To my dear loving Shelah, so far, far away,
I can never return with my old dog Tray;
He's lazy and he's blind,
You'll never, never find
A bigger thief than old dog Tray."
"Corry, this is bathos of the worst description. You are like a caterpillar; you desecrate the living leaf you touch."
"Wilks, that's hard on the six feet of me, for your caterpillar has a great many more. But that dog's gone back again."
As they looked after his departing figure, the reason was obvious. Two lightly, yet clerically, attired figures were coming up the road, and on the taller and thinner of the twain the dog was leaping with every sign of genuine affection.
"I'm afraid, Wilks, that Muggins is a beastly cur, a treacherous 'ound, a hungrateful pup; look at his antics with that cadaverous curate, keeping company with his sleek, respectable vicar. O Muggy, Mug, Mug!"
The pedestrians waited for the clergy, who soon came up to them, and exchanged salutations.