MR. ELIHU BURRITT gives in his book called "A Walk from London to
Land's End and Back," the touching illustration of the affection of a
dog in Truro: "I was sitting at the breakfast table of a friend, who
was a druggist, when he was called into the shop by a neighbor, who had
come for medical aid in a very remarkable and affecting case.
"He described it briefly and simply, but it would fill a volume of
beautiful meaning.
"His family dog had made the acquaintance of a neighbor's child on the
other side of the street.
"While lying on the door-stone, he had noticed this little thing
sometimes at the chamber window, and sometimes on the pavement, in a
little carriage.
"During one of his walks on that side of the street, he met the baby,
and looked over the rim of the carriage, as a loving dog can look,
straight into a pair of baby eyes, and said, 'Good morning!' as well as
he could.
"Little by little, day by day and week by week, this companionship went
on growing with the growth and strengthening with the strength of the
little one. The dog, doubtless because his master had no young child of
his own, came at last to transfer frequently his watch and ward to the
door-stone on the other side of the street, and to follow as a guard of
honor to the baby's carriage on its daily airings. He gave himself up
to all the peltings, and little rude rompings, and rough and tumblings
of those baby hands.
"One day, as the dog lay in watch by the door-stone, the child, peeping
out of the window above, lost its balance, and fell on the stone
pavement below. It was taken up quite dead! The red drops of the young
life had bespattered the feet and face of the dog as he sprang to the
rescue. His heart died out within him in one long, whining howl of
grief. From that moment he refused to eat. He refused to be comforted
by his master's voice and by his master's home. Day by day and night by
night he lay upon the spot where the child fell.
"This was the neighbor's errand. He told it in a few simple words.
He had come to my friend, the druggist, for a prescription for his
dog--something to bring back his appetite."
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE FALLS OF GIESSBACH.--INTERLAKEN.]
_Volume 13, Number 39._ Copyright, 1886, by D. LOTHROP & CO.
_July 31, 1886._