Not having been in Newport at the time, I cannot write of his conduct there while his master was ill in New York, but was informed by the servants that he was always, night and day, on the lookout for his return, and that they often experienced considerable difficulty in coaxing him into the kitchen for his meals. They arranged for him a comfortable bed near the front door, where he passed his nights, while his days were spent in anxiously watching at the lawn gate, in the vain hope of seeing the loved form of his kind master, whom he was never to behold again.

This was a rare instance (though probably not among dogs similarly situated) of affection and devotion. But then the chief actor in the pathetic little drama was ONLY A DOG.

This loving dog, however, in his simple and direct way, silently, but not the less effectually for all that, taught human beings a lesson, showing an extent of unselfish fidelity and affection which they would do well to imitate.

In closing, I may repeat what Sir John Lubbock once said, that at some future time, twenty thousand pounds would be offered as a reward to any one who would teach a dog to talk, and that then the world will be astonished to learn how insufficiently the knowledge of man’s most disinterested friend has been appreciated.

Transcriber’s Notes