صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

to me." "Oh! oh!" said the man with a loud laugh, "you look like a queen's favorite, certainly; I see a lie will not choke you." On saying this he walked away with the dog; but the poor girl, cold, hungry, and fatigued as she was, followed him, though her limbs could hardly support her.

On arriving at the house, she begged the servant to let her see his mistress, that she might convince her that the dog was hers; but the man told her to be gone, and shutting the door in her face, left her in despair. Dorothy, weeping, then seated herself on a stone, and determined to wait till she could see some of the family.

At length she heard the sound of a carriage. The gates were opened, and the servants came running, and crying out, "Room! room ! for the Lord Chancellor's coach!" The family all came out to meet him, but they took no notice of poor Dorothy. Sir Thomas, however, on seeing her, rebuked them, saying, "Why don't you relieve that poor little creature? don't you see that she is starving of cold and hunger?" Encouraged by these kind words, Dorothy approached and said, "Indeed, my Lord, I am very cold and hungry; but I came to claim my dog, which one of your servants has taken from me."

"How! you saucy vagrant," said the proud Lady More, who had come out to receive her husband, "do you dare claim my dog before my face? Dorothy had not courage enough to answer Lady More; but said to Sir Thomas, "Indeed, my Lord, it is my dog, and he was stolen from me about three months ago." "Do you hear that, my lady?" said Sir Thomas, "you know that you have had the animal about that time." "Yes," replied her ladyship, "but you know he was given to me by Mr. Rich, one of the King's counsellors, who bought him of a man at his own door." "And who knows," said Sir Thomas, "where

that man got him?" "But," said Lady More, “she has no witness to prove that the dog ever belonged to her."

66

"Well," said Sir Thomas, "as I am Lord Chancellor, and first judge of the realm, it is my duty to see justice done; I will endeavour to decide the cause, and I think we can call a witness whose testimony will be decisive." On saying this, he told a servant to bring the dog. The dog being brought, Sir Thomas took him on his lap, saying, Now, my lady, you say this dog is yours, and you call him Sultan; this little girl says he is hers, and that his name is Constant; therefore I command you to place yourselves, one at each end of the room, and call him." They did so, and Lady More began by saying, "Sultan! Sultan ! come to your mistress, my pretty Sultan !" The dog, however, took no other notice than slightly wagging his tail. Dorothy then said, "Constant! Constant!" and he immediately bounded from Sir Thomas, leaped on his little mistress, and expressed the most passionate fondness.

"The case is very clear," said the Chancellor, "the dog has acknowledged his mistress; he is worthy of his name, and I award him to her."

Dorothy finally gave up the dog to Lady More; and she in return was taken into the house as a servant; so from that time her grandmother was well provided for.

66

THE RAPIDS.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

I REMEMBER riding from Buffalo to the Niagara Falls, and I said to a man, "What river is that, sir?" That," he said, "is Niagara river." Well, it is a beautiful stream," said I; "bright and fair, and glassy; how far off are the rapids ? Only a mile or two," was the reply. "Is it possible that only a mile from us we shall find the water in the turmoil which it must show when near the Falls? "You will find it so, sir." And so I found it; and that first sight of the Niagara I shall never forget. Now launch your bark on that Niagara river; it is bright, smooth, beautiful, and glassy. There is a ripple at the bow; the silvery wake you leave behind adds to your enjoyment. Down the stream you glide,-oars, sails, and helm in proper trim,—and you set out on your pleasure excursion.

Suddenly some one cries out from the bank, "Young men, ahoy!” “What is it?” "The rapids are below you." "Ha! ha! we have heard of the rapids, but we are not such fools as to get there. If we go too fast, then we shall up with the helm and steer to the shore; we will set the mast in the socket, hoist the sail, and speed to land. Haste away !

66

[ocr errors]

'Young men, ahoy there!" "What is it?" "The rapids are below you." "Ha, ha! Never fear! Time enough to steer out of danger when we are sailing swiftly with the current. On! on!"

[ocr errors]

"Young men ahoy! "What is it?" "Beware! Beware! The rapids are below you. Now you see the water foaming all around. See how fast you pass that point! Up with the helm! Now turn! Pull hard! quick! quick!-pull for your lives! pull till the blood

starts from the nostrils, and the veins stand like whipcord Set the mast in the socket! - hoist the

upon the brow!

sail! Ah, ah!-it is too late.

Shrieking hopelessly, over

you go."

Thousands go over "rapids" every year, heedless of the still small warning voice.

Gough.

HOW A JEST WAS NO JOKE.

WHEN I was a child of five or six years old, I and my sister, rather older than myself, were taken by our father to spend a summer's day in Needwood Forest. We were little wild things, as brown and as hardy as gipsies, and many a long happy day we had spent under the forest trees, dining in woodmen's cottages, or, if none were at hand, by the side of a little running stream in some old woodland hollow.

Towards noon, on one of these happy days, as we were wearied with a long morning's ramble, we were left to recover from our fatigue under the spreading shade of an immense tree, like fairies in a fairy vale. Around us lay a small opening of forest glade, covered with short green

grass.

There was a feeling, half of pleasure and half of pain, in being left alone in so wild a spot. We heard the crow of the distant pheasant the coo-coo of the wood-pigeon, and the cry of the woodpecker! and these, though familiar to us, seemed to add to the solitariness of the scene. And yet it was very delightful. We talked cheerfully of everything around us; watched the hare run past from thicket to thicket, and the little birds flitting about.

But at length we remarked to each other a strange, unceasing, low sound which we could not understand: it

seemed to keep up a perpetual chirr-chirr-r-r-ing, somewhere near us, but exactly where, we could not tell. At times it appeared just beside us, and then half the glade's distance off; now it was high, now low, now on this side, now on that.

In the midst of our wonderment, up came a stout forestboy, of twelve years or thereabouts. He was a brown, and wild-looking creature, dressed in a suit of leather; he had a belt round his waist in which he carried his woodknife, and on his back was a bundle of fagots. As he came up he seemed amazed to find two children, like the Babes in the Wood, seated hand in hand at the foot of an old tree, and made a pause to look at us. We were not alarmed, but hailing him as a friend, we asked what was that strange voice which we heard somewhere thereabout.

The boy looked at us half a moment, with a sort of grin, and then with a sudden look of fear, half bending his body and speaking in a low but distinct whisper; "It's my Lord Vernon's bloodhounds" said he, "they are out hunting, and yon sounds are the chains which they drag after

them!" and so saying, he dashed off like a wild stag.

What a horror now fell upon us! The glade was like an enchanted forest; all at once the trees seemed to swell out to the most terrible size; every twisted root seemed a writhing snake, and every old wreathed branch an adder, ready to devour us. And still the chirr-r-chirr-r of the terrible hounds and their draggling chains sounded through the dreadful silence, and seeming to our affrighted senses to come nearer and nearer, well nigh drove us mad.

What, indeed, would have become of us, I know not, had we been left to ourselves and our horrors; but our cry of "Father, father!" speedily brought him to us, and the enchantment fled with his presence. The laugh with which

« السابقةمتابعة »