Then came the curious part of the intercourse. Instead of worrying him, Nero simply held him down, and lay quietly on top of him for more than two minutes, during which time he appeared to reason with the cur, who was completely cowed.

"'I'll let you up presently,' Nero said; 'but you must promise not to attempt to attack me again.'

"'I promise,' said the other dog.

"Then, much to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the little crowd that had collected, Nero very slowly raised himself and walked away. Behold! no sooner had he turned his back than his prostrate foe sprang up and bit him viciously in the leg.

"It was no wonder Nero now lost his temper, or that he shook that black dog as a servant-maid shakes a hearthrug.

"_I_ tried to intervene to save the poor mongrel, but was kept back by the mob.

"'Let him have it, sir,' cried one man; 'he killed S--'s dog.'

"'Yes, let him have it,' cried another; 'he kills dogs and he kills sheep as well.'

"To his honour be it said, I never saw Nero provoke a fight, but when set upon by a cur he always punished his foe. In two instances he tried to drown his antagonist. A dog at Sheerness attacked him on the beach one day. Nero punished him well, but seeing me coming to the dog's rescue, he dragged the dog into the sea and lay on him there. I had to wade in and pull Master Nero off by the tail, else the other dog would a.s.suredly have been drowned. I am referring to a large red retriever, lame in one leg, that belonged to the artillery. He had been accidentally blown from a gun and set fire to. That was the cause of his lameness.

"There was a large Newfoundland used to be on the _Great Eastern_, whose name was 'Sailor.' Before Nero's appearance at Sheerness, he was looked upon as the finest specimen of that kind of dog ever seen. He had to lower his flag to Nero, however.

"They met one morning on the beach at the oyster beds.

"'Hullo!' said Sailor, 'you are the dog that everybody is making such a fuss over. You're Nero, aren't you?'

"'My name is Theodore Nero,' said my friend, bristling up at the saucy looks of the stranger.

"'And my name is Sailor, at your service,' said the other, 'and I belong to the largest ship in the world. And I don't think much of you. Yah!'

"'Good-morning,' said Nero.

"'Not so fast,' cried the other; 'you've got to fight first, but I daresay you're afraid. Eh! Yah!'

"'Am I?' said Nero. 'We'll see who is afraid.'

"Next moment the oyster beach was a battle-field. But some sailors coming along, we managed to pull the dogs asunder by the tails.

Whenever Sailor saw Nero after this he took to his heels and ran away.

But a good dog was Sailor for all that, and a very clever water-dog. He used to jump from the top of the paddle-box of the great ship into the sea--a height, I believe, of about seventy feet.

"Nero's prowess as a water-dog was well known in Sheerness, and wonderful stories are told about him, even to this day; not all of which are true, any more than the tales of the knights of old are. But some of our marines managed to turn his swimming powers to good account, as the following will testify.

"On days when it was impossible for me to get on sh.o.r.e, I used to send my servant with the dog for a swim and a run. When near the dockyard steps, a great log of wood used to be pitched out of the boat, and Nero sent after it. Anything Nero fetched out of the water he considered his own or his master's property, which it would be dangerous for any one to meddle with. Well, as soon as he had landed with the log, Nero used to march up the steps, the water flowing behind from his splendid coat, up the steps and through the dockyard; the policemen only stood by marvelling to see a dog carrying such an immense great log of wood. If my servant carried a basket, that would be searched for contraband goods, rum or tobacco.

"Then my servant would pa.s.s on, smiling in his own sleeve as the saying is, for no one ever dreamed of searching the dog."

"Searching the dog!" said Ida, with wondering eyes.

"Yes, dear, the dog was a smuggler, though he did not know it. For that log of wood was a hollow one, and stuffed with tobacco. I did not know of this, of course."

"How wicked!" said Ida. "Why, Nero, you've been a regular pirate of the boundless ocean."

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

THE STORY OF AILEEN'S HUSBAND, NERO--CONTINUED.

"Poor dog! he was faithful and kind, to be sure, And he constantly loved me, although I was poor."

Campbell.

"Do I think that Master Nero knows we are talking about him? Yes, birdie, of that I am quite convinced. Just look at the cunning old rogue lying there pretending to be asleep, but with his ears well forward, and one eye half-open. And Aileen, too, knows there is a bit of biography going on, and that it is all about her well-beloved lord and master.

"But to tell you one-tenth part of all that had happened to Nero, or to me and Nero together, would take far more time than I can spare, dear Ida. I could give you anecdote after anecdote about his bravery, his strength, his n.o.bility of mind, and his wonderful sagacity; but these would not make you love him more than you do.

"And you never can love the faithful fellow half so much as I do. I have been blamed for loving him far too well, and reminded that he is only a dog.

"Only a dog! How much I hate the phrase; and sinful though I know it to be, I can hardly help despising those who make use of it. But of those who do use the expression, there are few, I really believe, who would wonder at me loving that n.o.ble fellow so well did they know the sincere friend he has been many a time and oft to me.

"He saved my life--worthless though it may be--he saved the life of another. Tell you the story? It is not a story, but two stories; and though both redound to the extreme wisdom and sagacity and love of the dog, both are far too sad for you to listen to. Some day I may tell them. Perhaps--"

There was a pause of some minutes here; Ida, who was lying beside the dog, had thrown her arms around his neck, and was fondly hugging him.

Aileen came directly to me, sighed as usual, and put her head on my shoulder.

"Love begets love, Ida, and I think it was more than anything else the dog's extreme affection for me, shown in a thousand little ways, that caused me to take such a strong abiding affection for him. He knew--as he does now--everything I said, and was always willing to forestall my wishes, and do everything in the world to please me.

"When ill one time, during some of our wanderings, and laid up in an out-of-the-way part of the country among strange people, it was a sad anxiety for me to have to tell the dog he must go out by himself and take his necessary ramble, as I was far too ill to leave my bed.

"The poor animal understood me.

"'Good-bye, master,' he seemed to say, as he licked my face; 'I know you are ill, but I won't stop out long.'

"He was back again in a quarter of an hour, and the same thing occurred every time he was sent by himself; he never stopped more than fifteen minutes.

"Would a human friend have been as careful? Do you not think that there were temptations to be resisted even during that short ramble of his-- things he would have liked to have stopped to look at, things he would have liked to have chased? Many a dog, I have no doubt, invited him to stop and play, but the dog's answer must have been, 'Nay, nay, not to-day; I have a poor sick master in bed, and I know not what might happen to him in this strange place, and among so many strange people.

I must hurry and get home.'

"When he did return, he did so as joyfully and made as much fuss over me as if he had been away for a week.

"'I didn't stop long, _did_ I, master?' he would always say, when he returned.

"But wasn't he a happy dog when he got me up and out again? Weak enough I was at first, but he never went far away from me, just trotted on and looked about encouragingly and waited. I allowed him to take me where he chose, and I have reason to believe he led me on his own round, the round he had taken all by himself every day for weeks before that.

"'Nero, old boy,' I said to him one day, some time after this sickness, 'come here.'

"The dog got up from his corner, and laid his saucy head on my lap.

"'I'm all attention, master,' he said, talking with his bonnie brown eyes.

"'I don't believe there are two better Newfoundlands in England than yourself, Nero.'

"'I don't believe there is one,' said Nero.