"His locked and lettered braw brass collar
Showed him the gentleman and scholar."
"You promised," said my little companion the very next evening, "to
resume the thread of Nero's narrative."
"Very prettily put, birdie," I said; "resume the thread of Nero's
narrative. Did I actually make use of those words? Very well, I will,
though I fear you will think the story a little dull, and probably the
story-teller somewhat prosy.
"Do you know, then, Ida, that I am quite convinced that Providence gave
mankind the dog to be a real companion to him, and I believe that this
is the reason why a dog is so very, very faithful, so long-suffering
under trial, so patient when in pain, and so altogether good and kind.
When I look at poor old Nero, as he lies beside you there, half asleep,
yet listening to every word we say, my thoughts revert to many a bygone
scene in which he and I were the principal actors. And many a time,
Ida, when in grief and sorrow, I have felt, rightly or wrongly, that I
had not a friend in the world but himself.
"Well, dear, I had learned to love Nero, and love him well, when I
received an appointment to join the flagship at Sheerness. The fact is
I had been a whole year on sick leave, and Nero and I had been
travelling for the sake of my health. There was hardly a town in
England, Ireland, or Scotland we had not visited, and I always managed
it so that the dog should occupy the same room as myself. By the end of
a twelvemonth, Nero had got to be quite an old and quite a wise
traveller. His special duty was to see after the luggage--in other
words, Master Nero was baggage-master. When I left a hotel, my traps
were generally taken in a hand-cart or trolly. Close beside the man all
the way to the station walked my faithful friend, he himself in all
probability carrying a carpet bag, and looking the very quintessence of
seriousness and dignified importance. As soon as he saw the porter
place the luggage in the van, then back he would come to me, with many a
joyous bark and bound, quite regardless of the fact that he sometimes
ran against a passenger, and sent him sprawling on the platform.
"When we arrived at our journey's end, Nero used to be at the luggage
van before me. And here is something worth recording: as we usually
came out at a door on the opposite side of the train to that at which we
had entered, I was apt for a moment or two to forget the position of the
luggage van. Nero never made a mistake, so I daresay his scent assisted
him. As soon as the luggage was put on the trolly, and the man started
with it, the dog went with him, but as the man often went a long way
ahead of me, Nero was naturally afraid of losing sight of me; therefore
if the porter attempted to turn a corner the dog invariably barked, not
angrily, but determinedly, till he stopped. As soon as I came up, then
the procession went on again, till we came to another corner, when the
man had to stop once more. I remember he pulled a man down, because he
would not stop, but he did not otherwise hurt him at all.
"In the train, he either travelled in the same carriage with myself, or
in cases where the guard objected to this, I travelled in the van with
the dog, so we were not separated.
"If a man is travelling much by train or by steamboat, he need never
feel lonely if he has as splendid a dog as the Champion Theodore Nero
with him; for the dog makes his master acquaintances.
"When Nero was with me, I could hardly stand for a moment at a street
corner or to look in at a shop window without attracting a small crowd.
I was never half an hour on the deck of a steamer without some one
coming up and saying--
"`Excuse me, sir, but what a noble-looking dog you have! What breed is
he? Pure Newfoundland, doubtless.'
"This would in all probability lead to conversation, and many an
acquaintance I have thus formed, which have ripened into friendships
that last till this day.
"Well, Ida, when I received my appointment to the flagship, my very
first thoughts were about my friend the dog, and with a sad feeling of
sinking at my heart, I asked myself the question--`Will Nero be
permitted to live on board?' To part with the dear fellow would have
been a grief I could not bear to contemplate.
"An answer to the question, however, could not be obtained until I
joined my ship, that was certain; so I started.
"It was in the gloaming of a blustering day in early spring that the
train in which we travelled, slowly, and after much unseemly delay,
rolled rattling into the little station at Sheerness, and after a
shoulder-to-shoulder struggle between half a dozen boatmen, who wished
to take me, bag and baggage, off somewhere, and the same number of
cabbies, who wished to carry me anywhere else, I was lucky enough to get
seated in a musty conveyance that smelt like the aroma of wet
collie-dogs and stale tobacco, with a slight suspicion of bad beer.
Against the windows of this rattletrap beat the cold rain, and the mud
flew from the wheels as from a wet swab. Lights were springing up here
and there in the street under the busy fingers of a lamp-lighter, who
might have been mistaken for a member of the monkey tribe, so nimbly did
he glide up and down his skeleton ladder, and hurry along at his task.
The wind, too, was doing all in its power to render his work abortive,
and the gas-lights burned blue under the blast.
"We were glad when we reached the hotel, but I was gladder still when,
on making some inquiries about the ship I was about to join, I was told
that the commander was extremely fond of dogs, and that he had two of
his own.
"I slept more soundly after that.
"Next day, leaving my friend carefully under lock and key in charge of
the worthy proprietor of the Fountain Hotel, I got into uniform, and
having hired a shore boat, went off to my ship to report myself. To my
joy I found Commander C--to be as kind and jovial a sailor as any one
could wish to see and talk to. I was not long before I broached the
subject nearest to my heart.
"`Objection to your dog on board?' he said, laughing. `Bring him, by
all means; he won't kill mine, though, I hope.'
"`That I'm sure he won't,' I replied, feeling as happy as if I had just
come into a fortune.
"I went on shore with a light heart, and hugged the dog.
"`We're not going to be parted, dear old boy,' I said. `You are going
on board with me to-morrow.'
"The evening before my heart was as gloomy as the weather; to-day the
sun shone, and my heart was as bright as the sky was blue. Nero and I
set out after luncheon to have a look at the town.
"Sheerness on two sides is bounded by the dockyard, which divides it
from the sea. Indeed, the dockyard occupies the most comfortable
corner, and seems to say to the town, `Stand aside; you're nobody.' The
principal thoroughfare of Sheerness has on one side of it the high,
bleak boundary wall, while on the other stands as ragged-looking a line
of houses as one could well imagine, putting one in mind of a regiment
of militia newly embodied and minus uniform. As you journey from the
station, everything reminds you that you are in a naval seaport of the
lowest class. Lazy watermen by the dozen loll about the pier-head with
their arms, to say nothing of their hands, buried deeply in their
breeches-pockets, while every male you meet is either soldier or sailor,
dockyard's man or solemn-looking policeman. Every shop that isn't a
beer-house, is either a general dealer's, where you can purchase
anything nautical, from a sail-needle to sea boots, or an eating house,
in the windows of which are temptingly exposed joints of suspiciously
red corned-beef, soapy-looking mutton and uninviting pork, and where you
are invited to partake of tea and shrimps for ninepence.
"So on the whole the town of Sheerness itself is by no means a very
inviting one, nor a very savoury one either.
"But away out beyond the dockyard and over the moat, and Sheerness
brightens up a little, and spreads out both to left and right, and you
find terraces with trim little gardens and green-painted palings, while
instead of the odour of tar and cheese and animal decay, you can breathe
the fresh, pure air from over the ocean, and see the green waves come
tumbling in and break in soft music on the snowy shingle.
"Here live the benedicts of the flagship. At half-past seven of a fine
summer morning you may see them, hurried and hungry, trotting along
towards the dockyard, looking as if another hour's sleep would not have
come amiss to them. But once they get on board their ships, how
magic-like will be the disappearance of the plump soles, the curried
lobster, the corned-beef, and the remains of last night's pigeon-pie,
while the messman can hardly help looking anxious, and the servants run
each other down in their hurry to supply the tea and toast!
"Of the country immediately around this town of Sheerness, the principal
features are open ditches, slimy and green, evolving an effluvium that
keeps the very bees at bay, encircling low flat fields and marshy moors,
affording subsistence only to crazy-looking sheep and water rats. The
people of Sheerness eat the sheep; I have not been advised as to their
eating the rats.
"But, and if you are young, and your muscles are well developed, and
your tendo Achillis wiry and strong, then when the summer is in its
prime and the sun is brightly shining, shall you leave the odoriferous
town and its aguish surroundings, and like `Jack of the bean-stalk,'
climb up into a comparative fairyland. At the top of the hill stands
the little village of Minster, its romantic old church and ivied tower
begirt with the graves of generations long since passed and gone, the
very tombstones of which are mouldering to dust. The view from here
well repays the labour of climbing the bean-stalk. But leave it behind
and journey seaward over the rolling tableland. Rural hamlets; pretty
villages; tree-lined lanes and clovery fields with grazing kine--you
shall scarcely be tired of such quiet and peaceful scenery when you
arrive at the edge of the clayey cliff, with the waves breaking among
the boulders on the beach far beneath you, and the sea spreading out
towards the horizon a vast plain of rippling green, crowded with ships
from every land and clime. Heigho! won't you be sorry to descend your
bean-stalk and re-enter Sheerness once again?
"I do not think, Ida, that ship dogs' lives are as a rule very happy
ones. They get far too little exercise and far too much to eat, so they
grow both fat and lazy. But in this particular flagship neither I nor
my friend Nero had very much to grumble about. The commander was as
good as he looked, and there was not an officer in the ship, nor a man
either, that had not a kind word for the dog.
"The great event of the day, as far as Nero and I were concerned, was
going on shore in the afternoon for a walk, and a dip in the sea when
the weather was warm. Whether the weather was warm or not, Nero always
had his bath, for the distance to the shore being hardly half a mile, no
sooner had the boat left the vessel's side than there were cries from
some of us officers of the vessel--
"`Hie over, you dogs, hie over, boys.'
"The first to spring into the sea would be Nero, next went his friend
Sambo, and afterwards doggie Daidles. The three black heads in the
water put one in mind of seals. Although the retrievers managed to keep
well up for some time, gradually the Newfoundland forged ahead, and he
was in long before the others, and standing very anxiously gazing
seawards to notice how Sambo was getting on; for the currents run
fearfully strong there. Daidles always got in second. Of Daidles Nero
took not the slightest notice; even had he been drowning he would have
made no attempt to save him; but no sooner did Sambo approach the stone
steps than with a cry of fond anxiety, the noble Newfoundland used to
rush downwards, seize Sambo gently by the neck, and help him out.
"I was coming from the shore one day, when Sambo fell from a port into
the sea. Nero at once leapt into the water, and swimming up to his
friend, attempted to seize him. The conversation between them seemed to
be something like the following--
"_Nero_: `You're drowning, aren't you? Let me hold you up.'
"_Sambo_: `Nonsense, Nero, let go my neck; I could keep afloat as long
as yourself.'
"_Nero_: `Very well, here goes then; but I _must_ pick something up.'
"So saying, Nero swam after a piece of newspaper, seized that, and swam
to the ladder with it; some of the men lent him a helping hand, and up
he went.
"The flagship was a tall old line of battle ship; on the starboard side
was a broad ladder, on the port merely a ladder of ropes. On stormy
days, with a heavy sea on, the starboard ladder probably could not be
used, and so the dog had to be lowered into the boat and hoisted up
therefrom with a long rope. To make matters more simple and easy for
him, one of the men made the dog a broad belt of canvas. To this corset
the end of the rope was attached, and away went Nero up or down as the
case happened to be.
"Although as gentle by nature as a lamb, Nero would never stand much
impudence from another dog without resenting it. When passing through
the dockyard one day, we met an immense Saint Bernard, who strutted up
to Nero, and at once addressed him in what appeared to me the following
strain--
"`Hullo! Got on shore, have you? I daresay you think yourself a pretty
fellow now? But you're not a bit bigger than I am, and not so handsome.
I've a good mind to bite you. Yah! you're only a surgeon's dog, and my
master is captain of the dockyard. Yah!'
"`Don't growl at me,' replied Nero; `my master is every bit as good as
yours, and a vast deal better, _so_ don't raise your hair, else I may
lose my temper.'
"`Yah! yah!' growled the Saint Bernard.
"`Come on, Nero,' I cried; `don't get angry, old boy.'
"`Half a minute, master,' replied Nero; `here is a gentleman that wants
to be brought to his bearings.'
"Next moment those two dogs were at it. It was an ugly fight, and some
blood was spilled on both sides, but at last Nero was triumphant. He
hauled the Saint Bernard under a gun carriage and punished him severely,
I being thus powerless to do anything.
"Then Nero came out and shook himself, while the other dog lay beaten
and cowed.
"`I don't think,' said Nero to me, `that he will boast about his master
again in a hurry.'
"Generosity is a part of the Newfoundland dog's nature. At my father's
village in the far north, called Inverurie, there used to be a large
black half-bred dog, that until Nero made an appearance lorded it over
all the other dogs in the town. This animal was a bully, and therefore
a coward. He had killed more than one dog.
"The very first day that he saw Nero he must needs rush out and attack
him. He found himself on his back on the pavement in a few moments.
Then came the curious part of the intercourse. Instead of worrying him,
Nero simply held him down, and lay quietly on top of him for more than
two minutes, during which time he appeared to reason with the cur, who
was completely cowed.
"`I'll let you up presently,' Nero said; `but you must promise not to
attempt to attack me again.'
"`I promise,' said the other dog.
"Then, much to the amusement of the little crowd that had collected,
Nero very slowly raised himself and walked away. Behold! no sooner had
he turned his back than his prostrate foe sprang up and bit him
viciously in the leg.
"It was no wonder Nero now lost his temper, or that he shook that black
dog as a servant-maid shakes a hearthrug.
"_I_ tried to intervene to save the poor mongrel, but was kept back by
the mob.
"`Let him have it, sir,' cried one man; `he killed S--'s dog.'
"`Yes, let him have it,' cried another; `he kills dogs and he kills
sheep as well.'
"To his honour be it said, I never saw Nero provoke a fight, but when
set upon by a cur he always punished his foe. In two instances he tried
to drown his antagonist. A dog at Sheerness attacked him on the beach
one day. Nero punished him well, but seeing me coming to the dog's
rescue, he dragged the dog into the sea and lay on him there. I had to
wade in and pull Master Nero off by the tail, else the other dog would
assuredly have been drowned. I am referring to a large red retriever,
lame in one leg, that belonged to the artillery. He had been
accidentally blown from a gun and set fire to. That was the cause of
his lameness.
"There was a large Newfoundland used to be on the _Great Eastern_, whose
name was `Sailor.' Before Nero's appearance at Sheerness, he was looked
upon as the finest specimen of that kind of dog ever seen. He had to
lower his flag to Nero, however.
"They met one morning on the beach at the oyster beds.
"`Hullo!' said Sailor, `you are the dog that everybody is making such a
fuss over. You're Nero, aren't you?'
"`My name is Theodore Nero,' said my friend, bristling up at the saucy
looks of the stranger.
"`And my name is Sailor, at your service,' said the other, `and I belong
to the largest ship in the world. And I don't think much of you. Yah!'
"`Good-morning,' said Nero.
"`Not so fast,' cried the other; `you've got to fight first, but I
daresay you're afraid. Eh! Yah!'
"`Am I?' said Nero. `We'll see who is afraid.'
"Next moment the oyster beach was a battle-field. But some sailors
coming along, we managed to pull the dogs asunder by the tails.
Whenever Sailor saw Nero after this he took to his heels and ran away.
But a good dog was Sailor for all that, and a very clever water-dog. He
used to jump from the top of the paddle-box of the great ship into the
sea--a height, I believe, of about seventy feet.
"Nero's prowess as a water-dog was well known in Sheerness, and
wonderful stories are told about him, even to this day; not all of which
are true, any more than the tales of the knights of old are. But some
of our marines managed to turn his swimming powers to good account, as
the following will testify.
"On days when it was impossible for me to get on shore, I used to send
my servant with the dog for a swim and a run. When near the dockyard
steps, a great log of wood used to be pitched out of the boat, and Nero
sent after it. Anything Nero fetched out of the water he considered his
own or his master's property, which it would be dangerous for any one to
meddle with. Well, as soon as he had landed with the log, Nero used to
march up the steps, the water flowing behind from his splendid coat, up
the steps and through the dockyard; the policemen only stood by
marvelling to see a dog carrying such an immense great log of wood. If
my servant carried a basket, that would be searched for contraband
goods, rum or tobacco.
"Then my servant would pass on, smiling in his own sleeve as the saying
is, for no one ever dreamed of searching the dog."
"Searching the dog!" said Ida, with wondering eyes.
"Yes, dear, the dog was a smuggler, though he did not know it. For that
log of wood was a hollow one, and stuffed with tobacco. I did not know
of this, of course."
"How wicked!" said Ida. "Why, Nero, you've been a regular pirate of the
boundless ocean."