BY RUTH LAMB.
Old Nipper was, for a time, my grandfather's dog, an accomplished mastiff, and rather too good a watch-dog, for he sometimes got his owner into trouble. Leave him in the house with the injunction, "Look out, Nipper, and don't stir," and the dwelling was as safe as if guarded by a detachment of policemen.
One individual was so ill advised as to persist in entering the house when Nipper objected, and he recrossed the threshold minus a large piece of garment and a smaller piece of leg. This affair resulted in so much unpleasantness that there were serious deliberations as to what must be done with Nipper. He was evidently too good a watch-dog for a town residence, but would be invaluable at a certain lone farm-house inhabited by a friend who knew his good qualities. In time Nipper grew reconciled to the change, and attached to his new owner's family.
In my grandfather's time there were many simple domestic institutions which are now things of the past. Amongst these were itinerant cobblers—not shoe-makers, but shoe-menders—who used to travel from place to place with their tools on their backs.
Some little time after Nipper was settled in his country home, old Isaac Firth, an itinerant cobbler known to all the country-side, made his appearance at the kitchen door of the farm. The dog was sole housekeeper, and was stretched full length just within the threshold.
Nipper and Isaac Firth were old acquaintances, so the old dog welcomed the cobbler with a wag of his tail, and permitted him to enter. The day was warm. A walk of half a dozen miles in the hot sun had disposed Isaac for a rest; so he unstrapped his kit and sat down, expecting to see the mistress or a servant at any minute.
But time passed on, and Isaac, being thirsty as well as tired, looked round for something drinkable. He took up a mug, and was going to the pump for some water, when an ominous growl from Nipper compelled him to put down the article.
"So I mustn't touch anything left in your care, old fellow," said he. "All right. This is my own, anyway, and I may as well go on to another place and be earning something in the mean while." Thus saying, he strapped up his kit of tools, and was about to lift it to his back, when Nipper gave another low growl, and looked so dangerous that he was fain to desist. Nipper's look had become a glare. It was contrary to that worthy animal's principles to allow anything to be taken out of the house so long as he guarded it. You might bring in what you liked, but once across the threshold, it must stay, and you too, until the return of the domestic authorities.
Isaac tried patting, soft words, all the blandishments he could think of, which were kindly received. But a movement toward the kit, and all was changed.
How stout Mr. Hatton laughed when he returned and found the cobbler afraid to stir, and Nipper on guard! He patted the old dog, declared he would not part with him for his weight in gold, and then he made up to old Isaac by immediate hospitality for the long two hours of dreary waiting.