Aileen Aroon, A Memoir
Page 50
which,' said the dog, `I am willing to listen.'
"`Well,' I said, `there are dozens of dog-shows about to take place allover the country. I want a change: suppose we go round. Suppose weconstitute ourselves show folk. Eh?'
"`Capital.'
"`And you'll win lots of prize-money, Nero.'
"`And you'll spend it, master. Capital again.'
"`There won't be much capital left, I expect, doggie, by the time we getback; but we'll see a bit of England, at all events.'
"So we agreed to start, and so sure of winning with the dog was I that Ibought that splendid red patent leather collar that you, Ida, sometimeswear for a waist-belt. The silver clasps on it were empty then, buteach time the dog won a prize, the name of the town was engraved on oneof the clasps."
"They are pretty well filled up now," said Ida.
"Yes, the dog won nineteen first prizes and cups in little over threemonths, which was very fair for those days. He was then dubbedchampion. There was not a Newfoundland dog from Glasgow to Neath thatwould have cared to have met Nero in the show ring.
"He used to enter the arena, too, with such humour and dash, with hisgrand black coat floating around him, and the sun glittering on it likemoonbeams on a midnight sea. That was how Nero entered the judgingring; he never slunk in, as did some dogs. He just as often as not hada stick in his mouth, and if he hadn't, he very soon possessed himselfof one.
"`Yes, look at me all over,' he would say to the judges; `there is nopicking a fault in me, nor in my master either for that matter. I'mgoing to win, that's what I'm here for.'
"But when I was presented with the prize card by the judge, Nero neverfailed to make him a very pretty bow.
"The only misfortune that ever befell the poor fellow was at Edinburghdog-show.
"On the morning of the second day--it was a three or four dayexhibition--I received a warning letter, written in a female hand,telling me that those who were jealous of the dog's honours and winningswere going to poison him.
"I treated the matter as a joke. I could not believe the worldcontained a villain vile enough to do a splendid animal like that todeath, and so cruel a death, for the sake of pique and jealousy. But Ihad yet to learn what the world was.
"The dog was taken to the show, and chained up as usual at his place onthe bench. Alas! when I went to take him home for the night I found hishead down, and hardly able to move. I got him away, and sat up with himall night administering restoratives.
"He was able to drink a little milk in the morning, and to save hisprize-money I took him back, but had him carefully watched and tendedall the remaining time that the show was open.
"We went to Boston, Lincoln, Gainsborongh, and all over Yorkshire andLancaster and Chester, besides Scotland, and our progress was a triumphto the grand and beautiful dog. Especially was he admired by ladies atshows. Wherever else they might be, there was always a bevy of the fairsex around Nero's cage. During that three months' tour he had morekisses probably than any dog ever had before in the same time. It wasthe same out of the show as in it--no one passed him by without stoppingto admire him.
"`Aren't we having a splendid time, master?' the dog said to me one day.
"`Splendid,' I replied; `but I think we've done enough, my doggie. Ithink we had better retire now and go to sea for a spell.'
"`Heigho!' the dog seemed to say; `but wherever your home is there mineis too, master.'"
"There is a prize card hanging on the wall of the wigwam," said Ida, "onwhich Nero is said to have won at a life-saving contest at Southsea."
"Yes, dear, that was another day's triumph for the poor fellow. He hadwon on the show bench there as well, and afterwards proved his prowessin the sea in the presence of admiring thousands.
"Your honest friend there, Ida, has been all along as fond of humanbeings and other animals as he is now. In their own countryNewfoundlands are used often as sledge dogs, and sometimes asretrievers, but I do not think it is in their nature to take life of anykind, unless insect life, my gentle Ida. They don't like blue-bottlesnor wasps, I must confess, but Nero has given many proofs of thekindness of heart he possesses that are really not easily forgotten.
"Tell you a few? I'll tell you one or two. The first seems trivial,but there is a certain amount of both pathos and humour about it. Twoboys had been playing near the water at Gosport, and for mischiefs sakeone had pitched the other's cap into the tide and ran off. The cap wasbeing floated away, and the disconsolate owner was weeping bitterly onthe bank, when we came up. Nero, without being told, understood whatwas wrong in a moment; one glance at the floating cap, another at theboy, then splash! he had sprang into the tide, and in a few minutes hadlaid the rescued article at the lad's feet; then he took his tongueacross his cheek in a rough kind of caressing way.
"`There now,' he appeared to say, `don't cry any more.'
"Nero ought to have made his exit here, and he would have come off quitethe hero; but no, the spirit of mischief entered into him, and he shookhimself, sending buckets of water all over the luckless lad, who wasalmost as wet now as if he had swam in after his cap himself. Then Nerocame galloping up to me, laughing all over at the trick he had playedthe poor boy.
"This trick of shaking himself over people was taught him by one of mymessmates; and he used to delight to take him along the beach on asummer's day, and put him in the water. When he came out, my friendwould march along in front of the dog, till the latter was close to somegay lounger, then turn and say, `Shake yourself, boy.' The _denouement_may be more easily imagined than described, especially if the loungerhappened to be a lady. I'm ashamed of my friend, but love the truth,Ida."
"How terribly wicked of Nero to do it!" said Ida.
"And yet I saw the dog one day remove a drowning mouse from his waterdish, without putting a tooth in it. He placed it on the kitchen floor,and licked it as tenderly over as a cat would her kitten. He looked upanxiously in my face, as much as to say, `Do you think the poor thingcan live?'
"Hurricane Bob there, his son, does not inherit all his father's finestqualities; he would not scruple to kill mice or rats by the score. Infact, I have reason to believe he rather likes it. His mother was justthe same before him; a kindly-hearted dog she was, but as wild as awolf, and full of fun of the rough-and-tumble kind."
"Were you never afraid of losing poor Nero?"
"I did lose him one dark winter's night, Ida, in the middle of a largeand populous city. Luckily, I had been staying there for some time--twoweeks, I think--and there were different shops in different parts of thecity where I dealt, and other places where I called to rest or read.The dog was always in the habit of accompanying me to the shops, tobring home the purchases, so he knew them all. The very day on which Ilost the dog I had changed my apartments to another quarter of the city.
"In the evening, while walking along a street, with Nero some distancebehind me, it suddenly occurred to me to run into a shop and purchase amagazine I saw in the window. I never thought of calling the dog. Ifancied he would see me entering the book-shop and follow, but hedidn't; he missed me, and thinking I must be on ahead, rushed wildlyaway up the street into the darkness and rain, and I saw him no morethat night.
"Only those who have lost a favourite dog under such circumstances canfully appreciate the extent of my grief and misery. I went home at longlast to my lonely lodgings. How dingy and dreadful they seemed withoutpoor Nero's honest form on the hearthrug! Where could he be, what wouldbecome of him, my only friend, my gentle, loving, noble dog, the onlycreature that cared for me? You may be sure I did not sleep, I nevereven undressed, but sat all night in my chair, sleeping towards morning,and dreaming uneasy dreams, in which the dog was always first figure.
"I was out and on my way to the police offices ere it was light. Theweather had changed, frost had come, and snow had fallen.
"Several large black dogs had been found during the night; I went to seethem all. Alas! none was Nero. So after getting bill
s printed, andarranging to have them posted, I returned disheartened to my lodgings.But when the door opened, something as big as a bear flew out, flew atme, and fairly rolled me down among the snow.
"`No gentler caress, master,' said Nero, for it was he, `would expressthe joy of the occasion.'
"Poor fellow, I found out that day that he had been at every one of theplaces at which I usually called; I daresay he had gone back to our oldapartments too, and had of course failed to find me there. As a lastresort he turned up at the house of an old soldier with whom I had hadmany a pleasant confab. This was about eleven o'clock; it was eightwhen he was lost. Not finding me here, he would have left again,