And Mrs. Carlyle—to judge of her feeling for these little friends, you must read her letters, and see for yourselves how large a space their ways and doings fill.
It is true, there was some question in the family at first, whether a dog could be tolerated. Mr. Carlyle was busy writing, and nervous—how would it affect him? But in 1849, the little creature came, found its place, and filled it; was “a most affectionate, lively little dog, though otherwise of small merit, and little or no training”; was happy, and, in turn, made others happy. For the next ten years, Nero and his master had many walks together, and “a good deal of small traffic, poor little animal, so loyal, so loving, so naïve, and true with what of dim intellect he had.”
Undoubtedly he was a trouble at times, as what mortal thing is not; yet, on the whole, he was far more of a comfort than trouble. Sometimes he was stolen, sometimes he strayed away, and then they would suffer “the agonies of one’s dog lost,” until the missing one again appeared; for they “could have better spared a better dog.”
Once, when Carlyle was away from home, the prettiest, wittiest letter imaginable was sent him, in Nero’s behalf, by Mrs. Carlyle. She was kind enough to translate it from Can-ese into English, and also to write it out—he being equal only to Nero + his mark.
Dear Master—(thus it reads)—
I take the liberty to write to you myself (my mistress being out of the way of writing to you, she says) that you may know Columbine [the black cat] and I are quite well, and play about as usual. There was no dinner yesterday to speak of; I had for my share only a piece of biscuit that might have been round the world; and if Columbine got anything at all, I didn’t see it. I made a grab at one of two small beings on my mistress’s plate; she called them heralds of the morn; but my mistress said, “Don’t you wish you may get it?” and boxed my ears. I wasn’t taken to walk on account of its being wet. And nobody came but a man for burial rates, and my mistress gave him a rowing, because she wasn’t going to be buried here at all. Columbine and I don’t care where we are buried....
(Tuesday Evening.)
My mistress brought my chain, and said “Come along with me while it shined, and I could finish after.” But she kept me so long in the London Library and other places, that I had to miss the post. An old gentleman in the omnibus took such notice of me! He looked at me a long time, and then turned to my mistress, and said, “Sharp, isn’t he?” And my mistress was so good as to say “O, yes!” And then the old gentleman said again, “I knew it! Easy to see that!” And he put his hand in his hind pocket, and took out a whole biscuit, a sweet one, and gave it me in bits. I was quite sorry to part with him, he was such a good judge of dogs.... No more at present from your
Obedient little dog, Nero.