Bonnie Berkshire! It is an expression we often make use of. Bonnie Berks--bonnie even in winter, when the fields are robed in starry snow; bonnie in spring-time, when the fields are rolling clouds of tenderest green, when the young wheat is peeping through the brown earth, when primroses cl.u.s.ter beneath the hedgerows, and everything is so gay and so happy and hopeful that one's very soul soars heavenwards with the lark.

But Berks I thought never looked more bonnie than it did one lovely autumn morning, when Ida and I and the dogs walked up the hill towards our favourite seat in the old pine wood. It was bright and cool and clear. The hedges alone were a sight, for blackthorn and brambles had taken leave of their senses in summer-time, and gone trailing here and climbing there, and playing all sorts of fantastic tricks, and now with the autumn tints upon them, they formed the prettiest patches of light and shade imaginable; and though few were the flowers that still peeped through the green moss as if determined to see the last of the sunshine, who could miss them with such gorgeous colour on thorn and tree? The leaves were still on the trees; only whenever a light gust of wind swept through the tall hedge with a sound like ocean sh.e.l.ls, Ida and I were quite lost for a time, in a shower as of scented yellow snow.

My niece put her soft little hand in mine, as she said--"You haven't forgotten the ma.n.u.script, have you?"

"Oh! no," I said, smiling, "I haven't forgotten it."

"Because," she added, "I do like you to tell me a story when we are all by ourselves."

"Thank you," said I, "but this story, Ida, is one I'm going to tell to Aileen, because it is all about a Newfoundland dog."

"Oh! never mind," she cried, "Nero and I shall sit and listen, and it will be all the same."

"Well, Ida," I said, when we were seated at last, "I shall call my tale--"

BLUCHER: THE STORY OF A NEWFOUNDLAND.

"We usually speak of four-in-hands rattling along the road. There was no rattling about the mail-coach, however, that morning, as she seemed to glide along towards the granite city, as fast as the steaming horses could tool her. For the snow lay deep on the ground, and but for the rattle of harness, and champing of bits, you might have taken her for one of d.i.c.kens's phantom mails. It was a bitter winter's morning. The driver's face was buried to the eyes in the upturned neck of his fear-nothing coat; the pa.s.sengers snoozed and hibernated behind the folds of their tartan plaids; the guard, poor man! had to look abroad on the desolate scene and his face was like a parboiled lobster in appearance. He stamped in his seat to keep his feet warm, although it was merely by reasoning from a.n.a.logy that he could get himself to believe that he had any feet at all, for, as far as feeling went, his body seemed to end suddenly just below the knees, and when he attempted to emit some cheering notes from the bugle, the very notes seemed to freeze in the instrument. Presently, the coach pulled up at the eighth-milehouse to change horses, and every one was glad to come down if only for a few moments.

"The landlord,--remember, reader, I'm speaking of the far north, where mail-coaches are still extant, and the landlords of hostelries still visible to the naked eye. The landlord was there himself to welcome the coach, and he rubbed his hands and hastened to tell everybody that it was a stormy morning, that there would, no doubt, be a fresh fall ere long, and that there was a roaring fire in the room, and oceans of mulled porter. Few were able to resist hints like these, and orders for mulled porter and soft biscuits became general.

"Big flakes of snow began to fall slowly earthward, as the coach once more resumed its journey, and before long so thick and fast did it come down that nothing could be seen a single yard before the horses' heads.

"Well, there was something or other down there in the road that didn't seem to mind the snow a bit, something large, and round, and black, feathering round and round the coach, and under the horses' noses--here, there, and everywhere. But its gambols, whatever it was, came to a very sudden termination, as that howl of anguish fully testified. The driver was a humane man, and pulled up at once.

"'I've driven over a bairn, or a dog, or some o' that fraternity,' he said; 'some o' them's continually gettin' in the road at the wrang time.

Gang doon, guard, and see aboot it. It howls for a' the warld like a young warlock.'

"Down went the guard, and presently remounted, holding in his arms the recipient of the accident. It was a jet-black Newfoundland puppy, who was whining in a most mournful manner, for one of his paws had been badly crushed.

"'Now,' cried the guard, 'I'll sell the wee warlock cheap. Wha'll gie an auld sang for him? He is onybody's dog for a gill of whuskey.'

"'I'll gie ye twa gills for him, and chance it,' said a quiet-looking farmer in one of the hinder seats. The puppy was handed over at once, and both seemed pleased with the transfer. The farmer nursed his purchase inside a fold of his plaid until the coach drew up before the door of the city hotel, when he ordered warm water, and bathed the little creature's wounded paw.

"Little did the farmer then know how intimately connected that dog was yet to be, with one of the darkest periods of his life's history.

"Taken home with the farmer to the country, carefully nursed and tended, and regularly fed, 'Blucher,' as he was called, soon grew up into a very fine dog, although always more celebrated for his extreme fidelity to his master, than for any large amount of good looks.

"One day the farmer's shepherd brought in a poor little lamb, wrapped up in the corner of his plaid. He had found it in a distant nook of a field, apparently quite deserted by its mother. The lamb was brought up on the bottle by the farmer's little daughter, and as time wore on grew quite a handsome fellow.

"The lamb was Blucher's only companion. The lamb used to follow Blucher wherever he went, romped and played with him, and at night the two companions used to sleep together in the kitchen; the lamb's head pillowed on the dog's neck, or _vice versa_, just as the case might be.

Blucher and his friend used to take long rambles together over the country; they always came back safe enough, and looking pleased and happy, but for a considerable time n.o.body was able to tell where they had been to. It all came out in good time, however. Blucher, it seems, in his capacity of _chaperon_ to his young friend, led the poor lamb into mischief. It was proved, beyond a doubt, that Blucher was in the daily habit of leading 'Bonny' to different cabbage gardens, showing him how to break through, and evidently rejoicing to see the lamb enjoying himself. I do not believe that poor Blucher knew that he was doing any injury or committing a crime. 'At all events,' he might reason with himself, 'it isn't I who eat the cabbage, and why shouldn't poor Bonny have a morsel when he seems to like it so much?'

"But Blucher suffered indirectly from his kindness to Bonny, for complaints from the neighbours of the depredations committed in their gardens by the 'twa thieves,' as they were called, became so numerous, that at last poor Bonny had to pay the penalty for his crimes with his life. He became mutton. A very disconsolate dog now was poor Blucher, moaning mournfully about the place, and refusing his food, and, in a word, just behaving as you and I would, reader, if we lost the only one we loved. But I should not say the only one that Blucher loved, for he still had his master, the farmer, and to him he seemed to attach himself more than ever, since the death of the lamb; he would hardly ever leave him, especially when the farmer's calling took him anywhere abroad.

"About one year after Bonny's demise, the farmer began to notice a peculiar numbness in the limbs, but paid little attention to it, thinking that no doubt time--the poor man's physician--would cure it.

Supper among the peasantry of these northern lat.i.tudes is generally laid about half-past six. Well, one dark December's day, at the accustomed hour, both the dog and his master were missed from the table. For some time little notice was taken of this, but as time flew by, and the night grew darker, his family began to get exceedingly anxious.

"'Here comes father at last,' cried little Mary, the farmer's daughter.

"Her remark was occasioned by hearing Blucher sc.r.a.ping at the door, and demanding admittance. Little Mary opened the door, and there stood Blucher, sure enough; but although the night was clear and starlight, there wasn't a sign of father. The strange conduct of Blucher now attracted Mary's attention. He never had much affection for her, or for any one save his master, but now he was speaking to her, as plain as a dog could speak. He was running round her, barking in loud sharp tones, as he gazed into her face, and after every bark pointing out into the night, and vehemently wagging his tail. There was no mistaking such language. Any one could understand his meaning. Even one of those _strange people, who hate dogs_, would have understood him. Mary did, anyhow, and followed Blucher at once. On trotted the honest fellow, keeping Mary trotting too, and many an anxious glance he cast over his shoulder to her, saying plainly enough, 'Don't you think you could manage to run just a _leetle_ faster?' Through many a devious path he led her, and Mary was getting very tired, yet fear for her father kept her up. After a walk, or rather run, of fully half an hour, honest Blucher brought the daughter to the father's side.

"He was lying on the cold ground, insensible and helpless, struck down by that dreadful disease--paralysis. But for the sagacity and intelligence of his faithful dog, death from cold and exposure would certainly have ended his sufferings ere morning dawned. But Blucher's work was not yet over for the night, for no sooner did he see Mary kneeling down by her father's side, than he started off home again at full speed, and in less than half an hour was back once more, accompanied by two of the servants.

"The rest of this dog's history can be told in very few words, and I am sorry it had so tragic an ending.

"During all the illness which supervened on the paralysis, Blucher could seldom, if ever, be prevailed on to leave his master's bedside, and every one who approached the patient was eyed with extreme suspicion. I think I have already mentioned that Mary was no great favourite with Blucher, and Mary, if she reads these lines, must excuse me for saying, I believe it was her own fault, for if you are half frightened at a dog he always thinks you harbour some ill-will to him, and would do him an injury if you could. However, one day poor Mary came running in great haste to her father's bedside. Most incautious haste as it turned out, for the dog sprang up at once and bit her in the leg. For this, honest Blucher was _condemned to death_. I think, taking into consideration his former services, and the great love he bore to his afflicted master, he might have been forgiven just for this once.

"That his friends afterwards repented of their rashness I do not doubt, for they have erected a monument over his grave. This monument tells how faithfully he served his master, and how he loved him, and saved his life, and although fifty years have pa.s.sed since its erection, it still stands to mark the spot where faithful Blucher lies."

CHAPTER NINE.

TEA ON THE LAWN, AND THE STORY OF A STARLING.

"Thy spangled breast bright sprinkled specks adorn, Each plume imbibes the rosy-tinted morn."

"Sit down, Frank," said I; "my wife and Ida will be here presently. It is so pleasant to have tea out of doors."

"Yes," said Frank, "especially such tea as this. But," he added, fishing a flower-spray from his cup with his spoon, "I do not want jasmine in mine."

"Good wine needs no bush," I remarked.

"Nor good tea no scent," said my friend.

"Although, Frank, the Chinese do scent some of their Souchongs with jasmine, the _Jasminum Sambuc_."

"Oh! dear uncle," cried Ida, "don't talk Latin. Maggie the magpie will be doing it next."

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the pie called Maggie, who was very busy in the bottom of her cage. I never, by the way, heard any bird or human being laugh in such a cuttingly tantalising way as that magpie did.

It was a sneering laugh, which made you feel that the remark you had just made previously was ridiculously absurd. As she laughed she kept on pegging away at whatever she was doing.

"Go on," she seemed to say. "I am listening to all you are saying, but I really can't help laughing, even with my mouth full. Ha! ha! ha!"

"Well, Ida dear," I said, "I certainly shall not talk Latin if there be the slightest chance of that impudent bird catching it up. Is this better?

"'My slight and slender jasmine tree, That bloomest on my border tower, Thou art more dearly loved by me Than all the wealth of fairy bower.

I ask not, while I near thee dwell, Arabia's spice or Syria's rose; Thy light festoons more freshly smell, Thy virgin white more freshly glows.'"

"And now," said my wife, "what about the story?"

"Yes, tea and a tale," cried Frank.

"Do you know," I replied, "that the starling is the best of all talking pets? And I do wonder why people don't keep them more often than they do?"

"They are difficult to rear, are they not?"