OUR EVERSLEYV DOGS—DANDY, SWEEP, VICTOR.

himself, but there he behaved with his wonted dis-
cretion.

Once when my father was preaching at Northam,
near Bideford, we found on arriving at the church
door that Dandy had followed us, though he gener-
ally knew he was not to come out on Sunday morn-
ing.
him to come in and be quiet. But he knew it was a
strange church, and seemed uneasy lest all should
not go right with his master in such an unknown
.place. So when my father went up into the pulpit
for the sermon, Dandy followed him, and calmly
lying down on the top of the high old-fashioned
pulpit steps, looked round on the astonished congre-
gation as much as to say, “If you attempt to annoy
‘or hurt my master, I am here to defend him,” and
there he watched till the sermon was over.

Years came and went, and we children grew up,
and Dandy grew old — very old for a terrier of his
breed. At last, when he.was thirteen years old, he
could hardly do more than crawl off his mat in the
front hall to a sunny corner in the garden, though
still when we said to him, “ Ring your bell, Dandy,”
he would flap .his strong tail against the floor, and
smile in ourfaces. And then came the sad day when
in his 1ipe old age he peacefully died, and went away
to the happy hunting-grounds to which all good dogs
go. There was not a dry eye in our home that day,
and we all mourned for a true friend. Faithful and
loving was Dandy, self-denying and self-conirolled
to a degree that might shame most human beings.
And when he was buried on the lawn under the
great fir-trees where he had spent so many happy

_ days, his master engraved upon the little stone which
covers his grave:

“ FIDELI FIDELES.”
The faithful to the faithful.

Beiore Dandy died another dog came to our home
—an enormous black retriever whose name was
Sweep. His mother, who belonged to a neighbor of
ours, was celebrated for her light mouth. I have
- seen her master roll a new-laid egg down a grassy
slope, when she rushed after it, caught it while it was
yet rolling, and brought it uncracked to his feet,
This lightness of mouth our Sweep inherited; and it
was pretty to see him in the stable-yard catch a wee
snow-white kitten by the nape of its neck, and carry it
unhurt wherever we told him. Thekitten delighted in
the feat, and would come rubbing and purring against

It was too far to send him home, so we told

Eig

the great black dog to make him doit again, By and
by as the kitten grew into a cat, Sweep found she

~ was too heavy to take up by her neck without pinch-

ing her too hard with his teeth; so he used to take
her whole-head into his capacious mouth, and so
carry her about, much to the horror of any new-
comer, who thought of course he was going to bite
her head right off!

Sweep in his way was as faithful as Dandy; but it
was a curious way, and sometimes rather alarming.
He had been taught in the stable to guard anything
left in his charge against all comers, if one told him
to “mind it.” One day a foolish stable boy told
him to “ mind” my youngest brother’s hat, which he
had dropped on the ground. The child wanting his
hat, stooped to pick it up ; whereupon Sweep flew at
him and bit him, refusing to give up the hat until the
stable boy in terror at what he had been the cause of,
came to the rescue. Happily the bite proved a slight
matter. But every one was careful after that how
they told Sweep to mind their property.

He was a strange dog, and there were only ‘three
people in the world who might lay a finger on him;
my brother and I, and our man George. If we had
beaten him to death I believe he would have sub-
mitted with perfect good temper. But woe betide
any other rash mortal who raised so much as a straw
to chastise him. Our good neighbor and doctor
once was kind enough to come and see Sweep, who
in hunting had hurt his eye with a thorn. The dog

 

DANDY ALWAYS PREFERRED A BIG FOE.

was suffering greatly, and I brought him into the
kitchen, and sitting down close to the door got bis
head firmly between my knees, and coaxed and com-
forted him till the doctor appeared. He opened the
door beside me, advanced to his patient with sooth-
ing words, and then leaning forward, was about to