in the sand, and did 
 not appear to have suffered at all. 
 
 I went that afternoon to the elephants' camp to 
 see how they had fared, and found them not at all 
 the worse for the storm : the dense grove of trees 
 had been a great protection to them, and their 
 attendants had taken shelter in the little tents 
 which the great creature carries for his servants. 
 Do you know, each elephant has a cook to bake his 
 chupatties, or little cakes, for him, a grass-cutter to 
 go out and find nice fresh long grass, or the green 
 tops of the sugar-cane, a bheestie to supply him 
 with quantities of water, and a tent-pitcher, or 
 kelasse, to look after the shelter of all these at- 
 tendants ; and then he has his mahout, or rider, 
 besides. This last personage is the only one whom 
 the elephant will obey, and I heard curious stories 
 of the office of mahout to the same elephant being- 
 handed down from father to son. One old man 
 told me calmly that his grandfather was my ele- 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 141 
 
 phant's first instructor, but I cannot tell if lie was 
 right. When we paid them a visit upon the after- 
 noon of the storm, the huge beasts were taking a 
 bath, or rather giving it to themselves by filling 
 their trunks with water and dashing it over their 
 heads, trumpeting and enjoying themselves im- 
 mensely; at a little distance the cooks were busy 
 baking the chupatties — a muffin as large as a soup- 
 plate, and nearly as thick — in mud ovens, and the 
 grass-cutters had been down to a 'jheel' or pond 
 near to wash the dust off the large bundles of grass 
 for the elephants' suppers. We talked a little to 
 the mahouts, and one very picturesque old man 
 seemed exceedingly proud of his elephant's superior 
 slyness and cunning, and begged us to stay and see 
 him ' cheat ;' so we waited till ' Burra-sahib,' or 
 < 3Ir. Large,' had finished his bath, and came slowly 
 up to his mahout for his supper. You must not 
 suppose that the elephants walked about just as 
 they liked: they had a heavy, long iron chain 
 fastened to one of their hind legs, and this was 
 
142 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 [IV 
 
 attached to a small peg loosely driven into the 
 ground. If the elephant had made the smallest 
 effort he could easily have walked off with his peg, 
 but he never tried to get away. The mahout 
 called out to the cook to bring the chupatties, and 
 made us retire behind a tree and watch what 
 Burra-sahib did. As soon as the cook went away 
 the elephant put up his trunk and broke off a large 
 bough of the tree above him, which he laid on his 
 head : this they generally do to serve as a brush to 
 keep off flies, so he knew that was nothing re- 
 markable. He then looked slyly around him with 
 his bright little cunning eyes, and as he could not 
 see his mahout he thought the coast was clear, and 
 hastily snatched up a chupattie. which he put under 
 the branch on the top of his head. I noticed how 
 carefully he felt with his flexible trunk if any edge 
 was uncovered, and arranged the leaves so as to 
 hide his spoil completely. Burra-sahib then raised 
 his voice and bellowed for his supper in loud and 
 discordant tones ; the mahout ran up as if he had 
 
rv] CAMP LIFE. 
 
 been a long distance off, stood in front of him, and 
 commenced handing him the chupatties, counting 
 as he did so, one, two, three, and so on. The ele- 
 phant received each in his trunk and pnt it gently 
 into his huge mouth, bolting it as if it had been a 
 small pill. Twelve chupatties was the allowance, 
 and he required this sort of food to keep him in 
 good condition. "When the mahout came to No. 11 
 muffin, he looked about for the twelfth in great 
 dismay, pretending that he could not think what 
 had become of it, and calling for the cook to scold 
 him, searching on the ground and wondering, in 
 good Hindoostanee, 'where that other chupattie 
 could be.' The elephant joined in the search, turn- 
 ing over an empty box which was near, and trumpet- 
 in^ loudly. The mahout was delighted to see how 
 much this farce amused me, and at last he turned 
 suddenly to the elephant, who was still hunting 
 eagerly for the missing chupattie, and reviled him 
 as a thief and a s big owl,' adding all sorts of epi- 
 thets, and desiring him to kneel down, which Burra- 
 
144 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 sahib did very reluctantly. The mahoTit then 
 scrambled up on his head, snatched off the branch 
 and flung down the chupattie, belabouring the ele- 
 phant well with the bough which had served to 
 conceal it. It seems that this trick had been 
 played successfully many times before Burra-sahib 
 was found out, and the poor cook used to get into 
 trouble and be accused of keeping the missing chu- 
 pattie for his own private consumption. 
 
 Our elephant was a great coward; he was ab- 
 jectly afraid of a small Skye terrier belonging to 
 one of the party, and this little dog knew quite well 
 how to bully the huge creature. c Nettle ' would 
 run along the road behind a hedge or a mud wall, 
 and suddenly jump out at the elephant, barking 
 furiously and making little dashes at his trunk. 
 This terrified him ; he shied across the road, ran first 
 forwards and to each side, and finally turned round 
 and shuffled away as fast as he could, with Nettle 
 snapping at his heels. It required a great deal of 
 cuftTug with the battle-axe I have told you about, to 
 
t — = 
 
 ; ^~~; 
 
 ■^"k.-r'^S, ; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c ^- 
 
 
 fj^^==~ ^TlErfff^rZ^ril^r-^Er ^^rllZZJS 
 
 ■ pjfem 
 
 SHa 
 
 «r- \^ ! MtKJMA 
 
 m^3 
 
 Nettle and the Elephant. — p. 114 
 
iv J CAMP LIFE. 145 
 
 bring him back to the right road if once he was 
 driven off it by the small dog. 
 
 Upon one occasion all our elephants were seized 
 with a sudden panic, and very nearly annihilated 
 the camp. We had halted for two or three days at 
 a large station where an energetic engineer officer 
 had prepared, as a great treat for the Commander- 
 in-Chief, various noisy military shows winding up 
 with the springing of a mine. When the important 
 evening arrived, the whole camp went to see the 
 sight except me, for I must tell you as a secret that 
 I hate reviews ; the noise and dust and smell of 
 gunpowder is so disagreeable to me that I never go 
 to one if it is possible to avoid it : upon this occa- 
 sion I was, as usual, the only person left in camp 
 except a few servants to prepare dinner ; every one 
 had departed two or three hours before to assist at 
 the grand affair, and many had chosen to ride to 
 the place of inspection on an elephant, think- 
 ing they could then dismount and select a good 
 place to see the show on foot. When the sun had 
 
 u 
 
1-16 STORIES ABOUT j^ [_ iv 
 
 set, I came out of my tent and walked up and clown 
 the broad street formed by the principal tents ; for 
 a wonder, instead of sand, I had nice turf under my 
 feet, and I strolled up and down for a long time, 
 rather enjoying the profound quiet, which was a 
 contrast to the usual bustle and chatter of the camp. 
 I was just beginning to feel hungry and to wonder 
 when the ' tomasha,' or festival, would be over, when 
 I heard a loud explosion, and saw clouds of stones 
 and dust fly up into the air some way off. This was 
 the springing of the mine, and I congratulated my- 
 self on being so far away in peace and safety ; but 
 I soon changed my mind about the safety, for 
 in a few minutes there was a regular stampede of 
 terrified elephants returning to camp. Some had 
 thrown off their riders and were galloping about, 
 trumpeting and bellowing with terror; and even 
 those whose mahouts still clung to them had quite 
 broken away from all control, and did just as they 
 liked. I stood still, watching the huge beasts 
 entangle themselves in the long ropes stretching 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 
 
 out from the tents, and pulling down one after 
 another of our canvas homes. In more than one 
 case the pole of a c single tent ' snapped, causing 
 great ruin beneath, and I saw the cooks with their 
 assistants swarming out like bees from a disturbed 
 hive, whilst the elephants ruthlessly trampled their 
 preparations under foot, and beat down their little 
 mud ovens. 
 
 You have no idea of the stale of confusion to 
 which the trim, orderly encampment was reduced in 
 about five minutes. As for me, I had observed with 
 great satisfaction that the sentries in front of His 
 Excellency's tent, instead of running away as every 
 one else did, fixed their bayonets, and drew up close 
 together, prepared to stand a charge of this very 
 heavy cavalry, so I prudently sought shelter behind 
 them: however, their bravery was not put to the 
 test, for, although three elephants came very near, 
 they turned tail and galloped off, frightened still 
 more by the scarlet coats and gleaming steel. A 
 great crowd of people had now appeared on the scene, 
 
US STORIES ABOUT ^/ [iv 
 
 for every one at the review had seen the elephants' 
 dismay when the fortification flew up into the air, 
 and those on horseback set off at once to try and 
 turn the terrified animals back. They all considered 
 that the encampment had escaped wonderfully, but 
 I thought a good deal of mischief had been done. 
 Our tent, however, was not touched, which was en- 
 tirely owing to the presence of mind of the Khan- 
 samah, who snatched up a gay table-cover and 
 rushed out, brandishing its folds in the face of the 
 nearest elephant and fairly frightening him off. He 
 repeated this performance several times with great 
 success, much to my amusement. We made the old 
 man a present afterwards for his pluckiness. He 
 was terribly exhausted with all his dancing, and 
 I felt quite sorry to have to tell him that we should 
 be obliged to ask a great many people to dinner that 
 evening, whose tents had been pulled down by the 
 elephants ; however, the old man made his usual 
 graceful reverence, and merely observed, ' Grood, very 
 good, protector of the poor.' 
 
iv] GAMP LipET 149 
 
 About a week before we readied Umballah we 
 had a day, or perhaps I should say a morning, of 
 antelope-hunting with cheetahs. As soon as I came 
 back to England, I went to the Zoological Gardens 
 in the Regent's Park to see the cheetahs there, 
 and found they were very much smaller than those 
 belonging to the Maharajah of this territory, who 
 lent them to our Commander-in-Chief. It had been 
 arranged at dinner the evening before, that I was to 
 accompany the hunting party, so our fleetest and 
 steadiest horses were sent on over night to a little 
 village fifteen miles off, and quite out of the line 
 of march. The next day the camp moved to the 
 new ' ground ' as usual, but, instead of marching 
 with it, we joined the hunting-party at daylight, 
 and started as soon as the horses could see their way, 
 for the village of mud huts where the cheetahs 
 awaited us. A gallop of an hour and a half brought 
 us to it, and we found fresh horses and a delicious 
 cup of coffee ready. But the great attraction in my 
 eyes was the cart containing the cheetahs, which I 
 
150 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 cautiously approached whilst the saddle was being 
 transferred to my grey Arab. I saw two very fierce 
 handsome animals, quite as large as panthers, each 
 with a leathern hood over its eyes, and a strong- 
 muzzle round its jaws, from both sides of which was 
 an iron chain secured to the cart. Xo one ventured 
 to go very near them, as their keepers informed us, 
 with much complacency, they were ' hugely hungry,' 
 having been purposely kept without food for two 
 days. Two white bullocks were yoked to each cart, 
 the driver, as usual, sitting on the yoke, with his 
 face towards the cart, and occasionally hastening the 
 poor beasts onwards by a twist of their tails. A 
 pretty little kid was held in the dusky arms of 
 another attendant, who was seated behind the 
 cheetah and its keeper ; a rough wooden bowl and 
 a large knife were now put upon each cart, and, as 
 all the preparations had been completed, we mounted 
 our fresh horses. Before starting, the ' shikari,' or 
 huntsman in charge of the expedition, looked us 
 ail carefully over to see that we had no fluttering 
 
iv] \JJMIP LIFE. 151 
 
 garments about us. The gentlemen buttoned up 
 their loose light coats, and my veil was condemned 
 at once by the shikari's grave, reproachful eyes, so it 
 was soon stowed away in the pocket of the saddle, 
 and we set off. The two carts with the cheetahs 
 went first, and we divided ourselves into two 
 parties of three each, and kept well hidden by the 
 cart, which was thus between us and a large herd of 
 antelopes feeding in the middle of a plain belted 
 by trees. It was such a beautiful scene ! The dew 
 glistening on every blade of grass, the immense 
 extent of open country around us, with here and 
 there a patch of cultivation to mark where a village 
 stood, the background of giant mountains whose 
 peaks were only to be discerned in this early morn- 
 ing light before the haze and heat of the day covered 
 them up with soft filmy vapour, and the long level 
 beams of the rising sun lvino: like shafts of the 
 purest gold over all the fair earth. Do you know I 
 felt very much ashamed of myself ! It seemed so 
 horrible to have come out on such a bright, glorious 
 
152 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 morning, to hunt to the death poor, beautiful, un- 
 offending animals. It was too late, however, for me 
 to turn back, but I was very unhappy all the time ; 
 and if it had not been for the shikari's sharp eyes, 
 my waving habit-skirt, as I hung back a little behind 
 the cart, would have warned the antelopes of their 
 danger ; but he evidently had no notion of allowing 
 my qualms of conscience to interfere with the sport, so 
 he kept strict watch over me, and politely but firmly 
 pointed out my proper position. All this time we 
 were circling round and round the herd of antelopes, 
 drawing nearer and nearer with each circle, until we 
 had approached quite close to a fine buck feeding a 
 little apart from the others. A few whispered words 
 from the shikari to the keeper of the cheetah, who 
 was in the foremost cart, and the man unfastened 
 very gently the iron chains which secured the fierce 
 brute to the cart, and cheetah as well as keeper 
 slipped noiselessly down on the ground under cover 
 of a little bush. Still the carts crept slowly on with 
 the drivers crooning a low monotonous song ; I could 
 
CAMP LIFE. . 153 
 
 see everything by turning my head, and looking 
 back as we moved away from the bush. In half a 
 moment the heavy collar was off the cheetah's neck, 
 and the hood lay on the grass behind him ; with a 
 soft whisper in his ear. just as if he had been a tame 
 cat instead of a ravenous wild beast, the keeper 
 tooK the huge head between his hands, turned it in 
 the direction of the buck (who was keeping an eye 
 on the carts), and let the cheetah go, at the same 
 moment gliding quite under shelter of the bush. 
 Exactly as a cat would approach an unsuspecting 
 mouse, did the cheetah steal through the long grass 
 towards his prey : crouching flat to the ground, he 
 crept along with his terrible eyes fixed on it till he was 
 within about fifty yards off; then up he rose sudden 
 and swift, with every hair of his magnificent coat 
 bristling on end, with his powerful tail lashing the 
 ground, and his lips drawn back from the strong 
 cruel teeth. Two enormous bounds carried him close 
 to the buck, who stood for an instant as if paralysed, 
 and then turned to fly ; but it was too late ; a third 
 
154 STORIES ABOUT \vt 
 
 spring with a howl of fury brought the cheetah on 
 his back, with his teeth in the graceful neck which 
 a moment before had held the antlered head up so 
 proudly. I saw the buck drop on his knees, and the 
 keeper rush up to secure the cheetah again before 
 he should begin to tear the venison, and then I could 
 see no more ; the gentlemen galloped off to the spot, 
 and I remained under shelter of the cart with my 
 face buried in my hands, sobbing as if my heart 
 would break. I was so sorry for the poor buck ! 
 
 We were too far from the camp for me to re- 
 turn alone, so I was obliged, very reluctantly, to go 
 after another herd of antelopes who were reported to 
 be feeding tranquilly a few miles nearer our destina- 
 tion. We cantered towards the open plain with the 
 carts lumbering behind us, and both the cheetahs 
 once more securely fastened on them. As soon as 
 the scout who had been sent running on before, came 
 back to tell the shikari the position of the herd, we 
 were ranged in our old order, and went through pre- 
 cisely the same manoeuvres, except that in this case, 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. loo 
 
 to my great joy, the antelope turned his head the 
 least bit sooner, saw the cheetah high up in the air 
 taking his second bound towards him. and was off 
 like a flash of lightning to join the others, who were 
 scampering away for their lives. I had hardly time 
 to express my joy at the buck r s escape before one of 
 my companions said very coolly, 6 Xow we must look 
 out for ourselves,' and gathering up his reins, drew 
 a large revolver from his holster, and came be- 
 tween my horse and the cheetah, who now turned 
 round and stood looking fixedly at the little group, 
 as if he were debating on which horse he should 
 spring. He looked so handsome and so wicked, — 
 his fur bristled up, his tail slowly giving angry little 
 thumps on the ground at each side, his head thrown 
 well back, and his fierce ravenous eyes gazing at us, 
 whilst a low sound, between a snarl and a growl, 
 came from his mouth. I felt like the poor buck, 
 quite paralysed with fright, and gazed at the cheetah 
 without moving, till the spell of his cruel hungry 
 eves was broken bv the lad who had held the kid in 
 
356 S TOBIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 his arms running fearlessly up to him with the large 
 wooden bowl in his hands. I thought the cheetah 
 would have sprung on him, as his form seemed to 
 dilate, and his eyes gleamed still brighter at sight 
 and smell of prey so near him ; but the boy quickly 
 and fearlessly flung the contents of the bowl — the 
 poor kid's life-blood — straight in his face — dropped 
 it, and fled. The cheetah was half blinded by the 
 sudden shock, and stood irresolute for a moment 
 licking the warm blood which was streaming over 
 his jaws. That bewildered instant was quite enough 
 for his keeper, who glided under cover of a shrub 
 near him, ran out, and slipped the hood over his 
 eyes and the collar round his throat, in the twink- 
 ling of an eyelid. The cheetah's whole demeanour 
 changed as if by magic ; he slunk along by the 
 keeper's side looking quite ashamed of himself, whilst 
 the man heajoed reproaches on him for having missed 
 his prey. It seemed bad enough to lose his break- 
 fast, without being also well scolded for it. 
 
 As soon as the cheetah was chained on the cart 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. Vol 
 
 again, a discussion arose as to where we should go 
 next ; but by this time the sun had become very hot, 
 and I was much too hungry and tired to go farther 
 away from my canvas home ; and as I saw the sharp 
 points of the tents, like white Vandykes, on the blue 
 horizon, I turned Claude's head that way, and set off 
 home straight across country, with my 'syce' or 
 groom running by my side. He either did not or 
 would not understand me when I told him, in my 
 best Hindoostanee, to remain behind and let me 
 gallop on alone, for he merely said, ' Very good, Mr. 
 Lady,' and kept on running close to my horse. Per- 
 haps he did not like to let Claude out of his sight, 
 and thought it would be better for all parties if I 
 went slowly, which at last I was obliged to do, reach- 
 ing the camp in time for a late but much 4 better- 
 than-never' breakfast. 
 
 We had no more hunting expeditions after this, 
 for we were getting near the foot of the Himalaya 
 mountains ; the towns and villages were closer to- 
 gether, and the cultivation more extended. One 
 
153 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 afternoon we went to shoot peacocks in a dense patch 
 of tall sugar-canes ; but although the birds really 
 were perfectly wild and very strong on the wing, I 
 felt more ashamed of myself than ever. I could 
 not dismiss from my mind the memory of many tame 
 peacocks who had fed out of my hand in England, 
 and it seemed very ruthless to return home with five 
 splendid young birds dangling at our elephant's huge 
 side. They were excellent eating, and I remembered 
 so well that when I was a child, and read historical 
 accounts of great feasts in olden time, I had been 
 filled with indignation at the idea of our ancestors 
 including peacocks in their bill of fare. I little 
 thought I should ever eat them myself, and so will 
 some of you perhaps, one of these fine days. 
 
 The beginning of March saw the camp in great 
 confusion arid bustle, packing up and arranging for 
 its final dispersion till the next cold season. Some of 
 its inhabitants returned to Calcutta, poor creatures! 
 some went to the various lanre stations we had 
 
 ma 
 
 i 
 
 arched through ; and the fortunate remainder went 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 153 
 
 up to the mountains whose grand outlines had been 
 before us in our daily march for some time past, 
 each day's new camp bringing us nearer to them. 
 The weather was becoming very disagreeable on the 
 plains, hot dusty days followed by nights of oppres- 
 sive stillness. Each morning, as I came out of my 
 tent at the earliest dawn of day to mount Claude or 
 Eajah, I used to look at those glorious mountains 
 rising up, chain beyond chain, till the snowy sum- 
 mits were lost in the light clouds above them ; 
 and the listless, languid feeling, which was already 
 creeping over me at the first breath of the hot wind 
 on the plains, gave place to hope and courage. I 
 often had that verse in the Psalms brought vividly 
 to my mind, ' I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, 
 from whence cometh my help.' The great object of 
 everybody's life here seemed to be to get away to the 
 hills in the hot weather ; and their anxiety was not 
 to be wondered at, for it often makes the difference 
 of their life or death whether they can have this 
 change or not. 
 
 i 
 
160 STORIES ABOUT 
 
 rv 
 
 I lived among these beautiful mountains for five 
 months after our camp broke up at Kalka, at the 
 very foot of the mountain range ; but as these are 
 only stories of our life whilst we were actually 
 housed in tents, I must not tell you about my 
 delightful walks, and rides up and down the steep 
 hill-sides. But during the last week of my camp life 
 I had a little adventure, with the account of which 
 I shall end my tales for the present. 
 
 First of all it is necessary to explain that, on the 
 night of my story, there were very few gentlemen in 
 camp. The Commander-in-Chief wished to visit a 
 military station close by, but did not think it neces- 
 sary to move the whole encampment thither, espe- 
 cially as there were difficulties about water ; so the 
 tents were pitched in a favourable spot, and in the 
 afternoon His Excellency, with most of the officers at 
 the head of departments, rode over to dine and sleep 
 at the neighbouring fort, intending to make their 
 inspection early the following morning, and join the 
 camp during its march to the next ' ground ' — all of 
 
ivj CAMP LIFE. 161 
 
 which plan was successfully carried out ; but it is of 
 what befell me during the night that I must tell 
 you. 
 
 You will remember there were only four ladies 
 in camp, and, as it happened, each of us was 
 bereft of her husband by this arrangement about 
 the fort. We agreed to dine . together, and a very 
 pleasant evening we had, separating as early as usual 
 to allow of a good sleep before five o'clock the next 
 morning. It must have been about nine that I was 
 sitting before my toilet glass reading, whilst my ayah 
 was slowly and sleepily brushing my hair. I had 
 particularly enquired about the fastening of the tent, 
 going myself round the outer verandah to see that 
 no one was inside its shelter ; the ayah and I were 
 carefully shut up within the canvas walls, as if we 
 had been wild birds anxious to fly away. Never- 
 theless, I had a disagreeable feeling that some one 
 was watching me ; I suddenly looked up, and there, 
 sure enough, reflected in the glass, saw a pair of 
 bright eyes fixed on mine. The rest of the face 1 
 
163 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 could not see, for the curtain of scented grass which 
 f ormed the door between my bedroom and the outer 
 part of the verandah, was lined with crimson cotton 
 to about the height of an ordinary person ; so only 
 by standing on tiptoe could a tall man even peep 
 over this lining. I exclaimed in Hindoostanee, 
 c Ayah ! there's a man in the tent.' The ayah's first 
 care was to veil her face most carefully, as she 
 was of very high caste, and then she slowly glided 
 away, with many exclamations of 4 A bad fellow, a 
 thief,' to call the watchman. I ventured into the 
 verandah, but no trace of an opening could I see. 
 When the watchman appeared, he had to call the 
 kelasses, and it took them at least five minutes to 
 pull up the pegs which fastened the tent-door cur- 
 tain securely down. The most careful search on all 
 sides failed to find the supposed thief, or even any 
 crevice by which he could have got in, so I had to 
 be satisfied with the watchman's assurance that, when 
 lie was the guardian, no harm could come near 
 me. I confess that I kept the ayah up a long time. 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 163 
 
 but at last she looked so sleepy that I was obliged 
 to dismiss her, and sat on the edge of my bed, 
 wondering whether it was fancy that had shown 
 me those bright gleaming eyes in the looking- 
 glass. At last I collected the two or three little 
 trinkets which lay on the table, and as I was placing 
 them under my pillow, looked again towards the 
 grass curtain: there were the eager, wild-looking 
 eyes, and a strip of dusky brown could also be 
 plainly seen. I sprang up, and with a loud call to 
 the ayah (which, however, failed to awaken her) 
 pushed aside the curtain ; all was darkness and 
 silence. I took the little lamp in my hand, and 
 carefully searched the whole tent: there certainly 
 was no one in it. I was sleepy and tired, and could 
 not keep awake any longer, so I got into bed, leaving 
 the lamp burning on the dressing-table close to my 
 head. 
 
 It must have been about one o'clock in the 
 morning when I was awakened by the loud beating 
 of some one's heart- quite close to my ears. Even 
 
1G4 STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 before I was thoroughly awake I remembered the 
 watching eyes of the night before, and did not make 
 a sound, only opening my eyes a little. I saw on the 
 opposite wall the shadow of a man at the head of 
 my bed, bending over me, and with one arm under 
 my pillow gently drawing away the lockets and 
 watch I had placed beneath it for safety. Although 
 I am really a dreadful coward, I did not feel in the 
 least frightened upon this occasion. My first 
 thought was how I should triumph over the old 
 watchman who scouted the idea of danger, and my 
 next was the wild idea that I could take the thief 
 captive myself. I made up my mind what I should 
 do, and then suddenly sat up in bed, putting out my 
 right arm and clutching firm hold of the dressing- 
 table so as to imprison the man behind it, whilst 
 with my left hand I caught his arm as tightly as I 
 could, and shouted in Hindoo stanee, in French, as 
 well as in English, for help. My ayah awoke 
 directly, but did not get up; she lay still and 
 screamed at the pitch of her voice ; but, alas ! my 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 165 
 
 strength was not sufficient to keep my captive for a 
 moment. He did not seem in the least disconcerted 
 at the outcry, nor was he rough ; he very gently but 
 firmly moved my arm, which I fondly hoped was 
 going to prove a barrier, shook himself free from the 
 other detaining hand, paused to blow out the night- 
 light, and was gone ages before the valiant watch- 
 man had come to my assistance. Our cries had 
 awakened a young aide-de-camp sleeping near, who 
 immediately volunteered his services. He returned 
 to his own tent for his revolver, and whilst he and 
 the watchman were searching outside for the robber, 
 I heard the report of a pistol, which awakened the 
 whole camp. This was followed by loud yells and 
 howls of pain, and my new ally ran past me with a 
 very pale and scared face, saying, < Oh, I'm afraid 
 I've shot your watchman — I'm going for the doctor ;' 
 and so he had, but fortunately only in the leg. As 
 the poor man was creeping softly round the tent, he 
 
 came plump upon Captain N , who was also 
 
 prowling about. My brave watchman, supposing it 
 
iw STORIES ABOUT [iv 
 
 was the robber, instantly took to his heels, and my 
 hasty aide-de-camp promptly discharged his revolver 
 at the retreating figure, and ■with much too good an 
 aim. The great riddle, however, still remained un- 
 answered, 'How did the robber get in or out of the 
 tent?' but it was soon solved in an absurd way. My 
 tent was soon half full of people who came to know 
 what was the matter, and whilst I was explaining the 
 position in which I saw the man, one of my auditors 
 suddenly fell through the tent, disappearing as if by 
 magic. He had leaned against the canvas wall, and 
 it had opened from top to bottom. There was the 
 secret door ! A sharp knife had made a clean cut 
 from roof to carpet, and as the thief slipped through, 
 the canvas closed behind him, leaving no trace of 
 his passage. The kelasses were the only sufferers 
 by this adventure, for they were not given the cus- 
 tomary ' backsheesh ' when the camp broke up a few 
 days later, as there was a strong suspicion that they 
 knew more of the intended robbery than they chose 
 to acknowledge. They came to implore my inter- 
 
iv] CAMP LIFE. 167 
 
 cession, bearing trays of sweetmeats and wreaths of 
 flowers to propitiate me ; but I could not follow their 
 line of defence at all, and my. endeavours to get the 
 edict, which had deprived them of their present, re- 
 voked, proved fruitless. 
 
168 STORIES ABOUT fv 
 
 ABOUT DOGS. 
 
 The worst of a pet dog is that one gets so fond of it. 
 "When old age, or accident, or disease deprives you 
 of your faithful friend, your unfailing sympathiser, 
 you c go heavily as one that mourneth ;' and cold 
 hard people, who have never known of what true and 
 noble affection dogs are capable, wonder that you 
 can be so silly as to fret after a dog. But if any 
 children who read these pages have ever had a dog 
 of their very own, they will understand exactly 
 what I mean. Dogs do not forget us, why should we 
 be ashamed of preserving a tender recollection of 
 them? If it were possible for the gates of the 
 grave to unclose, and its silent inmates to come back 
 
vl 
 
 DOGS. 153 
 
 to this busy world of ours, who would stop to greet 
 them, who would welcome their return more ecsta- 
 tically than the dog they had fed and befriended ? 
 Whenever I hear a person say. ' I don't like dogs.' I 
 distrust that person, and I would not choose him 
 for my own friend. Whenever I see anyone, big or 
 little, child or grown-up man, deliberately cruel to 
 a dog, I detest them. Of course there is a great 
 difference between pampering a dog until you ruin 
 both its health and temper, making it a plague to 
 everyone, and being careful and considerate of your 
 dog-friend, seeing that it has enough food and water, 
 warmth, and, above all, exercise. People say a dog- 
 loves best the person who feeds it. I have not found 
 this to be the case, unless with a greedy little beast : 
 the finest and best dogs are most attached to those 
 who take them out for a walk or a rim ; and I always 
 think, that what shows the real nobility of a dog's 
 nature is, that if they do you a service they love you 
 better than ever afterwards. 
 
 It is not, however, about dogs in general that I 
 
170 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 am going to write, but of my own particular friends. 
 They have not always been my private property, for 
 I have a large circle of acquaintances among dogs ; 
 and no compliment which anyone in the world could 
 pay me would natter me half so much as a poor 
 half-starved homeless cur following me in the street. 
 One of my dearest and most faithful friends came 
 to me in that way: he was benighted on a large 
 desolate common, near a cottage I had just visited ; 
 and c Luck ' (for so he was christened on the spot) 
 attached himself to my side, insisted on accompany- 
 ing me home, and never left me from that time till 
 his death, five years later. He was a large, hand- 
 some, black water-spaniel, and had evidently strayed 
 for a long distance ; he was footsore and travel- 
 stained ; his coat was torn and ragged, and his bones 
 were sticking through his skin. For the first night 
 he slept in the stable, and had for supper only stale 
 odds and ends of bread soaked in boiling skim-milk, 
 for I was afraid to give him too much to eat at 
 first. The next morning he had a bath with plenty of 
 
v] DOGS. 171 
 
 soap and "warm water, and I cut ofi all the tangled 
 hair of his coat. He spent the remainder of that day 
 on an old rug by the kitchen fire, and it was nearly 
 a week before he could run about gaily, for he was 
 evidently an old dog when this terrible misad- 
 venture befell him. Talk of the gratitude of human 
 beings, it was nothing to Luck's gratitude, which 
 lasted as long as his life ; and he was a wise dog, for 
 he profited by the experience of those dreadful 
 wintry days, and took very good care never to stray 
 or run a^vay again. For the first three months 
 after he gave himself to me, I sought diligently for 
 his rightful owner, but never found anyone to claim 
 him. 
 
 My little sister Jessie, whose acquaintance you 
 have already made in the stories about Jamaica, was 
 still more devoted to dogs than I am ; and one of 
 my most distinct childish memories is of a dreadful 
 fright she gave us all. I must tell you about it. 
 We were living in the country, and I well remember 
 the lone brio-ht summer's dav on which I went 
 
172 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 through such agonies of suspense and fear. About 
 an hour after breakfast, when my lessons were over, 
 our dear, nice little governess prepared to take us 
 out for a walk. Jessie had been sent to play in the 
 garden a few moments before, whilst I lingered over 
 a refractory sum which would not prove itself. At 
 last it came right and I was released ; but, when 
 Miss Lewis called Jessie to join us, no Jessie was to 
 be found. One of the servants had seen her leave 
 the house, and that was the only news of the little 
 girl whom we all loved and petted so much. The 
 garden, grounds, and even the fields were thoroughly 
 searched before Miss Lewis could make up her mind 
 to alarm Mamma, who was in very delicate health. 
 Oh! how well I remember the actual sickness which 
 came over me when Mamma asked, with a trembling 
 voice, c Have you examined the well.' Now this well 
 was a most peculiar one. In the centre was the 
 ordinary brick round hole with a powerful windlass 
 over it, but on each side extended a large deep 
 cistern with only a very narrow brick coping. We 
 
vj DOGS. 173 
 
 knew these cisterns were full of water, for there 
 had been heavy rain lately, and it was quite possible 
 for a small child to drown itself in either of them. 
 Mamma wished me to remain with her ; but I could 
 not endure to be quiet, so I set off with the others 
 to this dangerous place. It was the work of half-an- 
 hour at least to convince ourselves that Jessie was 
 neither in the well nor the cisterns, and I was nearly 
 frantic with misery whilst the search was going on. 
 
 A messenger on horseback was despatched for 
 my father, who was absent, and on his arrival the 
 servants were divided into regular parties to exam- 
 ine every possible hiding-place. An old man who 
 attended to the cows had attracted my attention 
 early in the day by wiping his eyes constantly with 
 his sleeve whilst he was looking about, and saying 
 to himself, i pooty little dear.' To this sympathising 
 individual I immediately attached myself, and hold- 
 ing tight on to his horny hand wandered for miles 
 hither and thither all day. I had an instinctive 
 feeling that old Jim would not scold Jessie if we 
 
174 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 discovered her, whereas any of the others would be 
 sure to lecture her well all the way to the house. 
 
 At last sunset came and Jim proceeded to collect 
 the cows and drive them to a ruinous old shed to 
 milk them. I still followed him closely, and as the 
 first cow leisurely entered her stall I heard a sweet 
 little voice say, ' Oh, don't walk on me, please!' 
 There was Jessie, buried in hay, hungry and tired, 
 but with an air of patient endurance nursing 
 tenderly in her arms half-a-dozen pointer puppies ! 
 She had discovered that old Juno had increased her 
 already numerous progeny during the night, and she 
 had spent the whole day in what she called ' help- 
 ing her to take care of all 'dem babies.' We asked 
 her if she had heard our calls, and she said, ' Yes, but 
 de babies were asleep, and I couldn't wake 'em by 
 saying where I was.' Poor little Jessie, she could 
 not understand what suffering she had caused us, 
 and thought Nurse very hard-hearted for refusing 
 to permit her to resume her duties the next day. 
 The matter was referred to the authorities, but when 
 
vj DOGS. 175 
 
 Nurse hinted, as delicately as so elegant a personage 
 could, at the number of fleas which pervaded the 
 little girl's clothes, it was decided at once in the 
 negative, much to old Juno's relief probably. 
 
 We had dogs of all sorts and sizes during our child- 
 hood, and, as well as I can remember, the ugliest 
 were always the best beloved. If any particularly 
 hideous mongrel was condemned to death, Jessie and 
 I invariably interceded for it, and when we gained 
 our point, watched over and tended it with the 
 greatest care, stoutly maintaining its beauty and 
 talent against all detractors. At last, one happy day, 
 when we were both nearly grown up, we were each 
 given a real Carthagena dog. What little beauties 
 they were, something like a Maltese poodle, 
 only smaller. They were as white as little puff-balls, 
 with lovely silky hair ; they never grew any bigger 
 than they were when we got them, and their health 
 was excellent. Every morning we washed them in a 
 basin, dried them in the sun, combed their coats till 
 they shone like floss silk, and trimmed the hair off 
 
176 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 their delicate little feet. The last touch to their 
 toilettes was to put ou a little collar of either blue 
 or scarlet ribbou or velvet. Whenever we had any 
 pocket money, it all went in new collars for ' Caprice' 
 and ' Chico.' Caprice was so called because he had 
 a natural rosette of black fluff on his forehead amid 
 his snowy locks, whilst Chico (or little darling) was 
 about the size of a sixpenny toy-lamb. They both 
 slept all day in my work-basket on the table out of 
 harm's way. They were fed entirely on biscuit and 
 milk, and Caprice lived to a good old age, but Chico's 
 fate was appalling, and cost both Jessie and me many 
 bitter tears. 
 
 I must tell you here that Jessie had another 
 pet dog, a fierce Cuban bloodhound ; it was kept 
 chained up all day and only loosed at night as 
 a safeguard to the house and grounds. ' Turk ' was 
 a splendid animal, but ferocious to everyone except 
 Jessie. I never could get over my uneasiness when 
 I saw him leaping on her, licking her cheek, or 
 mumbling her little hand affectionately. Jessie 
 alwavs fed him herself, and declared his bad temper 
 
v] DOGS. 177 
 
 was much exaggerated. One summer evening we 
 had been out to a little party given at a house near 
 ours, and had walked home ; it was a lovely, soft, 
 moonlight night, and, the moment the garden gate 
 was opened, Turk bounded up to us with the 
 sternest intentions of expelling or killing us all on 
 the spot. However, Jessie induced him to forego 
 these resolutions for the present, and he accom- 
 panied us to the hall door, which was quickly 
 opened by our maid. Close upon her footsteps 
 trotted tiny Chico, uttering sleepy little barks. Turk 
 had never seen his small rival, and the instant he 
 perceived that Chico was really a living, moving dog 
 (for at first he must have thought that he was a toy), 
 he bounded upon the poor little beastie. Before 
 Jessie could stop him, we heard a yelp and a snap ; 
 Turk had bitten Chico in two ! It was a dreadful 
 moment, for Jessie's despair is not to be described, 
 and Turk saw no reason why he should not finish his 
 supper, and looked up in Jessie's horrified face with 
 a self-satisfied air, as much as to say, ' Thus perish all 
 
178 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 intruders.' This tragedy had one good result in 
 Turk's banishment, for Jessie could not bear to see 
 the murderer of Chico ; so the bloodhound was sent 
 away to a distant friend, where he became the terror 
 of all the evildoers in the neighbourhood. 
 
 I think Punch, a great tawny mastiff, was Turk's 
 successor. He distinguished himself by keeping a 
 bishop at bay. You see he was no respecter of per- 
 sons, and, as the bishop happened to have on papa's 
 shoes whilst his own boots were being dried, Punch 
 sternly refused to allow his lordship to leave the 
 room. We waited and waited for more than an 
 hour ; luncheon was getting cold ; still the poor 
 bishop remained in my father's dressing-room, 
 whither he had been conducted ; and at last he was 
 discovered, very tired and hungry, but unable to stir. 
 Punch was lying down in front of the chair (fortu- 
 nately he permitted the poor man to sit down) with 
 his head resting on his own forepaws, and keeping 
 an unwearying watch on the shoes ; they were not 
 to be taken out of the room on any terms, and 
 
v l 
 
 DOGS. 179 
 
 even Jessie had great difficulty in making him 
 understand that it was all right. 
 
 Punch was very fond of the water, and would go 
 into a river after a stick as well as if he had been a 
 retriever. Upon one occasion I was sitting in the 
 verandah teaching my youngest sister, a tiny little 
 trot of about six years old. to work. It was a dis- 
 tasteful employment, and the seam appeared quite 
 endless to both of us. You must not be shocked if I 
 tell you, it was a little night-dress of her own that 
 Laura was employed upon. It had been finished very 
 successfully, as we thought ; but this unfortunate 
 seam was badly done, and had to be unpicked and 
 neatly sewn again. At last the finishing stitches were 
 put in, and with a sigh of relief Laura jumped up. 
 At this unlucky moment Punch appeared, evidently 
 in the mood for a game of play, and the idea occurred 
 to Laura to dress him up in her garment. Of course 
 I ought to have prevented it, but I satisfied my 
 conscience by a very feeble remonstrance, and aided 
 and abetted this piece of mischief. Punch certainly 
 
180 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 looked exquisitely ridiculous with his forepaws 
 through the sleeves, and, when we buttoned the little 
 collar securely round his throat, both Laura and I 
 were too much amused at his appearance to think 
 of the consequences to her newly-finished work. 
 Suddenly Punch — who up to that time had been as 
 grave as a judge — gave a mighty bound, knocking 
 Laura over and nearly upsetting me, and, like a flash 
 of lightning, he tore down the garden walk, leapt a 
 low hedge, and we heard a great splash. ^Ye rushed 
 after him. There was Punch, still in his white robe, 
 swimming about in the brook. How absurd the 
 effect was no words of mine can tell you. In a few 
 moments he was out again on the other side, rolling 
 on the bank, tearing about the field trying to get 
 rid of the wet clinging calico. It was no use ; the 
 stuff was new, and would not tear easily. Into 
 the brook again he plunged, and at last scampered 
 away to the stable, where he succeeded in tearing off 
 his clothing. It was all very well whilst it lasted, 
 and Laura and I laughed till we cried ; but we felt 
 
Punch's toilet. — p. 180 
 
v] DOGS. 161 
 
 very foolish when it came to the point of going into 
 the house, and announcing that no work was forth- 
 coming 
 
 Shall I tell you of Toddy and Sykes ? I think I 
 must, although it does not speak well for the cha- 
 racter of my favourites ; still one must be an im- 
 partial historian. Sykes was a white bull terrier 
 of a truculent aspect, a foe to all the cats in the 
 vicinity of his home. He was not allowed inside the 
 house, nor even to enter the srardener's cottage on 
 account of a bad habit he had of constantly sharpen- 
 ing his teeth on the furniture. He gnawed leo-3 of 
 chairs and tables until they were quite unfit for use ; 
 so the gardener objected to his presence in his 
 small domicile quite as much as did the lady at the 
 great house. Well, under these circumstances, the 
 only cat allowed about the place thought, that if 
 she set up her nursery in the gardeners kitchen, 
 she would be able to preserve her innocent offspring 
 from the monster, Sykes. Alas ! she was mistaken. 
 Looking through the open door, he, Sykes, saw a 
 
182 STORIES ABOUT \y 
 
 charming picture of domestic felicity, which he 
 forthwith determined to disturb. There was the old 
 tabby mamma with seven sweet little babies lying 
 on a bit of carpet by the fire. She was licking her 
 children carefully all over, whilst they were cuddling 
 up to her, crawling over each other, and groping 
 about for her soft touch. The kitchen was empty, 
 and the only sounds were the mingled mews and purrs 
 of the pussies. Sykes dared not enter, but still he 
 resolved to exterminate that family of kittens. What 
 was to be done ? He trotted off to the great house, 
 walked up the steps, and looked in at the hall door ; 
 there he saw Toddy lying in the sunshine on a 
 tiger-skin. 
 
 Now Toddy was a beautiful young lady Skye 
 terrier, her appearance was captivating, her man- 
 ners perfection, and her general character and dis- 
 position most sweet and amiable. What fiendish 
 arguments Sykes used to persuade her to be his 
 accomplice I don't know; but it is certain that, 
 after Sykes had stood at the open door, uttering im- 
 
v] DOGS. 183 
 
 patient little yapps, for a moment or two, Toddy 
 rose from her tiger-skin, stretched herself, and at 
 last joined the villanous Sykes on the steps. A 
 whispered consultation took place, accompanied by 
 much wagging of Sykes's tail, and at last the pair 
 were seen to set off to the gardener's cottage. They 
 were followed ; and here I am happy to be able to 
 state that Toddy evidently hesitated, but at length 
 Sykes overcame her remaining scruples, and she 
 entered the kitchen. The old tabby felt no alarm 
 when Toddy carefully took up one of the kittens in 
 h^r mouth and brought it out to Sykes — was not 
 Toddy well-known to be an excellent amateur nurse, 
 and most tender and considerate to all sorts of 
 baby things ? Sykes received the poor little kitten 
 in his cruel jaws, gave it one nip, which silenced its 
 weak voice, retired under a shrub, and despatched it. 
 In the meantime Toddy had brought him another, 
 which shared the same fate ; and doubtless all would 
 have fallen victims to this treacherous arrangement, 
 if Toddy's mistress had not interfered, and made her 
 
184 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 heartily ashamed of her cruel conduct. For many 
 days after that, if you said, '0 Toddy, kittens!' 
 Toddy would slink away with drooping tail and 
 cringing head, as if she quite understood her fault ; 
 but as for Sykes, he was hopeless : the same words ad- 
 dressed to him would put him in a state of furious 
 excitement, and he would rush about searching fcr 
 them with clearly expressed intentions of instant 
 annihilation. 
 
 Now, after these naughty little dogs, let us turn 
 to the story of a beautiful, noble, generous doggie. 
 He was not my own, but he was a great friend of 
 mine, and so was his lovely little mistress. I can't 
 tell you his real name, because I know if ever rm 
 mistress saw these lines she would cry : so we will 
 call him Hero. He was such a magnificent brown 
 retriever, with eyes like yellow topazes. Sometimes 
 their glance was as soft as a dove's ; but let any one 
 appear inclined to molest the queen of his loyal 
 heart, and they would gleam like fire, whilst he 
 looked ready to do or to dare anything in hei 
 defence. When she walked, Hero stalked solemnly 
 
v] DOGS. 135 
 
 by her side, supremely happy if her hand rested on 
 his broad head : he thought it his duty to protect 
 her unless she was driving, and then he raced by the 
 carriage making wide circuits, but e\er returning to 
 say, by a joyous short bark, 4 I am here, don't be 
 aftaid;' his grand feathery tail waving so proudly 
 as he galloped about the soft turf. 
 
 I have seen him breast huge rolling waves to fetch 
 out a stick, and when he caught sight of his mistress 
 (who was a perfect water-baby by the way) swimming 
 in the sea, Hero would plunge in to her rescue, and 
 insist on fetching her out by her hair, or the sleeve 
 of her pretty bathing dress, cruite regardless of her 
 own wishes on the subject. Although he belonged 
 to a rough race of dogs, Hero was as dainty in his 
 habits and person as a young lady. Bread was his 
 only food, varied by a bit of biscuit as a great treat ; 
 consequently he was sweet as a nut, and in addition 
 to his sea baths he had daily fresh-water ones, so 
 his coat was silky and glossy as any little girl's 
 curls. Poor Hero ! it makes me sad even now to 
 think of his end. 2 b 
 
186 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 He had been staying down in the country, a 
 short distance from London, and had very reluc- 
 tantly returned to the comparative confinement of 
 a town life ; the weather was very bad, snowy and 
 wretched, and he could not be taken out for his 
 usual long walks, so we noticed that he was rather 
 restless. One bitter winters mornino; he dashed 
 out into the garden the moment the door was 
 opened, very early, and after a few rapid circuits 
 make a sudden spring at the wall, cleared it by 
 a tremendous bound, and scampered off as hard as 
 he could. By the time they missed him he was 
 miles away, and in spite of placards and advertise- 
 ments in all the papers, days passed without any 
 tidings of our beloved Hero. At last there came a 
 dirty, ill-spelled note, saying that the writer had 
 seen the advertisement, and that just such a dog had 
 rushed into his shop some days previously, in a 
 state of great exhaustion and suffering, having met 
 with an accident. We hurried immediately to the 
 address, and I can hardly make you understand how 
 
v] DOGS. 13; 
 
 painful it was to ask questions each of which proved 
 clearly that our poor Hero had first been exposed to 
 cold and hunger, and at last had met a cruel death. 
 We ascertained that when he dashed into this 
 little shop — far away from his own home, but on 
 the 'road to the country place he had left — he had 
 just received a frightful gash ; blood was streaming 
 from his side, and he kept making short snaps at 
 the gaping wound after the manner of dogs ; but the 
 ignorant people thought he was dangerous, and 
 called in a policeman, who looked at the poor dog 
 from a respectful distance, and immediately pro- 
 nounced sentence of death against him. A chemist 
 from next door was hastily summoned to execute 
 this decree, he administered an enormous dose of 
 poison, and in half a second Hero's sufferings were 
 over. Our only comfort was to hear that his death 
 was speedy, but we could not help thinking some- 
 thing might have been done to try to cure him first. 
 There were so many different stories about the way 
 he met with his wound, that we could not arrive at 
 
J.S3 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 any certainty. Some said they saw him run over 
 by a cart, but he was so clever and accustomed to 
 the streets, that seemed improbable. Another witness 
 said that he had been seen to make a dash at a joint 
 of meat in a butcher's shop, and that the butcher 
 straightway flung a cleaver at him ; but the strictest 
 inquiries failed to throw any light on this tale. 
 Then a third witness described minutely a deadly 
 combat with another dog, in which Hero was de- 
 feated and left for dead on the battlefield ; but we 
 knew our favourite's strength and courage too well 
 to believe that he could be vanquished in a duel. 
 
 At last we sorrowfully gave up the attempt to 
 find out how he had been killed, and devoted 
 ourselves to the recovery of his body; but it had 
 been buried, and we did not like to have it dug up 
 again, so we contented ourselves with paying a fancy 
 price for his skin, which had been taken off first, and 
 with this melancholy relic we were obliged to return. 
 But first we had to refund sundry small sums which 
 had been expended for beer. Hero's death must 
 
v] 
 
 DOGS. 189 
 
 have caused quite a smart influx of trade to the 
 nearest publichouse, for, according to the statement 
 of our friend the tallow-chandler (whose shop Hero 
 had selected as his refuge), everybody in the 
 neighbourhood had consumed ' a pot o' beer ' on the 
 strength of the event ; even the tidy mistress of the 
 establishment had felt herself to be so 'put about' 
 by the tragedy, that she also had required extra 
 refreshment. 
 
 Hero's successor, who was exactly like him in 
 appearance, had an element of suspicion in his 
 character which Hero did not possess. Upon one 
 occasion, I was taking my five o'clock tea with the 
 lady who owned both Hero and Brownie, when she 
 went upstairs to dress for a drive ; but first she 
 poured out her tea to get cool, begged me to take 
 mine, but not to allow the servants to remove hers, 
 saying, as she left the room, ' Xow don't let them 
 touch it.' I nodded, and went on with my newspaper. 
 Presently I stretched out my hand for my cup of 
 tea, which was a little way off. A low deep growl 
 
190 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 startled me ; there was Brownie, who knew me 
 almost as well as he did his dear little mistress, 
 sitting up on his haunches gazing steadily at me 
 with an expression of eye which was not at all 
 pleasant. I thought to myself, ' this is all nonsense, 
 of course the dog knows me ; surely he doesn't think 
 I am a thief.' But that was just what Brownie did 
 think apparently, and he soon showed me that I 
 was on no account to touch any thing on the table. 
 This state of things was very disagreeable, for I 
 don't like cold tea, and I was rather thirsty. Sud- 
 denly there flashed into my mind the recollection 
 of Brownie's well-known love for bread and butter. 
 I put out my hand for some saying, in a most 
 conciliatory tone, * Good old boy, he shall have some 
 bread and butter then.' Up rose Brownie, terrible 
 in his indignation at the idea of a bribe ; he put 
 both of his broad paws on my lap and growled 
 ferociously, looking at me steadily, his beautiful 
 eyes gleaming with an honest rage. He would not 
 even turn his head towards the tempting plate lest 
 
v] DOGS. 191 
 
 his resolution should waver. I tried again to get my 
 tea. This time came a louder growl and a snap. 
 Nothing would content Brownie but my giving up 
 all idea of eating or drinking for the present, and I 
 was obliged to console myself with the newspaper ; 
 but I soon finished it, and then I discovered that 
 Brownie would not hear of my getting another. Xo ; 
 I was to sit still and not touch anything. At last 
 his mistress returned, and Brownie greeted her 
 affectionately, accompanied her to the tea-table, and 
 then came up to me wagging his tail and licking my 
 hands, and saying as plainly as possible, 'I don't 
 mind having some bread and butter r aov:\ but I 
 felt very much aggrieved and rather cross, for my 
 tea was quite cold ! 
 
 The most intelligent little dog of my acquaintance, 
 however, is called ' Tip.' Good-natured people say 
 he is a ' fancy-pug ; ' unkind friends declare he is a 
 mongrel ; but all agree in saying that such charming 
 ugliness never before existed, and, as for sense and 
 cleverness, his equal would be hard to find. Tip's 
 
1A2 STORIES ABOUT [▼ 
 
 mamma is a great beauty, a true Japanese pug ; his 
 father was a thorough-bred English pug ; but neither 
 of his parents are as sagacious as Tip. He resembles 
 his mother in the colour of his coat, which is quite 
 different from that of an ordinary pug, being just 
 like a chestnut in hue, and is as glossy and sleek as 
 satin. It is not in consequence of Tip's own 
 instincts that his appearance is so beautiful, for he 
 hates his bi-weekly baths. If I say, ' Tip come and 
 be washed,' he uncurls his tail, droops his ears, and 
 sits up to beg, shivering piteously, and from time to 
 time holding out his paw to shake hands, as if he 
 thought that would avert his destiny. He really 
 enjoys the most luxurious bathing arrangements, 
 warm water, a good fire, his own sponge and soap, 
 and a large sheet to be dried in. He emerges from 
 his tub looking quite beautiful, but , still he is 
 wretched for some hours. When any one says, 
 6 Naughty Tip,' he retires into a corner and sits up 
 with his face to the wall till he is forgiven. He has 
 a large and affectionate heart, but 'his entire devotion 
 
v] 
 
 DOGS. 193 
 
 is kept for his master whom he perfectly adores. 
 He will only sleep at his feet with his chin resting 
 on them ; and, when he leaves the house. Tip is 
 miserable till he returns, watching the door, search- 
 every room for him, and finally welcoming him 
 home with the most frantic joy. To children he is 
 very partial, and perfectly good-tempered in spite of 
 being pulled about by them. A small brown baby 
 was lately added to the establishment where Tip's 
 home is, and he is most absurd about this infant. 
 When he is left alone with the little creature he 
 guards it most carefully,, and licks its hands and feet 
 assiduously ; but, when his master speaks to the baby, 
 Tip's jealousy is aroused, and he dashes about the 
 room, barking, jumps up on his master, licks his 
 boots, does all he can to distract his attention. Any 
 one else may take as much notice as they like 
 of poor baby, but his papa is not to speak or even 
 look at him without Tip's permission ; and it is quite 
 sad to see the expression of real suffering in his 
 large eyes whilst the baby is caressed. It is to be 
 2c 
 
194 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 hoped this feeling will subside, and his master is 
 very careful not to wound his feelings by neglect. 
 A few days ago Tip discovered that the servants had 
 not filled his basin, which stands in the hall, with 
 water, and that it was quite empty; so he took in his 
 mouth the piece of sulphur which is kept in it, and 
 trotted off to the room where his master was sitting, 
 laid it down at his feet, and retreated to a short 
 distance wagging his tail, as much as to say, ' Pray 
 help me in this little difficulty.' 
 
 There never was a more friendly and sociable dog 
 than Tip, and he has a large circle of acquaintances 
 among both people and dogs ; but his chosen friend 
 is a very handsome Gordon setter, 6 Eoyal ' by name. 
 Xow, although Eoyal is ten times as big as Tip he 
 is not nearly as clever ; consequently Tip looks after 
 Eoyal when they are out walking, and is full of 
 anxiety because his big friend will roam so far away. 
 Tip only goes a certain distance, looks back anxiously, 
 and tries to coax Eoyal to return ; then, if the other 
 dog persists in keeping at a distance, Tip gallops 
 
v] DOGS. 195 
 
 back and insists, by jumps and barks, on Eoyal's 
 being summoned ; nor will anything else satisfy him. 
 It is so pretty to see these two at play. Eoyal lies 
 on his back with his four legs straight up in the air 
 and his great mouth wide open, into which Tip thrusts 
 his head, and you hear the bell on Tip's collar ringing 
 half-way down Eoyal's throat! Then Tip jumps 
 on Eoyal and walks up and down his broad beautiful 
 chest. As soon as this has gone on long enough Eoyal 
 leaps suddenly up, and the shock throws Tip high 
 into the air as if he were a shuttle-cock ! Then, as 
 he touches the ground, the game recommences by 
 Eoyal pretending to run away, and Tip scampering 
 after him, bringing the big dog back by one of his 
 long silky ears. After some time Eoyal's mistress 
 says, e Now, children, that is enough ; sit down and be 
 quiet ; ' and they retreat to different corners of the 
 room and lie down, panting. Tip cannot understand 
 Eoyal's taste for ices, and when he sees his big 
 friend enjoying himself at Grunter's with a 'strawberry 
 cream,' Tip sniffs at the dainty, and looks up in his 
 
196 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 master's face with a shiver of disgust, for Tip prefers 
 warmth, and is never so happy as when basking in 
 the sunshine. 
 
 I cannot give you a description of Tip's varied 
 accomplishments, for he is always improving his 
 education, and gives Koyal lessons in begging, 
 walking, 4 on trust,' &c. ; but he has one game 
 of play in which he indulges when alone, and 
 which is exceedingly ridiculous. He takes the end 
 of his tail firmly in his mouth — and this is the most 
 difficult part of the performance, as it is tightly 
 curled over his back — and twirls round and round 
 until he falls down from giddiness ; as soon as he 
 can get up he sets off again the reverse way, and he 
 has been seen to go on thus for half an hour. Tip 
 often makes journeys by the underground railway, 
 which he hates, and, as soon as his master gets out of 
 the carriage, Tip scampers off up the steps until he 
 comes to the ticket collector ; there he stops and sits 
 down sedately, looking up in the man's face from 
 time to time, as much as to say, ' It's all right,' till 
 his master arrives with the tickets : as soon as these 
 
v] DOGS. 197 
 
 are given up Tip knows he may pass, and sets off at 
 full speed for the open street. The reason of this 
 conduct is, that he was once stopped by a ticket 
 collector and detained until his master claimed him : 
 he evidently learned how to manage in future. 
 
 I must end this chapter by telling you of a narrow 
 escape poor Tip had lately. His home is in a 
 distant part of London, and he is fond of disporting 
 himself in the square in front of his dwelling. Into 
 this inclosure dogs are not generally admitted, but, 
 as Shakspeare tells us, that ' Xice customs curtesy 
 to great kings,' so all rules are relaxed in favour of 
 a little dog who fascinates everybody in spite of his 
 very ugly face. Tip therefore is allowed to run after 
 his ball within the square, and he was thus amusing 
 himself, much to the delight of his young friends, 
 when a small pack of beagles passed by the half- 
 open gate in charge of a feeble old coachman. The 
 ball was instantly neglected, and Tip darted out to 
 welcome the strangers : but what a reception he met 
 with; the whole pack thought he was a hare, down 
 went their heads un wpnt thoir sterns and utterin^ 
 
198 STORIES ABOUT [v 
 
 their musical cry they chevyed poor Tip round and 
 round the square. Every now and then Tip thought 
 to himself, 'This must be all a mistake, they only 
 want to play ;' so he would stop his career and turn 
 short round with the most amiable expression of 
 face, wagging his tail furiously as if he would say, 
 6 Now that's enough, pax;' but he was instantly 
 tumbled over and worried, so he had to pick him- 
 self up as best he might and resume his flight. He 
 never thought of coming to his master for shelter ; 
 he evidently considered he could manage matters 
 alone ; his mistress was frantic ; she flew to the old 
 coachman, and scolded him well for briiiffinff out 
 such brutes ; but he was quite helpless and frightened, 
 and only said, 'I durs'n't go near 'em;' then she 
 turned to see Tip's master beating off some of the 
 dogs, but one vixen had got Tip down on the 
 ground and was choking him, whilst another was, 
 helping to worry him. The poor little doggie was 
 quite exhausted, and seemed to have resigned him- 
 self to his fate. He was all over wounds, and his ugly 
 little turned-un nose was a mass of bites. His mis- 
 
v] DOGS. 199 
 
 tress thought it was time to rush to the rescue of her 
 pet and friend ; so she boldly dashed in among the 
 shrubs, and, in spite of furious snaps and snarls, and 
 getting her gown torn into ribbons, she picked up 
 her beloved Tip and carried him off in safety and 
 triumph. Tip's gratitude was great, and he showed 
 it in a thousand pretty ways, though he was sc 
 thoroughly done he could hardly stand. Whenevei 
 he afterwards passed any dog in the street which 
 at all resembled his enemies, the beagles, Tip gave 
 them a very wide berth, and looked at them with an 
 expression which meant, ' I'll have nothing to say 
 to you.' 
 
 Dear little Tip, long may he live ! for his life is a 
 very happy one ; he is so good-tempered and un- 
 selfish that everyone loves him ; and he is not in 
 the least pampered or indulged, consequently he is 
 % always in perfect health, and ready for a game of 
 play. He has just brought me his little collar and 
 laid it at my feet, so I must leave off writing and 
 take him out for a walk ; that is what he wishes me 
 to do. 
 
200 STORIES ABOUT fvi 
 
 ABOUT BOYS. 
 
 I have numbered many pet boys among my kinsfolk 
 and friends, and I am going to tell you a few of their 
 pranks. It would not be fair, I suppose, to the little 
 girls, to relate their pieces of mischief, for they are 
 nearly all grown up now, and have boys and girls of 
 their own, who would be very much shocked if they 
 could know that mamma had ever been concerned 
 in a small riot, or had nearly killed herself in 
 attempting to fly down from a heap of piled up 
 boxes, by means of large paper wings ! I am sorry 
 to say that my own chicks prefer the recital of their 
 mother's wrong doings to any other tale, and when, 
 
 Between the dark and the day-light, 
 When the night is beginning to lower, 
 
 Comes a pause in the day's occupations 
 That is known as the children's hour. 
 
vi] BOYS. 201 
 
 I am taken prisoner, held captive in an armchair 
 
 by the fire, and not released till I have told, for the 
 
 hundredth time, most of my own childish scrapes. 
 
 Once or twice I have tried to substitute a little stray 
 
 bit of goodness, but that was not half as popular as 
 
 6 Mamma's naughtiness.' 
 
 One of my earliest pets was a tiny boy who would 
 
 have been very pretty if he had not been disfigured 
 
 by a black and blue lump about as big as a pigeon's 
 
 ezg; on his forehead. At first I thought it was 
 
 caused by a fall, but it turned out to be his own 
 
 doing. Whenever he was thwarted or annoyed in 
 
 any way he deliberately knelt down and thumped 
 
 his head on the floor, even on that of the marble 
 
 hall. I have seen him drop on his knees and hit his 
 
 forehead against the pavement out walking, and the 
 
 curious part of the story is that, although it must 
 
 have hurt him a good deal, he never cried ! He was 
 
 not at all an ill-tempered child, but he was rather 
 
 wilful ; and if his wishes were not at once attended 
 
 to, these knocks began and went on till he got his 
 2 D 
 
202 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 own way. The doctor said it was very bad for him, 
 and his mother tried every means to cure this trick. 
 In vain were all her attempts until some one 
 suggested a little counter-irritation, and it proved 
 quite successful. Whenever Master Willie dropped 
 on his knees and began to knock his head, his mother 
 produced a small light horsewhip, and applied it 
 to his little bare legs with much vigour. At this 
 unexpected treatment Willie scrambled to his feet 
 as fast as possible ; and very soon he would ask, before 
 beginning to thump his forehead, ' Is you goin' to 
 vitch me with dat vitch ;' his mother replied, 6 Yes, I 
 am ;' whereupon Willie calmly said, ' Den I wont hit 
 my head no more ;' so in about a week the head- 
 thumping was quite given up, but it -took a much 
 longer time to get rid of the ugly mark. 
 
 Poor little Willie got into dreadful trouble when 
 he was about six years old, for sealing up his sister's 
 lips. They were both nicely dressed, and seated at 
 the nursery table to wait till it was time to go down 
 to dessert. The stupid old nurse gave them two 
 
vi] BOYS. 203 
 
 pieces of sealing wax and some seals, to amuse 
 themselves by sealing up imaginary letters. But 
 Willie soon got tired of this quiet play, and when 
 his wax was flaring away he popped it down upon 
 his poor little sister's red lips. She was looking at 
 him in great admiration, with her pretty smiling 
 face up-turned, when he suddenly dropped a quantity 
 of blazing wax on her lips, and firmly pressed the 
 seal down, saying, 'You shat (chatter) too much, 
 miss.' Of course he had no idea of the anguish he 
 was inflicting, and the poor child suffered almost as 
 much as his victim, and seemed quite glad to be 
 punished in expiation of his thoughtlessness. 
 
 I once knew two little brothers who were really 
 fond of each other, but who used to quarrel most 
 dreadfully. I must say it was chiefly the fault of 
 the elder boy, who had no patience with his small 
 brother Franky's shortcomings. Franky was de- 
 voted to Cecil, and would run his messages for him, 
 and wait upon him in the most dutiful way ; but he 
 never got any thanks for his little services. One 
 
204 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 day I was calling on their mamma, and she took 
 me into the dining room, to see a large and beauti- 
 ful ship which had been just given to Cecil. It 
 stood in a sort of wooden rest on the floor, and was 
 certainly a very fine model of an old fashioned 
 frigate. There were her guns and her portholes to 
 open and shut, every block and rope was right, and 
 her sails and flags were something lovely to behold. 
 The only thing which struck me as being wrong 
 was her crew ; they were little composition figures 
 of sailors, very pretty to look at, but hugely out of 
 proportion : fancy an A.B. seaman reaching half 
 way up the mainmast ! However, Cecil thought it 
 all beautiful, and walked round and round his new 
 treasure with the greatest pride and delight. 
 
 His mamma took advantage of his softened mood 
 to say a word about being kind to poor little Franky, 
 and showing it to him, which Cecil readily promised 
 to do, when the door opened, and nurse led in 
 Franky fresh from his mid-day sleep, in his pretty 
 white frock and with cheeks as red as his ribbons. 
 
vil BOYS. 205 
 
 His large solemn eyes opened wide at the sight of 
 this splendid man-of-war. He walked round it two or 
 three times with many murmurs of admiration, for 
 he could not speak plain ; and suddenly, without the 
 least warning, he sat down plump on the bowsprit, 
 snapping it off close to the bows. Of course he 
 toppled over, and came crash down on the back of 
 his head, but, oh ! what a wreck he made ! So 
 many ropes are fastened to the bowsprit, that when 
 it is carried away in this sudden manner, the con- 
 sequences are dreadful, and it is very difficult to 
 repair such an accident. Cecil's wrath was tre- 
 mendous, and it certainly was enough to provoke 
 a more patient little boy. He flew at his brother, 
 (who was howling loudly) with both his fists 
 doubled, and would no doubt have punished him 
 severely, if nurse had not snatched up her darling 
 in her arms, and carried him off; but Cecil could 
 not be comforted for many a day. 
 
 You must not think they were always quarrelling, 
 for they never were happy apart ; and if one was in 
 
206 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 any trouble or difficulty, the other was wretched ; for 
 instance, Cecil once fastened himself into a room by 
 accident ; it was a long time before a locksmith could 
 be brought to break open the door, and no ladder was 
 long enough to reach to the window, so Cecil's im- 
 prisonment was very tedious. All the time he was 
 locked up Frank sat at his door trying to cheer and 
 comfort his brother, refusing his own dinner. Every 
 now and then he would say, ' Never mind, Cis ; I'm 
 hungry too.' And he looked quite faint and pale 
 by the time Cecil was released ; but when he took 
 him into the dining room, he would not touch food 
 till Cecil had been helped and begun to eat. On 
 another occasion when Cecil set himself on fire, 
 and was very severely burnt, Franky kept making 
 puffs at him as the poor child ran about in tor- 
 ture, thinking he could blow out the flames ; and 
 I heard him say afterwards, ' I did try to blow him 
 out, but the fire wouldn't be blowed.' He was 
 such a dear little nurse to his brother all through 
 the weeks of pain and suffering which followed this 
 accident. 
 
VI] 
 
 TOYS. 207 
 
 Frank was very anxious to be allowed to ride a 
 certain donkey which was usually employed in draw- 
 ing the mowing machine ; but the donkey objected 
 decidedly to being ridden when his day's work was 
 over, and always deposited Frank on the ground the 
 moment he got into the road. Mr. Donkey walked 
 sedately up to the gate of his favourite meadow, 
 and then put his head down between his forelegs, 
 hunched up his back— for it could hardly be called 
 kicking — and soon got rid of poor little Frank, who, 
 nothing daunted, scrambled on again to encounter 
 the same fate directly. One day we met Frank 
 a long distance from home, looking hot and dusty ; 
 he was walking along the high road leading the 
 donkey by the rein. We immediately asked if he 
 had been thrown oftener than usual, and why he was 
 walking. He disdained to answer us, and turning 
 with a little confidential smile to his mother said, 
 < Well, you see, mother, he was trotting very nicely, 
 and I got off to see how he was going!' AVe all 
 laughed at this reason a great deal, but Frank saw 
 nothin g amusin g in it. 
 
203 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 Frank and Cecil gave their mother a great 
 fright one day. They were living in the country, 
 and had a very quiet old pony which was used 
 in the basket carriage. The boys begged that 
 they might be allowed to ride this pony in a 
 large field near the house. Now, as there was nothing 
 whatever with which they could possibly hurt them- 
 selves in this field, they were permitted to do so ; 
 but, soon after they started, a great clatter and 
 noise was heard in the porch ; and, when the poor 
 mamma went to find out what it could be, there 
 was the pony without either of his riders, his reins 
 broken, his saddle turned underneath him, and with 
 a great cut on his side. He had evidently come to 
 complain of the treatment he had received ; but I 
 fancy the mother thought more of her missing boys. 
 At all events I know she rushed out, still followed 
 by Mettle, and to her joy met both her trouble- 
 some treasures in the lane close to the house, safe 
 and well, but nearly in as bad a plight as the pony : 
 their clothes were torn and muddy, their hats off, 
 
vil 
 
 BOYS. 209 
 
 and they were Loth crying bitterly. It seems that 
 they were ' playing at hunting,' and, after several 
 gallops round the field after a little terrier, who 
 acted fox very well, the dog bolted through 
 a hole in a high, quickset hedge, jumped the 
 muddy ditch on the other side, and barked de- 
 fiantly at them from the road. The ardour of the 
 chase quite carried away the two small huntsmen, 
 who put the pony at this big hedge, fully believing 
 he could jump it ; and Mettle must have thought 
 so too, for he actually tried, landing of course in the 
 middle of the thorns. The riders soon scrambled off, 
 but alighted in the ditch. The pony was firmly 
 fixed in the fence, and struggled a great deal before 
 he could free himself, which he did at last at the 
 expense of many scratches, and the loss of his 
 stirrups and reins. It was not surprising to hear 
 that he declined to be remounted, and set off home 
 as fast as he could. 
 
 One day, and almost before their poor mother's 
 nerves had had time to recover tins shock, she 
 
 2 E 
 
210 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 heard a tap at the drawing-room door, and on going 
 to see who it could possibly be, she found Franky 
 with a very pale face but an extraordinary polite 
 manner, who said, s Oh mamma, dear, if you please I 
 think I have put out Cecil's eye ! ' Was not that a 
 
 pretty thing to hear ? Poor Mrs. E flew off to 
 
 the play-room to find Cecil crouching in the corner 
 with the blood streaming from between his fingers. 
 which were pressed to his right eye. At first she 
 really thought his sight was injured, but it turned 
 out fortunately that the deep cut had only gone very 
 close to, but not actually into, the eye. Do you 
 know how tins happened ? Through disobedience : 
 they had climbed up to a high shelf and got down 
 some foils (Papa will tell you what those are, and 
 how dangerous to play with), and were fencing away 
 in fine style. The silly boys had never put on the 
 buttons which even grown-up people use when 
 they fence ; nor had they covered up their faces with 
 the wire masks which were kept with the foils. It 
 was a very narrow escape I assure you, and served as 
 
vi] BOYS. 211 
 
 a severe lesson to both the children not to tonch 
 forbidden things. 
 
 And now that I have told you of so many scrapes 
 which these boys fell into, it is only fair to tell yon 
 of something very nice about them. They were the 
 most generous little fellows in the world, and were 
 never so happy as when they could give a penny or 
 a bun to a hungry child, or a toy to a sick one. I 
 was spending a week with their mamma about 
 Christmas-time one year, and a friend of hers 
 
 chanced to call. Mrs. E asked where she had 
 
 been staying, and this lady gave us a description of 
 a charmino- home far awav in the wilds of Yorkshire. 
 Its inmates were a young clergyman and his wife, 
 and a house full of children. She told us how rich 
 they were in goodness, in love, in self-denial, in all 
 that makes life beautiful and noble. She described 
 the air of refinement over the simple house, the way 
 the elder children helped their mother, and how all 
 were busy and cheerful and happy. There was, how- 
 ever, no money to spare for toys or picture-books, 
 
212 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 and some of the younger ones had never possessed 
 anything of the sort. We laughed at her account of 
 a sixpenny harlequin having been sent to the house 
 by some friend, when, after a reference to the nursery 
 history it was solemnly announced by sister Edith, 
 the second mother to the little flock, that it was 
 6 Polly's turn to have the next new toy ; ' so the 
 harlequin was given to Polly, who rejoiced greatly 
 over her first plaything. Cecil asked how old Polly 
 was, and seemed quite shocked to hear she was 
 actually five years old, and that there were three 
 children below her, whose turn had not yet come for 
 a toy ! He retired to a corner with Franky and 
 they held a long consultation, which resulted in their 
 leaving the room with an air of great importance, 
 saying to their mother, 'Don't want us, please 
 mamma, for we are going to be very busy.' 
 
 And they were indeed busy, all that wintry after- 
 noon, mending, sorting, and arranging, putting maps 
 together to make sure that all the pieces were right, 
 finding the bricks belonging to a large box, and at 
 
vi] BOYS. 213 
 
 last they came to ask their mother to go with them 
 to the play-room as they wanted her to ' see some- 
 thing very particular.' I went too, unasked, and there 
 was quite a large heap of toys, ball.-, carts, and pic- 
 ture books, all so neatly mended and in good order. 
 By the table stood Cecil holding bis brother's hand 
 and saying, ' Me and Franky think we should like to 
 send these to the children in Yorkshire, and do, please 
 mamma, pack them up at once so that they may 
 arrive on Christmas morning.' Dear little fellows ! 
 how enchanted they were when Mrs. E. set to work 
 at once, sent for a huge cake and a big box of barley 
 sugar, and finally filled a large hamper with toys 
 and Christmas cheer, which was sent off that same 
 night to the distant parsonage, with messages of love 
 and good will from Cecil and Franky to the unknown 
 children who were so happy in spite of their inde- 
 pendence of toys from a shop ; and when a letter 
 came back saying, in simple, graceful words, that 
 the gifts had been received in the same spirit in 
 which they were sent, and that the little flock had 
 
214 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 been made supremely happy by the sudden shower 
 of presents, Cecil leant his head on his mother's 
 shoulder and whispered, ' mamma ! isn't it nice 
 to make children comfortahleV "We all laughed so 
 much at his idea of comfort. 
 
 But the pet boy of all my boy-friends lies sleeping 
 far away on a sunny slope of the Himmalaya Moun- 
 tains, and the myrtles growing so luxuriantly over 
 his grave are meant to tell of the love which all 
 bore to the man who, even as a boy, was never guilty 
 of a mean or a cruel action. My darling little 
 unknown friends, do not think that, because you are 
 only children, it does not matter what you do or say. 
 That silent voice inside you, which men have agreed 
 to call conscience, but which is really a spark from 
 a Divine fire, will always tell you pretty loudly — 
 when you stop and listen to it — whether the thing 
 you either wish to do, or have done, is right or wrong, 
 whether it is true or false, mean or generous. Above 
 all, think to yourselves whenever you are going to 
 hurt an animal: ' Should I like a great giant to come 
 
yil BOYS. 215 
 
 and do this to me ?' And when the voice says, as it 
 will, nine times ont of ten, 'Xo, you wouldn't like it 
 at all,' then don't do it. I have seen this pet boy of 
 mine, though he was not at all quarrelsome, rush 
 out into the street to defend a wretched draggled 
 Kitten which a big boy was torturing, getting of 
 course well knocked about ; but, as in the struggle 
 the kitten escaped, Greorgy did not mind a black eye 
 in what he thought was a good cause. I need hardly 
 tell you how much all animals loved and trusted 
 him : a homeless dog never failed to follow him if it 
 crossed his path, a restive horse became as gentle 
 as a lamb under his care. You see I put Georgy's 
 behaviour to dumb creatures first in my sketch of his 
 character. Do you know why I do so ? It is because 
 I have never known a boy who was wilfully cruel to 
 animals, or careless of their comfort and well-being, 
 grow up into such men as I should like you all to 
 be. it is only a very little baby for whom we can 
 make the excuse that it does not mean to hurt 
 pussy when it tweaks its fur ; but I have actually 
 
216 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 seen a mother, and a very fond mother too, pull 
 her baby's fluffy hair to make it feel how it hurt a 
 dog or a cat to have their hair grasped ; and, after 
 all, this practical teaching seemed to answer, for, long 
 before her babies could speak, they quite under- 
 stood that they were not to hurt any living thing 
 which God has made. We know, both from the Old 
 and Xew Testaments, how our Father which is in 
 heaven takes real thought and care for His dumb 
 creatures, for He condescended to make laws for 
 their good, at the same time that He gave command- 
 ments to His chosen people ; and you all know how 
 our gentle loving Saviour taught us that His Father 
 and ours cared for the sparrows on the housetop. 
 
 If a boy is thoughtful and good to animals he will 
 probably be kind and considerate to his brothers and 
 sisters; and then how happy they must all be to- 
 gether, and is it not wonderful to think that quite 
 little children can help to make grown-up people 
 comfortable by being patient and unselfish to each 
 other ? One of my pet boys used always to call that 
 
vi] BOYS. 217 
 
 word ' slefish,' and his greatest blame of any thing 
 or any one consisted in calling it 'slefish.' He 
 quite understood what selfish meant, although he 
 was not old enough to pronounce it properly. His 
 name was Basil, and the great joke against him used 
 to be that he never had any mind of his own, but 
 required to be told by his favourite sister what he 
 liked ! For instance, at dinner he would say to her, 
 confidentially, ' Connie, do you think I shall like that 
 pudding ? ' and if Connie said yes, then when his turn 
 to be helped arrived Basil said, ' Yes if you please.' 
 I once knew of his having been discovered sitting on 
 the steps dressed to go out for a walk, and on being 
 asked what he waited for, Basil answered, ' I'm only 
 waitino- for Connie to tell me whether I shall like 
 
 o 
 
 to go to Highfield.' Fortunately, at this moment, 
 Connie appeared and assured him that he would like 
 it very much; so they both set off as happy as possible. 
 Basil and Connie are grown up now, and Basil has 
 learnt to know what he likes for himself; but they 
 are just as fond of each other as in the days when 
 
218 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 Connie was the queen of the nursery, and ruled her 
 tiny subjects with a wand whose touch expressed 
 as much love and gentleness as did that of the beau- 
 tiful golden sceptre which King Ahasuerus held out 
 to Queen Esther. 
 
 Now I think I shall tell you of a terrible scrape 
 which one of my pet-boys got into. Pray do not 
 try to imitate him however, and he would be the 
 last person to advise you to do so, for he retains 
 to this day a lively recollection of the penalties 
 which followed swiftly on the heels of what he and 
 his schoolfellows thought was a very good joke in- 
 deed at the. time. It happened a great many years 
 ago at an old-fashioned school for boys; Dick 
 was the name of the hero of the adventure, and I 
 never could quite make out how he came to have 
 the performance of the principal character thrust 
 upon him, for he was a quiet, studious boy, with a 
 great turn for invention. However that may be, 
 or whoever was the first originator of the plan, it 
 is certain that poor Dick had to bear the blame ; 
 
vi] BOYS. 219 
 
 but, in order to make you understand all about it, I 
 must begin at tbe beginning of the plot, which arose 
 from one of the big boys, who was very popular in 
 the school, saying, that he wished the big school bell, 
 which always sounded at unwelcome hours, was c at 
 Jericho.' Xow it was not possible to send it quite 
 so far away at a moment's notice, and poor Dick, who 
 chanced to be next Burrows Major when he made 
 this new and original remark, said dreamily, point- 
 ing to a tall elm which stood in the playfield near 
 the house, ' What a lark it would be to fix it up there, 
 at the very top of that tree ! ' It did indeed seem 
 fun ; but there were serious difficulties in the way, 
 for the tree was a very high one, and it was con- 
 sidered a great feat to climb up to the top, without 
 being encumbered by a great bell, especially as 
 its clapper was not one which could be taken out 
 whilst the climbing was in progress, so every 
 step was likely to be marked by a tremendous 
 toll. Then, when once it was fixed up there, 
 how was it to be run^r at unseasonable hours ? 
 
220 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 The most submissive fag could not be induced, by 
 either bribes or threats, to climb up and ring it in 
 the middle of a dark night. It was early spring, but 
 a few days of sunshine had brought the leaves out 
 thickly enough to afford some cover to the con- 
 spirators, and now the weather had changed to keen 
 and cutting easterly winds. Dick promised to see 
 what he could do, and spent several days in making- 
 little models of a machine very like a gallows, in 
 which, however, the bell played the part of the culprit. 
 At last he announced that ' he thought he could do 
 something ;' when Dick said as much as that, every- 
 body knew it was a settled thing, so the next step 
 was to elect a Bell Committee, and their first act 
 was to open an account at the village shop for wire, 
 string, blocks, and pulleys to the enormous sum of 
 five shillings. 
 
 It was necessary to proceed with great caution, so 
 as not to excite suspicion in the minds of the 
 masters, and as it happened to be the time of year 
 lor bird-nesting, the frequent sight of Dick swarm- 
 
vi] BOYS. 221 
 
 ing up a big elm tree was not sufficiently uncommon 
 to arouse any remark. It is perhaps just as well that 
 I cannot give you a description of how Master Dick 
 arranged his numerous lines, and wires, and pulleys ; 
 I can only tell you the result, which was that one 
 cold night, when a bitter gale from the east was 
 blowing, the servant whose duty it was to ring the 
 bell for evening prayers returned to say that the 
 bell could not be found anywhere.' c Nonsense,' man, 
 ' said the portly Doctor ; ' the bell must be there.' 
 Poor old John went out again in the cold porch to 
 have another unsuccessful hunt after the bell, and to 
 return with the same story. It was too late and too 
 cold to continue the search, so there was nothing 
 for it but to go to chapel without the bell, and 
 the boys were afterwards marshalled into their dor- 
 mitories with extra precautions. Their names were 
 called over as they passed the masters at the doors 
 and these latter remained to watch that each boy 
 got quietly into bed. No boys could behave better 
 that night ; indeed they were suspiciously good, if 
 
222 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 one may use such an expression in speaking of young 
 gentlemen. But the peace of the establishment was 
 broken about midnight by a loud ' Boom, boom, 
 boom,' from the elm tree. This unusual sound aroused 
 the Doctor, who threw his window open letting in 
 such an icy blast. There was no mistaking the 
 clang of his own favourite bell ; but how on earth 
 did it get up into the sky, for that was where the 
 sound proceeded from. 6 I see, you Smith,' roared the 
 Doctor, c you shall pay for this, sir, to-morrow ;' and 
 he shouted for a monitor, who announced on his 
 arrival that, whoever it might be, Smith was not the 
 culprit, for he was snugly tucked into his bed. 'Well, 
 then, it must be Jones,' shouted the enraged Doctor. 
 6 Jones, if you don't come down directly and bring 
 the bell also, it will go hard with you to-morrow.' 
 The monitor of No. 3. dormitory appeared to assure 
 the Doctor that Jones's snores were keeping all his 
 neighbours awake. 
 
 In the meantime poor Mrs. Doctor was shivering 
 with cold, and entreating her husband to shut the 
 
Vi] BOYS. 2'23 
 
 window and return to bed ; but the old gentieman was 
 too much, enraged to listen to her ; and every time 
 the bell sounded, which it did frequently through 
 the night, he jumped out of his warm bed, and flung 
 up the window again calling out loudly, ' I see you 
 sir, come down directly.' He thought it safer not 
 to mention any names. The consequence of all this 
 exposure to a biting east wind was, that when the 
 boys assembled in the morning, they very nearly 
 got a flogging all round for the broad grin which 
 saluted the Doctor's appearance with such a swollen 
 face. It must be very diflicult to look calm and dig- 
 nified if you have one side of your face tremen- 
 dously swelled and red and shining. This was the 
 poor Doctor's plight, and his efforts to conceal his 
 suffering ought to have touched his pupils' hearts. 
 I daresay their titters and grins did not really arise 
 from want of feeling, only boys are such sad creatures 
 for laughing at the wrong time ! 
 
 The first thing the Doctor did was to make a long 
 speech to the boys, telling them (as if the young 
 
224 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 pickles did not know it already) of the loss of the 
 bell and of its re-appearance at the top of the tree, 
 and urging them to confess how they had managed 
 it; but a stony silence was all he met with, and each 
 boy's countenance looked more hopelessly vacant than 
 his neighbour's. When play-hours came the whole 
 school was kept in to write a line of Latin verse 
 so many hundred times over. This had a very 
 sobering effect on the young gentlemen, and even 
 the Doctor's expression of face at chapel with his 
 head tied up in flannel could not raise a smile from 
 the depressed conspirators. However, when midnight 
 arrived, 'Boom, boom, boom,' went the bell, and 
 it continued to sound at intervals through the night, 
 but in a jerky and spasmodic manner, not the deep 
 regular tones of the night before. After chapel the 
 next morning the boys were called over before the 
 Doctor, and, in spite of one of his eyes being now 
 quite closed up, and his voice sounding as if he had 
 plums in his mouth, his demeanour was so stern 
 that the stoutest heart auailed. His address was 
 
vil BOYS. 225 
 
 short but very much to the purpose. He said that, if 
 the bell was not brought down in broad daylight 
 and restored to its proper place by twelve o'clock, 
 the whole school should be flogged, and all half 
 holidays stopped for the remainder of the term. He 
 gave them half an hour to decide, and full liberty 
 to discuss the subject in the schoolroom without 
 the presence of the masters. The moment he had 
 finished his little speech, he got up and left the 
 room, followed by all the masters and the monitors. 
 I need hardly tell you how stormy was the debate 
 which followed, or how soon it became evident that 
 the funny side of the story was over for the present. 
 Poor quiet old Dick saw the situation at once? 
 shrugged his shoulders, and merely observing 6 I'm 
 in for a good 'un,' was deep in a few minutes in some 
 fresh invention, the model of which he took out 
 of his pocket and began to examine. At first the 
 general feeling was, that, as Dick had not originated 
 it he should not bear the punishment; but Dick 
 
 2q 
 
226 STORIES ABOUT fvi 
 
 himself scouted the idea of being let off, and was 
 the first to walk boldly into the Doctor's study, and 
 with a noble disregard of grammar, which even at 
 that exciting moment made the Doctor wince, say, 
 ' Please sir, it's me.' c Me will catch it then,' was 
 the Doctor's grim answer ; and poor s me ' did catch 
 it, and so did everyone concerned in the exploit in 
 the remotest way. The boys declared that Mrs. 
 Doctor was the most venomous of the two, and that 
 it was she who stirred up her portly husband to go 
 down to the village shop and blow up its mistress in 
 no measured terms ; but the woman's sharp tongue 
 could not keep silence very long, and she actually 
 stormed at the Doctor in return till he was glad to 
 get out of the shop. 
 
 Do you know there is one rather solemn-looking 
 gentleman of my acquaintance whom I never can see 
 without laughing. I am sure he must sometimes 
 wonder why I should always appear amused when 
 I shake hands with him, particularly if he happens 
 to have his pretty, young-looking mother leaning on 
 
vi] BOYS. 227 
 
 his arm. I dare not tell him why I laugh, but I 
 will tell you, in strict confidence, remember ! 
 
 One day, when this Mr. F. was a small boy, he 
 was locked up in his mother's bedroom, there to 
 repent of his transgressions in general, and of some 
 recent offence in particular. Xow it was a half 
 holiday, and there was a delightful excursion to the 
 woods in prospect. All the other children were wild 
 with delight about it, for they were to have tea in 
 gipsy fashion, with a fire out of doors, and all sorts of 
 pleasant things ; but an edict had gone forth that, 
 until Mr., or rather Master, F. had repented of his 
 fault and apologised, he was not to be allowed to go 
 in the spring-cart to the place of meeting. The 
 hours were passing away, and his mother was very 
 uneasy lest her pet boy should be deprived of hig 
 share of the afternoon's fun, so she thought she 
 would try what her gentle persuasions would do 
 towards softening his heart. I must explain to you 
 that there was a sort of partition off this bedroom, 
 and a glass door in it which did not fit very well, 
 
228 STORIES ABOUT [vi 
 
 consequently there was a gap of a couple of inches 
 between the floor and the bottom of the door. Mrs. 
 F went close up to this, and began to expostulate 
 through the chink at the side with her naughty- 
 darling. There was quite a little audience at her 
 back, composed of the other children, who were 
 eagerly listening for any signs of contrition on the 
 part of the prisoner ; and it caused great dismay 
 when mamma turned her head round to the young 
 ones and said, * I'm afraid he is not good yet.' ' Tell 
 him to put the naughty pinnit (spirit) up the 
 chimbley,' suggested a tiny brother, who disposed 
 of his little evil tempers very successfully in this 
 way. Mrs. F. drew still closer to the door, and 
 began a fresh entreaty to the culprit to make up 
 his mind to confess and beg pardon ; but at the most 
 touching part of her discourse she suddenly jumped 
 back upon her little listeners with a loud shriek of 
 pain, and caught up one of her feet with many 
 groans, hopping about on the other. What do you 
 think this dreadful boy had done ? He had found a 
 
vi] BOYS. 229 
 
 hammer in the room, and when he saw his mother's 
 toes sticking out under the door, he had deliberately 
 knelt down and hammered them ! 
 
 I need hardly tell you that there was no gipsy tea 
 for Master F. that evening, and I believe he was after- 
 wards very sorry for his conduct ; but it is not sur- 
 prising that, whenever the recollection of this story 
 comes over me, I should feel inclined to laugh. Some- 
 times I see Mr. F. taking great care of his mother at 
 supper, getting her nice things to eat, wrapping her 
 carefully up in her shawl when she is going away 
 from a party, and so on ; but instead of admiring his 
 dutiful devotion to her, this unfortunate piece of 
 naughtiness recurs to my memory, and I cannot help 
 smiling at the wrong time ; so you see it is very 
 dangerous to do naughty things, even when you are 
 quite little, for people are apt to remember them in 
 after years. 
 
230 STORIES ABOUT fyn 
 
 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 
 
 This s Edinburgh Castle ' is not a castle at all in the 
 first place, nor is it in Scotland ! It is only a little 
 mud hut on a hill, in the middle of a thick forest, 
 in that beautiful island of Jamaica, about which 
 I have already told you so many stories; but I 
 did not like to mix up this shocking tale with 
 the account of all our pets, so I have given it a 
 separate chapter to itself. If you want to know 
 more about it you will find it mentioned in a 
 book called ' Brydges' Annals of Jamaica ;' but I 
 was standing on the spot where it all happened, 
 when I heard the story from my father's lips. 
 He, Jessie, and I had ridden for miles through 
 
vn] 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 231 
 
 the clearings in this forest; and I can hardly 
 make you understand how delightful such an ex- 
 cursion is on a summer's afternoon in these high 
 uplands of Jamaica. Instead of the burning heat 
 and hot air, which is called a breeze down in the 
 plains, we had the most delicious fresh atmosphere ; 
 and, as we rode along under the shade of the tall 
 mahogany and cedar trees, Jessie and I were never 
 weary of admiring the beautiful creepers hanging in 
 festoons from branch to branch ; great blossoms of 
 cacti, with brilliant gauzy-winged flies going busily 
 in and out among the thick tassels which form the 
 centre of the flower ; orchids of every kind and de- 
 scription growing on the decayed timber, and making 
 the shabby old trees more beautiful than the strong 
 young ones ; convolvuli of bright and delicate 
 colour ; slender tendrils laden with the sweet-scented 
 blossom of the passion flower hanging down on our 
 heads. Through all these lovely sights and sounds 
 we rode, gaily talking and laughing, Jessie setting 
 all the mocking-birds nearly wild by breaking out 
 
232 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 into snatches of song ; and no sooner had one bird 
 answered her, and the others begun to take up the 
 chorus, than she would change her tune ; then such 
 an indignant chirruping and calling and whistling 
 ensued, as much as to say, ' Now, that is not fair, 
 one song at a time ;' until Papa said, ' Jessie, do 
 leave those birds alone ; I never heard such a row. 
 So, after that, we went on more quietly, and at last 
 the track we followed led us to a clearing, and on 
 our right was a little hillock with a tumble-down 
 hut on it ; but what attracted our attention were some 
 large grey rocks around the hovel, which at a short 
 distance had exactly the effect of the battlements of 
 a castle. We both exclaimed at once, ' How like an 
 old castle ! Who lived there ? ' And then Papa said, 
 1 Have you never heard the story about this place ? ' 
 Jessie and I were quite as fond of stories in those 
 days as you can possibly be, so we edged our ponies 
 quite close to Papa's horse, and listened eagerly whilst 
 he told us this tale ; and I remember so well, as he 
 went on with it, how all the warmth and glow and 
 
vn] 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 233 
 
 beauty seemed to fade out of that summer evening, 
 and it appeared to turn damp and chilly; all the 
 tropical luxuriance changed with our changed mood 
 into dank overgrowth ; and even Jessie's smiles and 
 songs died away into a hushed, breathless silence. 
 
 About fifty or sixty years ago, a man calling him- 
 self Hutchinson appeared in this part of the country, 
 and, after looking about him a little, finally selected 
 this forest in which to buy a section of land ; I think 
 Papa said a hundred acres. Now it was very unusual 
 to do such a thing in Jamaica where people generallv 
 have large sugar estates or grazing farms, and the 
 land which Mr. Hutchinson bought was quite unfit 
 for either of these purposes. However he gave no 
 reason for his choice, but proceeded to cut down 
 some trees, and to pile up all the available stones 
 and rocks into the shape of rough battlements. 
 When they were arranged to his satisfaction he built 
 himself a small hut with a stable and outhouse, 
 kitchen, &c. All that he did was extremely me- 
 thodical, and, when finished, his new home looked 
 2 H 
 
234 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 perfectly comfortable and weather-tight. A few 
 creepers against the cottage soon made it pretty, and 
 his ' provision ground,' as the negroes call a kitchen 
 garden, looked very picturesque with the yams 
 climbing like hops over their tall poles, and the 
 broad velvety leaves of his cocoa and arrowroot 
 plants. His establishment consisted of one old 
 negro slave, who appeared dreadfully afraid of his 
 master. This was the more surprising, as Mr. Hutch- 
 inson's manners were gentlemanlike and quiet, with 
 no trace of ill temper on the surface. Inside the 
 house, or rather cottage, everything showed signs of 
 refinement. There were only two rooms, and visitors 
 saw but one, which was used as a sitting-room, and 
 contained books, mathematical instruments, a few 
 curious weapons, and several specimens of birds and 
 animals ; but the most conspicuous object in it was a 
 large telescope on a stand, placed so as to command 
 the road through the forest. This road was really 
 only a bridle path, but it was much used as a short 
 cut from one part of the island to the other, and, 
 
VII I 
 
 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 235 
 
 though seldom travelled by the negroes, often proved 
 a great convenience to some gentlemen who wanted 
 to get quickly across the country. 
 
 Nothing is more amusing to a new-comer in most 
 Eno-lish colonies than the fine names the settlers 
 give their places. I have known so many rough 
 enclosures of a mere common or heath called after 
 grand parks and castles in England, that the name 
 of < Edinburgh Castle,' which Mr. Hutchinson gave to 
 his little mud hut with its rude parapet, did not seem 
 half so absurd to me as it probably does to you. At 
 all events it soon became known by that name ; and 
 as Mr. Hutchinson was very hospitable and friendly, 
 passers-by began to look upon it as a matter of course 
 that they should call in at the castle and have a 
 glass of sangaree (do you know what that is ? A 
 drink made of madeira and rum, lemons, and all 
 sorts of things) with its master, leaving him perhaps 
 the last English newspaper, and telling him what- 
 ever little local gossip they could collect. But in 
 the course of a few months three things began to be 
 
236 STORIES ABOUT fvii 
 
 noticed and talked of : first, Mr. Hu'xhinson never 
 left home, in spite of many invitations to pay a visit 
 to his neighbours. At whatever hour of the day or 
 night a traveller called, he was quite sure to find him 
 in his house always glad to see him and apparently 
 expecting a visitor. Then Mr. Hutchinson always 
 betrayed great anxiety about the hour, which seemed 
 rather odd in a person who had apparently nothing 
 to do and nowhere to go. Another remarkable thing 
 was the abject terror of the old negro. He would 
 come to the door to hold the guest's horse, shaking 
 all over, and he could seldom refrain from some little 
 speech which sounded inhospitable, such as, i It berry 
 fine day now ; mas'r best push on, plenty rain come 
 'bout evening.' People began to notice that if they 
 said to Mr. Hutchinson anything about his servant 
 not appearing glad to see them, or willing that they 
 should dismount, a strange dark look would come 
 over his face, and he tried to laugh off the idea, or to 
 change the subject ; but it was quite certain that 
 poor old Pompey took much more pleasure in obey- 
 
vn] 'EDINBURGH CASTLE. 1 237 
 
 ing the injunction to 'speed the parting guest' than 
 he did in •welcoming the new comer. The most 
 extraordinary thing of all was that Mr. Hutchin- 
 son's guests occasionally disappeared ! A gentleman 
 would leave an estate on one side of the great forest 
 with the intention of riding through it, calling in of 
 course at 'Edinburgh Castle' on his way, but it turned 
 out afterwards that he seldom got beyond that point. 
 There were no police in those old days of slavery, 
 and very little communication between places ; so 
 months passed before any one could be quite cer- 
 tain that a traveller was really missing, and then it 
 was hopeless to attempt to trace him. Everybody 
 agreed, that although Mr. Hutchinson was an odd 
 sort of man, and that it was very queer of him to 
 live in such a place, still he was the ' best fellow in 
 the world,' and very clever and well educated. 
 
 At last it happened that a passing traveller, 
 whose journey as usual seemed to stop short at 
 ' Edinburgh Castle,' was expected very anxiously by 
 his solicitor at an estate a few miles bevond the 
 
238 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 forest; and when a day or two passed without 
 bringing him, the lawyer got anxious for his 
 arrival, and thought perhaps he might have been 
 taken ill at the last house where he knew he was to 
 have put up for a night, on his way to the place of 
 meeting. He therefore took the important papers, 
 which he wanted this gentleman to sign, in his 
 pocket, and started off to ride through the forest. 
 Of course he called in at ' Edinburgh Castle,' and, 
 like everybody else, was asked the hour, and, on his 
 producing a handsome gold watch, Mr. Hutchinson 
 set his by it, and became very pressing in his 
 entreaties to the lawyer to stay. But he said, No ; 
 he could not possibly stop because he was in a 
 great hurry to meet his friend whom he expected to 
 find at the next place. Upon this Mr. Hutchinson's 
 hospitable entreaties were renewed ; in fact, they 
 became rather like commands ; and when he said, 
 'Well, you can't go now for your horse has got 
 away,' the lawyer felt very much like a prisoner. 
 He was, however, a shrewd as well as a brave man ; 
 
vn] 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 239 
 
 and althouo-h he said afterwards that he felt there 
 was something wrong*, at the time he pretended 
 to give up all idea of going on, but in reality 
 watched narrowly for a chance of getting away. 
 The afternoon and even the evening passed without 
 Mr. Hutchinson's leaving him alone for a moment ; 
 but still the lawyer hoped and waited for a lucky 
 opportunity. All this time the old negro kept 
 going in and out of the room and trying to convey 
 to the lawyer, by a sign now and then, the fact that 
 he would do well to make the best of his way out of 
 the house. Mr. Gr. gave him a nod, just to show 
 him he was quite determined to follow his advice ; 
 and he particularly remarked how thankful poor 
 Pompey seemed to find that at last some one 
 understood what he meant. 
 
 During the evening Mr. Hutchinson frequently 
 asked what o'clock it was, and every time Mr. Gr. 
 produced his watch he noticed how his host seemed 
 to gaze at it, and examine it as carefully as if he 
 had never seen such a thing before. At last Mr. Gr. 
 
240 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 said, ' My watch appears to have a great fascination 
 for you.' These harmless words produced a strange 
 effect on the man ; he turned first red and then pale ; 
 and asked angrily, 'What do you mean?' but, be- 
 fore the other could answer, Hutchinson left the 
 room with some indistinct words about shooting 
 pigeons. Mr. G. jumped out of the low window 
 in a second, and set off down the hill as fast as he 
 could; but he had the presence of mind to avail 
 himself of every scrap of cover, and these battlements 
 did him good service as shelter. Under their friendly 
 lee he skirted the mound, and soon struck once more 
 into the bridle-path, with his face turned in the 
 direction in which he meant to look for his client. 
 
 It was about ten o'clock at night — late for 
 Jamaica hours, where everybody gets up almost 
 at daybreak — when Mr. (x. knocked with his 
 knuckles at the little jalousie door of the ' great 
 house' on the estate where he hoped to find his 
 friend, and, in answer to the cheery ' Come in ' of 
 its owner, presented himself in rather a muddy 
 
tii] 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 241 
 
 and dirty state. Great was the astonishment of the 
 
 hospitable planter to see a 'white bnckra' in such a 
 
 plight, and still greater was his surprise at Mr. Gr.'s 
 
 first inquiry, ' Where is Ferrars ? ' ' He left this two 
 
 days ago to ride over to Friendship estate,' was the 
 
 answer ; and then the planter added, 4 But what on 
 
 earth are you doing here at such an hour of the 
 
 night, in so great a mess, and without your horse ? ' 
 
 6 You may well ask,' said Mr. G. ; ' I've had to get 
 
 away as best I could from " Edinburgh Castle ; " and 
 
 I'm certain of one thing, either Hutchinson is stark 
 
 staring mad, and ought to be locked up, or else 
 
 there is something wrong about the whole affair. 
 
 He would not let me go on any terms, turned 
 
 my horse adrift after I had securely fastened it 
 
 up to a post, and then pretended it had got away ; 
 
 and he kept wanting to know the hour every five 
 
 minutes, and gloating over my watch as if he 
 
 expected me to give it to him, and all the time 
 
 he had a much handsomer one himself. But what 
 
 I want to know is, Where is Ferrars ? He has never 
 
 2i 
 
242 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 reached Friendship, and if he does not sign these 
 papers to-morrow, they will be too late for the mail.' 
 Mr. Gr. said all this in a very excited way ; so, as 
 the first thing everybody thinks of in Jamaica is 
 fever, the planter's only reply was, ' Show ns your 
 tongue, my good fellow,' at the same time laying 
 his hand on his pulse. Now it is not pleasant to be 
 considered delirious when you are only anxious, and 
 Mr. Gr. got very angry at the supposition that he 
 was ill; but it took some time before he could 
 convince his startled host that there really was any 
 cause for uneasiness about Mr. Ferrars. He can't 
 have lost his way,' argued the planter, ' for he knew 
 the track perfectly, and it is quite a straight path ; 
 he started early the day before yesterday in perfect 
 health, on a capital nag, and with a beautiful day 
 before him ; he must be all right.' 6 But where is 
 he ? J repeated the lawyer. ' I waited till the last 
 moment for him at Friendship ; if he were anywhere 
 on the road I must have met him ; there is no house 
 at which he could have turned in except ' Edinburgh 
 
vn] « EDINBURGH CASTLE: ?43 
 
 Castle;' I asked Hutchinson whether lie had seen 
 him ; he said Ferrars had not called in there at 
 all ; but Pompey was groaning and fidgeting about 
 the whole time in the oddest way ! ' The two 
 gentlemen sat up late that night discussing what 
 was best to be done, and the earliest dawn of the 
 next day saw them in their saddles and on the 
 road to Spanish Town. Here they had a long talk 
 with the governor and one or two friends of Mr. 
 Ferrars, which resulted in a hurried journey back 
 again ; and so well had their horses carried them, 
 that, before twenty-four hours were over, the whole 
 party, consisting of Mr. Gr. and the planter, with 
 the addition of a magistrate and a constable, found 
 themselves at the little wooden gate which served 
 as an entrance to the fortifications of ' Edinburgh 
 Castle.' 
 
 Here everything was unchanged; Pompey ap- 
 peared as usual to hold their horses, shaking as if 
 he had an ague-fit, and peering up into Mr. Gvs 
 tace witn a wistful glance more like an old monkey 
 
244 STORIES ABOUT [vii 
 
 than a human being. Mr. Hutchinson seemed rather 
 absent, but was as cool and impassive as ever. It 
 was a very awkward moment, and each wondered 
 why the other did not say something ; but they all 
 found it difficult to give words to their suspicions 
 and uneasiness. However, matters were brought to 
 a point by Mr. Hutchinson's giving his usual hospi- 
 table order of ' luncheon directly, Pompey.' Mr. Gr. 
 said afterwards that he felt an instinctive dislike to 
 the" idea of breaking breau 1 under that roof; so he 
 refused the offer, adding, 6 The fact is, Mr. Hutchin- 
 son, we are very uneasy about poor Ferrars ; he has 
 been traced as far as this, but we cannot hear of him 
 afterwards ; we have brought a search warrant with 
 us, and we call upon you to afford us every assist- 
 ance in your power towards finding him, alive or 
 dead.' Hutchinson stared dreamily about him and 
 murmured his usual question, 'What o'clock is it?' 
 Whereupon the magistrate struck in with, 6 Oh it's 
 quite early ; lots of daylight left ; ' but the doomed 
 man did not attempt to disarm the fast-growing 
 
vn] 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 245 
 
 suspicions of his visitors, for he looked at his own 
 watch, then opened a drawer and drew out poor 
 Mr. Ferrars' gold watch and chain with the heavy 
 dano-lino- bunch of seals which it was the fashion for 
 gentlemen to wear in those far-past-away days. 
 
 As if they had but one voice the three horror- 
 stricken lookers-on exclaimed, ' Good heavens ! 
 Ferrars' watch.' And before any answer could be 
 given the constable called out, 'Look at the 
 nigger ! ' They turned their heads to see poor old 
 Pompey on his knees, with uplifted hands, at his 
 stern masters feet, crying, ' mas'r ! me tell you 
 let buckra 'lone ; me tell you him be found. 
 Pompey savy (know) dem sure come look for 3Ias'r 
 Ferrars. Now duppy (evil spirit) catch us all, for 
 we hab no more bisness in de kingdom of heaben 
 dan my hog hab in de gubner's garden. my 
 king, my king ! ' The constable gave one stride 
 and laid his heavy hand on the abject creature's 
 shoulder saying, ' Xow, look here, darky ; what 
 you have got to do is to make a clean breast of 
 
246 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 it, sharp. "We know right well there's been some 
 foul play with that poor gentleman, and if you want 
 to save your precious neck you just turn king's evi- 
 dence, and tell us all you know about it, and we'll see 
 you safe through the job.' Pompey seemed quite 
 speechless, and only gazed with a despairing stare 
 into the dark impenetrable face before him, moan- 
 ing and murmuring, 'Duppy '11 hold me.' The con- 
 stable was afraid the old man would have a fit, and 
 perhaps be rendered useless as a guide or helper to 
 them in their sad search ; so he picked him up like 
 a baby, and carried him out into the sunshine ; but 
 Pompey quaked and shivered as much under the 
 glowing beautiful blue arch all flooded with light 
 and warmth, as he had done in the dark little room. 
 As for Hutchinson he seemed to have spoken his last 
 word, so profound was his silence, never to be broken 
 again on earth, for people say he was perfectly silent 
 at his trial. 
 
 The party held a brief and hurried consultation, 
 which ended in their separating into two divisions. 
 The constable produced the traditional handcuffs 
 
viil 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 24' 
 
 without which they seem never to stir, at least in a 
 story; and he and the magistrate remained to watch 
 the man whom they did not know whether to look 
 upon as mad or a murderer, whilst Mr. Gr. and the 
 planter went out to try and see what could be made 
 of the poor old negro. The planter was a kind- 
 hearted good man, well accustomed to dealing with 
 his own slaves, who all loved and respected him ; so 
 he undertook to question Pompey, and he managed 
 so well to soothe and encourage the trembling 
 creature, that at last he picked himself up and stood 
 quivering before them, his face of an ashen grey 
 colour in spite of the black skin over it, saying, 
 ' Pompey '11 tell white buckra all 'bout it, dat 
 best tino- to do.' But no words would come, so he 
 turned away telling them to ' come 'long,' and led 
 the way down the hillock towards a thick uncleared 
 part of the forest. A very few yards brought them 
 to a place where, on close examination of the brush- 
 wood growing luxuriantly round it, could be seen a 
 little opening in the earth like the mouth of a well. 
 Pompey set to work and lifted up the long branches 
 
248 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 of supple-jack and other forest creepers which had 
 stretched themselves across the space. Five minutes 
 work was enough to show that the opening was 
 much larger than it appeared to be at first, and of a 
 great depth. ' Don't go too near, mas'r,' gasped Pom- 
 pey, struggling with a great flower-laden vine ; ' him 
 berry slippy.' The two friends went as close as they 
 dared, but nothing was to be seen except a deep pit 
 where all was inky darkness. 'Man alive, you don't 
 mean to say Mr. Ferrars is down there J they ex- 
 claimed. 6 Eess, mas'r,' said Pompey with wonder- 
 ful composure; 'Mas'r Huchisson him kill Mas'r 
 Ferrars quite dead up dere, take him watch 'way, 
 den Pompey drag him down here come night, heave 
 him in ; eess, mas'r, jest so.' 
 
 Few and simple as were the negro's words they 
 contained the whole truth ; there was nothing to be 
 added or taken away. That was just what had be- 
 fallen not only Mr. Ferrars but many another solitary 
 traveller besides. Their lives hung upon the answer 
 to the invariable question, asked by Hutchinson, 
 
vn] 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 249 
 
 6 What's o'clock.' If the unfortunate guest possessed 
 a watch, his doom was sealed ; he was detained at the 
 castle on some pretence or the other, sometimes by 
 almost forcible means, and murdered in the night, 
 his watch taken from him, and his dead body handed 
 over to Pompey to dispose of. The negro seems 
 never to have kept anything for his own use except, 
 on one occasion, a warm waistcoat, and on another 
 a pair of boots. As soon as the day dawned again 
 over the blood-stained roof, Pompey's custom was to 
 drag the body to the edge of this deep abyss, and 
 after removing the creepers and branches which 
 •formed such a smiling covering to the grave-like 
 
 shaft, he tumbled the corpse in. When once Pom- 
 
 • 
 
 pey found his tongue, and perceived that no super- 
 natural events followed his words, he seemed to de- 
 rive relief from ' making a clean breast of it ; ' and 
 I think we can all understand a little, what a com- 
 fort confession must have been to the poor sin-laden 
 wretch whose superstitions had made him an ac- 
 complice in such- cold-blooded wickedness. He now 
 2 K 
 
250 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 jabbered incessantly, and described with terrible 
 minuteness how some were heavy and some were light 
 to drag down that pretty picturesque path ; how he 
 used to be obliged to call Mr. Hutchinson to shoot 
 the victim's horse, for he could not find it in his 
 heart to kill the creature he had fed and stabled 
 the night before, and who had looked round on 
 him with a grateful whinny when he entered the 
 stable in the morning to lead him out to his 
 death. Hutchinson taught Pompey to bring the 
 horse to the edge of this well after he had flung 
 the poor murdered rider down it ; and, whilst the 
 negro held the bridle, Hutchinson put a pistol to 
 its head and shot it dead, after which he would 
 walk calmly back to the house and read, or garden 
 or amuse himself in some innocent way, whilst 
 Pompey huddled the quivering mass, which a 
 moment before had been a horse, down this horrible 
 place. The saddle and bridle and everything be- 
 longing to the victim was also flung down, and the 
 branches replaced, until some other chance should 
 
vn] 'EDINBURGH CASTLE: 251 
 
 bring a visitor possessed of a watch to the fatal 
 threshold of c Edinburgh Castle.' 
 
 Papa lifted Jessie and me off our ponies, tied the 
 reins to the stump of a tree, and led us to this well. 
 I don't know why I should call it a well, for there 
 was nothing to make one think it had ever been 
 used for such a purpose ; the surrounding country 
 is well watered by springs, so the Carribs would not 
 have been likely to have taken the trouble of dig- 
 ging to such a vast depth for water, when there was 
 plenty on the surface ; and the Spaniards, who ceded 
 the island to us, certainly had not had anything to 
 do with it. Just after these terrible discoveries 
 people tried to go down the shaft in a bucket with 
 lanterns and ropes, but the air was too foul, and 
 they never could get beyond a ledge which projected 
 at an immense depth, and where poor Mr. Ferrars' 
 body was found. Below this all seemed a bottomless 
 pit, and Papa told us that he had once gone there 
 in the company of an engineer officer, who had 
 attempted to measure it with a stop watch by 
 
252 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 throwing a stone of a certain weight down, and by 
 calculating how many feet it had fallen in so many 
 seconds. He was able to find out the depth as 
 far as the ledge I have told you of; but the most 
 intent listening with his ear to the ground failed to 
 detect the least sound or splash when the stone was 
 thrown perfectly straight down, so this terrible grave 
 must have been almost fathomless. 
 
 Of course Jessie and I asked Papa a great many 
 more questions, and he told us further, that in 
 Hutchinson's bedroom was found a chest with be- 
 tween thirty and forty watches in it, many of which 
 were identified as belonging to some of the missing 
 travellers, but, as some of them could not be traced, 
 it is quite possible that he had got them through 
 the same murderous means in other countries. It 
 was very extraordinary that nothing whatever could 
 be discovered about this man's past life. There was 
 a strong impression abroad that he was a Scotch- 
 man, but no trace was to be found of his having even 
 lived anywhere in that part of the world. He had 
 
vn] A CRUEL NEGRESS. 253 
 
 evidently travelled a good deal, though, when the 
 few survivors of his hospitality came to compare 
 notes, they could not call to mind a word he had 
 said which gave them a clue to any particular place. 
 No persuasions would induce Hutchinson himself to 
 open his lips. If it. had not been for his earnest 
 attention to everything which was said at his trial, 
 one might have supposed he was deaf; but he 
 never once lost his presence of mind, or forgot him- 
 self sufficiently to utter a sound. The counsel who 
 defended him laid great stress on this silence, and 
 tried to persuade the jury that he was what is called 
 a monomaniac, that is, mad upon one subject ; but I 
 fancy people were not so merciful in those days as 
 they are now, and the plea of insanity did not serve 
 him as an excuse; he was hung in chains at 
 Kingston (I think), in the presence of an immense 
 crowd. 
 
 During all the years I knew Jamaica there was 
 only one execution among the negroes, and the 
 opinion I formed of them during that time did not 
 
254 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 at all prepare me for the news of the extraordinary 
 outburst four years ago, which you may easily hear 
 all about if you inquire. But as this execution 
 was the just punishment of the most cruel and 
 unnatural act ever heard of, and as I took an 
 immense interest in the trial, perhaps you would 
 like me to tell you about it. 
 
 Our house in Spanish Town was one of those built 
 long ago by the Spaniards, and, although only of wood, 
 was as fresh and good as when new. Outside it resem- 
 bled all the others, being painted of a light stone 
 colour, with bright green jalousies round three sides 
 of it. This fashion used always to make the houses 
 look in my eyes exactly like those out of a box of 
 toys, and they were also not unlike them in shape. 
 Inside, however, the old Spanish builders had left us 
 the most splendid carved door and window-frames of 
 mahogany, which was now as black as ebony from 
 age, and the floors were exactly like a beautiful 
 old-fashioned dining table, quite dark, and polished 
 every day until they shone like looking-glasses. 
 
vnl A CRUEL NEGRESS. 255 
 
 When I returned to Jamaica after I was grown up, 
 I used to think it the prettiest sight in the world to 
 see a little baby-creature toddling over these shining 
 mirror-like floors, clad in only one scanty garment, 
 and with its lovely marble feet and limbs reflected 
 as it crawled or staggered about. There was only 
 one thing prettier, and that was to see the same 
 baby asleep on its bright coloured straw mat which 
 was laid on the floor, no covering on except the tiny 
 cambric shirt I have mentioned, and lying under 
 an extinguisher made of thin net stretched over 
 a bamboo frame, to keep the mosquitoes from 
 biting it. These were the little white 'picca- 
 ninnies;' but both Jessie and I had many pets 
 among the black babies belonging to the servants. 
 They were dear little creatures, so glossy and 
 funny, always fat and good-humoured ; and there 
 was no doubt about their being clean, for the 
 simple reason that they were always splashing and 
 dashing about in the river, which ran a couple of 
 hundred yards from the door. The ' Eio del Cobra, 
 
256 STORIES ABOUT f'vii 
 
 or Snake river, so-called because it turns and winds 
 like a snake, took a lovely bend just above our 
 house ; and, if I shut my eyes, I can see, as in a 
 magic glass, the whole picture. I see the black 
 grooms clad in white suits with bare feet and head 
 leading the horses down to water. Some have 
 already reached the stream, and the horses are 
 standing up to their girths in the cool water look- 
 ing the picture of enjoyment. A little higher up 
 are some large flat stones, and on these half-a 
 dozen stout buxom negresses are banging away and 
 beating our clothes, singing, laughing, and chatter- 
 ing the while. These are our housemaids, and every 
 day, after they have washed out the whole house 
 with the juice of the Seville orange and water, they 
 collect whatever clothes or house-linen has been 
 used the day before and march off to this river, 
 where they remain till sunset, engaged in destroying 
 the things, as Mamma used to say ; then, whilst we 
 are out driving in the evening, they wash the whole 
 house out again. So you see we were very clean ; 
 
vn] A CRUEL NEGRESS. 257 
 
 had we scrubbed and washed less incessantly, the 
 insects would have eaten us all up, for the least 
 scrap of dust or dirt served as a nursery to scor- 
 pions, ants, fleas, and all sorts of horrid things. 
 But to come back to my picture of the stream. On 
 its shore is a perfect flight of black children pad- 
 dling about in the water, and enjoying them- 
 selves exactly in duck-fashion; they dare not ven- 
 ture far beyond the shining shallows, for a little 
 way out the noble river sweeps by with a strong 
 resistless current. Its banks are fringed down to 
 the water's edge with beautiful trees, whose exquisite 
 green foliage shows that their roots are ever drink- 
 ing from this fountain of their life ; and in their 
 branches a thousand birds find homes, and add by 
 their whistling and chirruping to all the joyous 
 sounds on the river's bank this bright tropical day. 
 
 Between our house and the ' Cobra,' however, lies 
 what is called a ' grass-piece,' or paddock, of the tall 
 Guinea grass, which you will find mentioned else- 
 where, and which brings me to my story. In this 
 2 L 
 
•258 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 field were several fine trees, under whose shade the 
 horses loved to stand when they were turned out to 
 graze. It was a very common thing for goats to get 
 through its strong prickly fence, and eat up the 
 horses' grass, much to our coachman's wrath and in- 
 dignation ; so Jessie and I were not at all surprised 
 to hear one night what we thought was the bleating 
 of a kid in the enclosure. At breakfast next morning 
 we spoke of this, and soon afterwards Papa sent one 
 of the men-servants to drive the supposed kid out. 
 'Duke' (short for Marmaduke) returned to say he 
 could not find any trace of a kid, nor was there a 
 gap in the fence by which one could have got in ; 
 but as Jessie and I had been kept awake almost 
 the whole night by the sounds, we knew we could not 
 have dreamt them. I must explain to you that there 
 was no other bedroom at that side of the house, 
 and our morning rooms were far away, so we had no 
 chance of hearing the noise in the daytime. To- 
 wards the afternoon we remembered our fancied 
 enemy, and begged Papa to send some one else to 
 see about it ; but, after listening some time at thp 
 
vn] A CRUEL NEGRESS. 259 
 
 gate of the paddock, lie said, c Oh! it has got out now, 
 I think, for there is not a sound, and the men trample 
 the grass down so much, that I don't like their going 
 in more than is necessary.' We were obliged to 
 confess that he was right next morning, for the 
 silence of the tropical night, never very profound, 
 had been deeper than usual. During the course of 
 the nest day, whilst we were working away very hard 
 at our music and drawing, in the pretty shaded room 
 which Jessie and I called our c den,' Mamma came in 
 looking rather pale and agitated. Before we could 
 ask what was the matter, she said, c Do you remember 
 that noise in the grass-piece ? It was not a kid at all, 
 but a child's voice which you heard. Oh, the poor 
 little creature ! to have suffered such torture so near 
 us ; ' and then Mamma did what many of your 
 mammas would be very likely to do under the same 
 excitement, she sat down on a chair and began to 
 sob and cry as if her heart was breaking ; and Jessie 
 and I were nearly as bad when we heard what had 
 happened. 
 
260 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 A little way from us lived a negress of the most vio- 
 lent temper. She was respectably married and very 
 well off; but neither her husband nor her children 
 had much comfort, owing to her constant fits of 
 passion. Mamma knew her quite well, and had often 
 tried to teach her how wrong it was to give way to 
 these furies. Whilst the lecture lasted, ' Clara ' would 
 appear quite penitent, and promise the sweet gentle 
 ' missis/ whom everybody loved, that she would try 
 to restrain herself ; but she soon forgot or broke her 
 word. On this occasion some ' new sugar ' was 
 wanted, and Clara sent her youngest child to fetch 
 some, giving it a ' quattie,' or small silver coin worth 
 three-halfpence, to pay for it. Poor Emmy toddled 
 off with her can and her quattie, and performed her 
 errand quite nicely ; but unfortunately the can had 
 no lid, and the sight as well as the smell of new 
 sugar proved too much for her little principles. I 
 wonder how many of us, big or little, would have 
 resisted such a temptation ? I should not like to say 
 too much about my own honesty under similar cir- 
 
tii] A CRUEL NEGRESS. 261 
 
 cumstances, for I think sugar in this stage is the 
 most delicious thing in the whole world, so we must 
 be very indulgent in our judgment on poor little 
 two-years-old Emmy. As she trotted down the shady 
 lane which led to the village by the river-side, she 
 dipped first one small chubby black finger into the 
 liquid sugar and sucked it, and then another, and so 
 on till, by the time home was reached, the can was 
 more than half empty, and Emmy's smeared face 
 and hands told their own tale of the fate of the 
 sugar. The child was too young to understand 
 threats or scoldings, so Clara's fury had no means of 
 venting itself in its usual storm of reproaches. She 
 was in one of her most wicked and reckless moods 
 that day, and she led off the wretched baby (for she 
 was not much more), muttering something about 
 teaching her not to be a ' tief.' By and bye she 
 returned without Emmy, but neither her husband 
 nor the neighbours dared to question her. They 
 supposed that she had gone with the child to her 
 mother's cottage and left it there, which had been her 
 
262 STORIES ABOUT [vn 
 
 custom if she wanted to get rid of it for a day 01 
 two. But what do you think this dreadful woman 
 had done ? She had taken her child into our grass- 
 piece for two reasons : first, she had observed a huge 
 ants' nest at the foot of one of the trees; and, 
 secondly, she knew that the grass was in a certain 
 stage of its growth when it destroys it to be touched; 
 so the gates are fastened up, and the long blades of 
 grass left alone to grow six feet high ! 
 
 On her way to the tree she picked up a rusty 
 reaping-hook, used by the grass-cutters for mowing 
 the grass, and also a piece of rope dropped by them. 
 We cannot tell whether she left home with this awful 
 plan in her head, or whether it was suggested to her 
 by the sight of the great black cone more than three 
 feet high, where a whole colony of ants had estab- 
 lished themselves for many a long day ; but when 
 Clara reached this spot, she used the reaping-hook to 
 hack out a large hole in the middle of the nest, and 
 into this she deliberately put poor unfortunate 
 Emmy, throwing her one little striped blue and 
 
vifl A CRUEL NEGRESS. 263 
 
 white garment down by the side of the tree, where it 
 was afterwards found, and then she fastened the child 
 securely into its frightful prison by tying the rope 
 around its body and passing it also round the tree. 
 It is supposed that the infuriated ants attacked the 
 child instantly, and that their sharp stings over- 
 came her fear and dread of her mother so much, 
 that she probably screamed, and Clara may have 
 thouo-ht her victim's cries would be heard, for she 
 made a gag of leaves, and securely stuffed Emmy's 
 little mouth with them. She then went away, to 
 lead her usual idle, easy life, leaving the miserable 
 child to what she must have known would be a 
 certain, though slow and agonising, death. The 
 sounds Jessie and I heard were Emmy's stifled wails. 
 Oh, the poor little creature ! I cannot bear to think 
 of what she must have endured, although so many 
 years have passed since then ; but I have a vivid 
 recollection of the pain which I have often felt from 
 one nip given by the strong pincers a large black 
 ant carries in front of him. Fancy being devoured 
 
264 . STORIES ABOUT Tvn 
 
 -frg ; &-JS — 
 
 by thousands of such, cruel bites ! and yet that was > 
 Emmy's fate, the punishment for a babyish error, v"' 
 Her little skeleton was not found for two or three s 
 days as you know ; the man who went to look 
 for the reaping-hook he had lost made this awful 
 discovery ; every scrap of flesh had been eaten off 
 the chiid's bones ; and if they had been bleaching 
 there for a century, they could not have been cleaner 
 or whiter. Clara did not attempt to deny what 
 she had done ; perhaps she had the sense to know 
 any such denial would have been useless. She had 
 been seen to enter the grass-piece leading the 
 sobbing baby, and its poor little shirt lying at the 
 foot of the tree, with the smears of the sugar still 
 on it, would have risen up in witness against the 
 savage mother. Her trial was a short one, and I 
 can hardly describe to you the state of excitement 
 everyone was in whilst it lasted. She was hung 
 early one morning, and I think I may safely say 
 that no criminal in the world was ever greeted on 
 the scaffold with such yells of execration. The 
 , Q& 
 
vii] A CRUEL NEGRESS. 265 
 
 whole population of the town, and of all the sur- 
 rounding country assembled in the great open space 
 where the gallows-tree was planted ; and I am told 
 that there was but one feeling expressed by every 
 black or coloured person present, that no punish- 
 ment was too heavy for such deliberate cruelty. 
 Clara met her death quite bravely, and ne\er ex- 
 pressed the least sorrow for her crime. The same 
 spirit of sullen defiance, which she had so often in- 
 dulged in during happier times, stood her instead 
 of resignation or courage at this terrible moment. 
 Her wickedness was the more remarkable, as the 
 negro women make the most affectionate and 
 devoted nurses, both to children and sick people. 
 They are very clever in this capacity, and as kind- 
 hearted as clever ; so it is no wonder that every 
 negress in the island cried out in horror and in- 
 dionation against Clara. 
 
 
 2 M 
 
266 STORIES ABOUT Tvin 
 
 THE GRAVE BY THE RAKAIA. 
 
 I am afraid this will not be a very merry story ; but 
 I find that children sometimes like to hear a sad 
 tale, and they will certainly learn as they grow 
 older, that life is not all fun and laughter. It is full 
 of stories as sad and as true as this ; but the bravest 
 men have often the tenderest hearts, and so, per- 
 haps, the boldest and gayest of my little friends 
 may be touched by a tale of suffering and death. 
 
 One lovely spring morning in New Zealand I 
 went out for a ride with my husband : he wanted 
 to look at what is called there an 6 out-station,' that 
 is, a hut far away from the homestead, and from 
 all the bustle and life which surrounds the wool- 
 
vm] THE GRAVE BY THE RAKAIA. 2G7 
 
 sheds, sheep-yards, and accessories of a prosperous 
 settlers new home in that new world. We left 
 behind ns the paddocks of English grass and clover, 
 the patches of oats for the horses, my own little pet 
 acre of wheat, grown expressly for my numerous 
 fowls and pigeons, the garden sloping down to the 
 creek, the young plantations whose growth we 
 watched so anxiously, and whose enemy, the strong 
 north-west wind, was on this balmy morning slum- 
 bering peacefully in his cave far away among the 
 mountains. Going out for a ride in England is a 
 very different affair from a New Zealand excursion. 
 Here, you have only to coax papa to give the order 
 to the groom, and then it is all settled ; you mount 
 quietly and set off (quietly also, I hope, though I 
 rather doubt it). There, the first thing necessary was 
 to catch the horses. Sometimes they were out on the 
 run, and it took a man with a great stockwhip a long 
 time to get them in : then they had to be brushed 
 and cleaned, and at last the saddles were put on, 
 and we started. I had the usual bag fastened to 
 
268 STORIES ABOUT [vm 
 
 the pommel of my saddle, with a new book, the last 
 English papers, and some numbers of ' Grood Words,' 
 or the 6 Leisure Hour,' or the ' Sunday at Home,' 
 for the poor lonely man whom we were going to see. 
 The moment we appeared in the verandah, all the 
 dogs set up a loud barking and jumping, each want- 
 ing to accompany their master, but only steady old 
 Hector was allowed to come. Garry, and Queen, and 
 Sharp, all pull at the chains which fasten them to 
 their kennels, and howl dismally. Nettle, my little 
 terrier, comes out in the verandah, stretching him- 
 self with a self-satisfied air, as much as to say, c I 
 know i" may come ;' but I can tell, by the coaxing 
 expression of his brown eyes, that he has secret mis- 
 givings, and his worst fears are soon realised by my 
 carrying him off to the cook to be taken care of and 
 consoled during my absence. Then, as soon as the 
 question about the dogs is settled, I have to make 
 it known to the fowls and ducks, which surround me 
 instantly, that I have no intention of giving them 
 a second breakfast ; and I have to elude the affec- 
 
vra] THE GRAVE BY THE BAKAIA. 269 
 
 tionate caresses of the pet calves, who leave their 
 favourite amusement of trying to pull the clothes 
 off the line, to come and playfully butt at me. 
 6 Julia ' is getting too big for these games, and she 
 tried to kill me once by running, with her head 
 down, between my horses forelegs, just as I was 
 mounting, causing it to rear, and throw me oS 
 again. 
 
 However, we surmounted all these little difficul- 
 ties on this particular morning, and set off; the 
 horses caracolling with sheer high spirits as we 
 walked them down the paddock ; Hector frisking 
 about more like a puppy than an elderly colley 
 of great experience ; and we ourselves saying every 
 now and then, 'Is not this delicious.' There is 
 such a sense of freedom in the open country, such 
 freshness and brightness in the feeling of the air ; 
 it is warm without being oppressive, cool without a 
 chill. Before we had gone 300 yards from the 
 house there was a wide creek to be jumped, and 
 our horses were so clever that they always knew 
 
270 STORIES ABOUT [vm 
 
 exactly where the banks were sound, and would 
 not cross anywhere except at the place they 
 thought best. As we cantered up the sunny flat 
 which stretched behind the house, and wound among 
 the low downs for miles, we startled hundreds of 
 sheep and lambs who were feeding on the young 
 undergrowth of blue grass which lay sheltered be- 
 neath the tall waving tussocks. The lambs were 
 so wild and so strong, that, the moment they saw 
 or heard us, the whole flock would make for the 
 nearest hill ; and I have often watched a tiny new- 
 born lamb keeping up with its mother, jumping 
 from rock to rock like a goat. I delighted to see 
 them at play; if we rode very softly round a cor- 
 ner, we sometimes came upon a large semicircle 
 of old sheep standing gravely together, just like 
 mammas at a party, watching their children amusing 
 themselves, and in the open space there were perhaps 
 several hundred white lambs, jumping, frisking, 
 and bounding about ; butting at each other, running 
 round and round, chasing one another. Our ap- 
 
viii j THE GRAVE BY THE BAKAIA. 271 
 
 pearance caused a startled silence for half a moment, 
 and then the whole flock would he off' like a flash 
 of lightning, amid much calling and answering 
 from young and old, whilst Hector gazed in his 
 master's face, asking with speaking eyes, if he 
 should go and bring them all back ? 
 
 We cantered gaily along till we came to the foot 
 of a range of hills ; followed the sheep track which 
 led us across a low saddle, through another valley, 
 across a higher range ; and then we dropped down 
 to the most lonely place I ever saw in my life. 
 The downs, which we had hitherto crossed, were 
 succeeded by gaunt bare hills stretching away as 
 far as the eye could reach, rising higher and 
 higher till the snowy range stood out sharp 
 and clear from the glorious blue sky. "We 
 were on the borders of the ' back country,' a vague 
 term used to denote the inferior land behind that 
 which has already been taken up for sheep-runs. 
 There were several thousand sheep probably among 
 these desolate hills, but they had gone up to the 
 
272 STORIES ABOUT [via 
 
 higher ranges for their summer pasture, and the 
 stillness was oppressive. Not a tree broke the 
 monotony of the yellow tussocks, or brown and 
 gray rocks, not a twitter or chirrup could be 
 heard, only the startled cry of a woodhen, or ' weka,' 
 gliding swiftly from its cover in a flax bush. 
 
 "We had ridden for a few miles along; the hio-h bank 
 of the Eakaia, a river, or rather a roaring torrent, 
 gushing from the snowy mountains ; our path for 
 sometime had followed a narrow strip of flat land 
 which separated the foot of the hills from the 
 stream, when I noticed a little enclosure, close 
 under a terraced bank about eight feet high. 
 A few minutes' canter brought us to it, and then 
 I saw it was a wooden fence surrounding a grave. 
 On the opposite bank of the river was a settlement, 
 or 'home-station,' and we could hear the dogs 
 barking, and the men's voices ; but these sounds only 
 made the solitude and loneliness of the spot where 
 we stood more oppressive. The bright sunshine did 
 not even touch it. for the shadow of a great 
 
vm] THE GRAVE BY THE RAKAIA. 273 
 
 mountain fell across and made the air chill. In- 
 voluntarily whispering I asked, ' "Why did they bury 
 the poor fellow out here in this desolate spot, away 
 from everybody and everything,' and then F. told 
 me the tale I am going to tell you. 
 
 A few years ago, in what is now called < the early 
 days ' of the colony, a young surveyor came out to 
 try his fortune in the new country. He was very 
 much liked, knew his profession thoroughly, and got 
 on as well as possible. He had just time to write 
 home to the loving friends left behind, to tell them 
 how happy he was, and how bright his prospects 
 seemed in this fresh young world, when he received 
 an order from the Government to start on a lon^r 
 journey to survey this very ' back country.' He was 
 to be well paid for his work, and at each of the 
 distant stations where he intended to put up, he was 
 sure of the most cordial welcome. F. saw him as he 
 was starting on this journey, whose end was here, and 
 he described him as being full of health ana spirits. 
 
 In those days any thing like an enclosure was 
 2 N 
 
274 STORIES ABOUT [nn 
 
 VJcry rare, even near a house, and throughout his 
 expedition the young man had many difficulties to 
 contend with. When he reached a station the only 
 way of securing the horse he rode and the pack- 
 horse which carried the tin case with his papers, 
 his saddle-bags, &c, was to tether them by a long 
 rope, which was fastened to a flax bush or Ti-ti 
 r_alm. Now the New Zealand horses are very 
 clever and very cunning; they soon know when 
 they have a 6 new chum ' to deal with ; and these 
 two horses were the plague of the young surveyor's 
 life. "When he awoke in the morning his first 
 thought was whether they had escaped, and he 
 too often found that, in spite of his precautions 
 over night, the words with which his host gene- 
 rally greeted him were, ' Well, your horses are off.' 
 There was nothing for it but to track them, and 
 by availing himself of the experience of the older 
 hands around him, the truants were always recovered ; 
 but., though many an hour was wasted in these 
 pursuing?, the early winter days of June found him 
 
vm] THE GRAVE BY THE RAKAIA. 275 
 
 hurrying back to Christchurch with the materials 
 for his report all collected. 
 
 He had reached a station about ten miles from 
 this spot where we stood, and distant about seventy 
 miles from the town. From thence the horses once 
 more escaped; but a shepherd, belonging to the 
 homestead I have mentioned on the opposite bank of 
 the river, came with a message early the next morn- 
 ing, and said that he had seen two strange horses, 
 whose appearance he described, feeding quietly among 
 a 'mob' on their flat. It was a lovely, bright winter's 
 day, and the surveyor determined to walk over 
 the hills to this homestead, catch his horses, cross 
 the river, and sleep there that night, making his 
 final stage to Christchurch next day. His host pro- 
 mised to send his valise and papers down to town to 
 meet him, on a dray which was just starting by a 
 longer route, and the poor fellow set off full of health 
 and spirits, with a crust of bread and a flask of cold 
 tea in his pocket. He sent everything down by the 
 dray except a little notebook, took a flax-stick in his 
 
276 STORIES ABOUT [vjii 
 
 band, and with a cheery good-bye started fairly off, 
 whistling as he stepped out. His host's parting words 
 were an injunction to him not to dawdle on the way, 
 and a warning of how soon these bright short winter 
 days turn into a dark and often foggy afternoon. 
 That was the last glimpse which anyone had of 
 
 poor Charlie in life. The drayman took his 
 
 things down to town, deposited them at one of the 
 rude little wooden publichouses which in those days 
 were called hotels, and returned home. A week later 
 people began to ask each other, 'Have you heard 
 
 anything of Charlie ?' No one had seen him 
 
 since those friendly eyes had watched him round the 
 corner of the last turning, and then lost sight of him 
 for ever. Inquiries were made at the homestead 
 on the banks of the Eakaia, which resulted in 
 the discovery that he had never arrived there: 
 his horses were still feeding in the sheltered valley 
 where the shepherd had seen them. It took only 
 a short time to organise a regular search along 
 the track between the stations : this continued for 
 
viii] THE Gil AYE BY THE BAKAIA. 217 
 
 two days without even a sign being found to show 
 that any human being had ever trodden those 
 desolate hills. On the third morning-, just such a 
 bright, sparkling day as the one on which Charlie 
 
 set out, the dogs came whimpering and 
 
 whining back to their master's side. Colleys are 
 not of any use as sleuth hounds ; they are only 
 wise and learned about sheep ; but they showed the 
 instinctive uneasiness in the neighbourhood of a 
 sudden or violent death which all the nobler brutes 
 feel. Still there were many hours of patient search 
 before the men came upon what was not far from 
 them when first the dogs returned from their mad 
 gambols to walk soberly at their masters' heels. 
 
 There, below this little terrace, which he could 
 have jumped down without injury, was a weather- 
 stained, rain-sodden body in Charlie 's clothes. 
 
 It lay on its face, and underneath it, safe and dry, 
 was the little pocket-book : the arms were extended, 
 and the hands much cut and torn ; but what was 
 more shocking than all was to find that both the 
 
278 STORIES ABOUT [vm 
 
 legs were broken. Eough strong hands, whose touch 
 became gentle as a mother's through the magic of 
 pity, turned the poor stiffened figure over and tried 
 to close the wide-staring eyes gazing sightlessly up 
 into the bright heaven above. Some of the party 
 remained to watch, whilst others recrossed the river 
 to fetch picks and spades. The short afternoon was 
 hardly long enough to give time for a grave to be 
 dug, wide as well as deep, for those frozen arms 
 could not be bent, but, just as darkness closed in, 
 the sorrowful task was finished, and the mourners 
 returned slowly and sadly to light, and warmth, 
 and the sound of human voices, leaving him who had 
 specially delighted in all these things, lying in his 
 lonely grave. After the supper-tea, with which a 
 Xew Zealand day t up-country ' is closed, they drew 
 round the fire, having first packed up carefully his 
 watch, a lock of his hair, and a tuft of grass which 
 had been held tight in one clenched hand, to be 
 sent home to his relations. Before the little pocket 
 book was added to the collection it was examined, 
 
viii"! THE GRAVE BY THE RAKAIA. 279 
 
 and was found to contain the history of those sad 
 days. 
 
 The first entry, in trembling pencil strokes, was 
 dated the morning after the day on which he had 
 left the distant station ; it told briefly how the 
 accident had happened. He had lost his way and 
 wandered abont all day. He tried to keep within 
 sound of the waters of the Rakaia, as he knew his 
 destination lay on its opposite bank, and at last to 
 his great joy he saw the lights and heard the sounds 
 of a homestead. A more experienced traveller would 
 have ' camped ' under a flax bush and ' coo-ed,' or 
 waited till the moon rose, or in fact done anvtkinGT 
 but what poor Charlie did, which was to hurry on. 
 tired and foot-sore, through the pitchy darkness, 
 stumbling at every second step, till he walked over 
 the short but abrupt descent beneath which his 
 poor body was found. He wrote at first with hope; 
 he said he had waited for a gleam of light to see 
 where he was, for he found he could not move eithei 
 of his legs ; he felt them snap like sticks, he wrote ; 
 
2S0 STOBI.ES ABOUT 
 
 but lie meant to try and drag himself up the little 
 terrace so as to be more easily seen, and he must 
 have made the attempt by the state of his hands and 
 clothes. There was only one more intelligible and 
 connected entry dated the next day. He had spent 
 all the intervening hours in trying to better his 
 position, and to attract the attention of those on the 
 other side of the river. He trusted to a shepherd 
 passing on his way to a boundary ; alas I the river 
 was sufficient boundary for miles along its banks, and 
 no shepherd was likely to come that way. He wrote 
 that he had shrieked and screamed for help till his 
 voice was quite gone ; that the anguish he endured 
 made him pray for a speedy death ; and that, before the 
 night, whose piercing cold he felt sure he could not 
 again survive, he intended to exert all his remaining 
 strength to turn over on his face, partly to keep the 
 book dry in his breast, partly to prevent the hawks 
 from tearing out his eyes. Then came a few words 
 saying, he had suffered much from thirst, an adieu 
 to his mother more pathetic in its brief good night 
 
yiii] THE LOST SHEPHERD. 281 
 
 than pages of leave-taking, a prayer for a speedy end 
 to his life of torture, and his initials scrawled over 
 the page. Soon after tracing these he must have 
 died. 
 
 I heard of one more such accident whilst I was in 
 Xew Zealand, and that was to a poor shepherd who 
 went to give what is called a < drafting notice ' to the 
 next run. You are obliged to send and tell ail your 
 neighbours when you muster your sheep, at shearing 
 and other times, so that any which may have strayed 
 on to your feeding grounds may be claimed by their 
 rightful owners. Each sheep has a device stamped 
 on it every year after it has been shorn ; this is called 
 the ' brand ;' besides which a little mark is put on 
 each ear, so you can easily tell your own sheep at a 
 glance ; indeed, I have heard of a celebrated colley, 
 who was supposed to know his master's brand, and 
 to be able to pick the sheep belonging to him out 
 of a mixed mob ! "Well, this shepherd, c Joe ' by 
 name, never came back ; but it happened that just 
 then there was a great rush to some wonderful Gold 
 2 o 
 
282 STORIES ABOUT [vm 
 
 fields near, and it was no uncommon thing for a 
 shepherd to go out in the morning, and, instead of 
 returning, send a message to say he had gone to the 
 diggings ; so, although no such message came from 
 Joe, his master never doubted but that he had 
 started to look for a fortune in the wintry torrent 
 of a New Zealand river. 
 
 Months afterwards a lad was eel-fishing in a creek 
 which ran between the two stations, and as he 
 strolled along its banks looking for a deep hole 
 wherein to cast his simple tackle — a few yards of 
 strong twine and a large hook, baited with a bit of 
 mutton — he came to a new jDlace where the banks 
 had been washed away by a recent heavy fresh, and 
 a splendid basin formed. Here he prepared to throw 
 in a line, fasten it to a flax bush, and then go on 
 to search for another favourable spot. The water 
 was clear, and on the shining shingle which paved 
 the little pool he saw some white bones. At first he 
 thought of a missing bullock of his father's, and lay- 
 ing down at the edge of the stream, with a flax stick 
 
vin] THE LOST SHEPHERD. 283 
 
 in his hand, lie tried to drag or pnsh the bones into 
 a shallow place where he conld reach them, but to 
 his horror, the weight of his own body leaning on an 
 overhanging bush seemed to dislodge some more 
 bones, which had caught in its thick branches, and 
 first a skeleton hand, and then a foot, dropped into 
 the bright sparkling water. The boy told me the 
 story himself, and described very simply and forcibly 
 how he had felt as if the whole thing was a ghastly 
 dream ; for in New Zealand one is seldom brought 
 face to face with anything worse than a lamb which 
 has met with an untimely fate ; and to this boy, who 
 had left England as a child, and lived a free pastoral 
 life, almost removed from the knowledge of death, 
 these grim bones were very dreadful. 
 
 He stood in perplexity wondering if he could find 
 his way back again exactly to the same spot, when 
 his eye was caught by a fluttering rag on a thorny 
 shrub near. He disentangled it and examined it care- 
 fully, and then there flashed upon his mind, the dis- 
 tinct recollection of Joe the shepherd having worn 
 
234 STORIES ABOUT [vm 
 
 a flannel shirt of this peculiar kind, for he well re- 
 membered having 'chaffed 'him about its staring 
 pattern of brown foxes' heads on a scarlet ground. 
 He quickly returned for help to the home station, ' 
 and that evening poor Joe's remains were collected 
 in an empty flour sack, and buried by the side of 
 the stream. His skull, easily recognised by a pecu- 
 liar enormous tooth, of which he was very proud as 
 being a sort of lusus naturce, was higher up on 
 the steep hill-side, and his tobacco-pouch and pipe 
 were found a little way off. It was then remem- 
 bered that the evening he left for home a dense 
 and sudden fog had come on, and, as he was found 
 far from the right track, he must have lost his way, 
 made a false step in the dark, and probably broken 
 his neck. He must at any rate have so injured 
 himself by a fall, as to be incapable of moving, 
 for otherwise there was no reason why he should 
 not have waited till morning and then retraced 
 his steps. 
 
 This story was told to me on my asking why a 
 
vm] THE LOST SHEPHERD. 285 
 
 certain hill, which I very often passed in my rides, 
 was called * Golgotha.' The shepherds had given it 
 that name ever since the discovery of poor Joe' 8 
 skull on its pathless and slippery sides. 
 
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