When we feel conscious of deserving reproof, its arrow lights upon us from many a bow that was drawn only at a venture.
THE WATCH-DOG.
A MASTIFF that had received a severe kick from his master thus soliloquized as he walked slowly and sadly toward his kennel:
“I guard his house by day and by night, securing for him undisturbed rest, but hardly ever getting for myself so much as an hour’s sleep at a time. He never comes near me that I do not show my pleasure by a wag of my tail; and when he speaks to me and pats me on the head, my delight is so great that I can hardly control myself, and behave as a sensible dog ought to behave. And yet, because I happened, by accident, to be in his way, he has thus ill-used and disgraced me! What a shame, when he has the power so easily to make me happy that he abuses it in making me miserable!”
