But it was of no avail. Seth Moby looked upon Murphy as an interloper, and when he could do anything to frighten him he did, and by any brutal means in his power. Even the mill-hands remarked to one another that their mate, Moby, was a changed man. “’Twas like that wi’ some,” they said. “Trouble sowered ’em, like, and made ’em seem as though they ’ould throw the Almighty o’ one side. And once folk got on a downward grade, same as that, it wasn’t often as they was found on the mending hand—no, it wasn’t for sure.”
On one occasion, after the first week was over, Murphy escaped, and appeared at the mill with a foot or more of rope trailing from his collar, for latterly he had been kept tied up. Seth chanced at that moment to be leaving work, and brought the dog up short by the head, by putting his foot upon the rope end almost before the dog knew that he was there. He half hanged him taking him back, and flung him into the house with an oath that frightened his child, and made her run to the back kitchen that she might not hear what followed; while the dog crept on his stomach to the corner, his tail between his legs: he always moved in this way now, though it is said he never whimpered.
“Oh, Seth, if you goes on like this,” said Mrs. Moby reproachfully, “there’ll be murder, and then trouble to follow: the Master is not one to put up with cruelty to any dog. Bless the man—you’re gettin’ like a mad thing. Leave the dog alone, I tell yer.” Seth had taken off his boots, and flung them at the dog before going up to bed: Mrs. Moby had been engaged trying to disconcert his aim.
That night another foot was heard on the stairs; there was whispering in the kitchen; and for several succeeding weeks, and unknown to others, the dog slept happily with the child, though not without serious risks of trouble being thereby made for both.
At the end of that time the Over-Lord called. He had been away. He had heard on his return that all was not well with the dog, and had come to see for himself. Murphy had been lying curled up on a sack in his corner, but when he heard the well-known footstep he crawled out, hugging the wall nervously till he reached the door.
“Murphy, lad!” exclaimed the Over-Lord, looking intently at the dog—“Murphy, my little man; that you...!” The dog was fawning on him, saying as plain as speech, “Take me away with you; take me away.”
The Over-Lord put his hand down and patted him. He did not say another word, as Murphy followed him out, save “It’s not you, Mrs. Moby; it’s not you.” He had a great heart for dogs, and began to blame himself on his way home for what had evidently occurred. “If the man did not want the dog,” he muttered, “he had only got to say so; besides it was his rent to him: it was not done on the cheap—that never does in any line.”
When he reached his own house, he took the young dog in with him—a thing almost unprecedented, so far as the rest of the outside company were able to recall. They judged their former companion spoilt, or on the high road to being so.
“It was all that hare,” remarked the middle-aged.
“Yes,” agreed the moralists—“success is always pernicious to the young!”