HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY BEQUEST OF WINWARD PRESCOTT COPYRIGHT, 1870 AND 1898, BY W. D. HOWELLS BRET HARTE COPYRIGHT, 1874, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. Τ RAB AND HIS FRIENDS. BY JOHN BROWN, M. D. JOUR-AND-THIRTY years ago, Bob Ainslie and I were coming up Infirmary Street, from the High School, our heads together, and our arms intertwisted as only lovers and boys know how or why. When we got to the top of the street, and turned north, we espied a crowd at the Tron Church. "A dogfight!" shouted Bob, and was off; and so was I, both of us all but praying that it might not be over before we got up! And is not this boy-nature? and human nature too? and don't we all wish a house on fire not to be out before we see it? Dogs like fighting; old Isaac says they "delight" in it, and for the best of all reasons; and boys are not cruel because they like to see the fight. They see three of the great cardinal virtues of dog or courage, endurance, and skill-in intense action. This is very different from a love of making dogs fight, and enjoying, and aggravating, and making gain by their pluck. A boy, be he never so fond himself of fighting, if he be a good boy, hates and despises all this, but he would have run off with Bob and me fast enough; it man |