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follow us when he had come to the end of his task.
But evening came, and ao. Dandy. I can see the
table in the window with lamp upon it, and the great
yellow cockle shells hopping and clattering about in
the glass pans of salt water, each on their red coral

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EVERSLEY RECTORY.

leg like a scarlet capsicum. But even cockles, rare
and strange as they were, could not console us, and
we were very miserable.

Presently, late in the evening, came a knock at the
door, and when it was opened there stood a coast-
guard man in his sailor dress, and in his arms, limp
and still, lay Dandy. Oh the misery of that sight!
how we cried! He seemed if not dead, at least
dying; unable to move, yet still smiling with his
loving, faithful eyes at his beloved master. He had
fallen over a cliff while hunting his rabbits or trying
to find us, and the good coastguard, on his rounds
to keep the coast safe from smugglers, had found
him lying apparently dead, and knowing us and our
love for the dog, had carried him all the way to
Livermead in his arms.

But Dandy was not to die yet.~ He was nursed
and tended like a sick child. After some while he
began to mend; and by the time we left Torquay
and drove across Dartmore to Bideford, on the north
coast of Devon, Dandy was as well as ever, and dug
out scores of rabbits on Northam Burrows, among
the rest-harrow and lady-fingers, while the Atlantic
waves roared upon the pebble-ridge hard by; and
made himself the terror of all evil doers, whether

OUR EVERSLEY DOGS—DANDY, SWEEP, VICTOR.

dogs or men, at Bideford; and was pursued wher.
ever he went by an excited but respectful crowd of
little boys, who screamed to each other in shrill,
west-county voices, to “come and look at the young
lion.”

Time went by.. We were once more in our dear
home at Eversley, and Dandy rejoiced like us to settle
down after his travels. It was a happy life that we
led. Above the Rectory, between the green fields
and the brown moors, lies the Mount, a little bit of
primeval forest untouched by the hand of man since
the Norman Conquest, and here most of our young
days were spent. There was a huge hollow oak,
into whose branches we climbed by a few rough
steps; and perched aloft in the green shade we
learnt our lessons and played unspeakable games,
in which the whole Mount became: peopled with
imaginary friends and enemies, and we had won-
derful adventures and escapes, slew monsters, and
visited the fairies, within the limit of one acre of
wood. Here we.gathered the blue wild hyacinth, or
the starry wood anemone ; we crept softly under the
holly trees and watched the quivering brown throat
of the nightingale, as, with head aloft, he poured
forth a torrent of tremulous song ; we listened to the
little wood-wren in the tree-top, and in the forks of
the gorse-stems we found the tiny dormice clewed
up in their nests. And this was Dandy’s kingdom.
Every rabbit-burrow he knew by heart; and deer
was his joy when, in the holidays, our man George
would come with gun and spade and ferrets for a
day’s rabbiting with my brothers. In an incredibly
short time he would be nearly buried in a rabbit
hole, digging the sand away with his strong fore-
paws, and sending it flying behind him with his hind
feet.

But though Dandy loved us and loved hunting, he
loved his master best of all. Never was he so happy
as when he was trotting after my father in his long
walks over the parish to see the sick and-poor. Over
the wide desolate moors he followed his: footsteps,
along the narrow tracks in the heather.. He knew
every cottage, and would lie motionless for any
length of time by some sick woman’s bedside, while
his master read and prayed with her. Or on the days
my father had a “Cottage Lecture,” a little service
for some old folks who were too feeble to get to
church, Dandy was sure to be there, never moving,
or disturbing even the cat by the turf fire while the
service went on. He sometimes came to church