rid green, or a naughty pink, it
would break its own muzzer's heart, it would!"

But, before I could assure Mrs. Brown of the inefficiency of hair-dye as
an internal application, she had darted from the room.

That night, with the secrecy of defaulters, Baby and I decamped from
Mrs. Brown's. Distrusting the too emotional nature of that noble animal,
the horse, I had recourse to a handcart, drawn by a stout Irishman, to
convey my charge to the ferry. Even then, Baby refused to go, unless I
walked by the cart, and at times rode in it.

"I wish," said Mrs. Brown, as she stood by the door, wrapped in an
immense shawl, and saw us depart, "I wish it looked less solemn,--less
like a pauper's funeral."

I must admit, that, as I walked by the cart that night, I felt very much
as if I were accompanying the remains of some humble friend to his last
resting-place; and that, when I was obliged to ride in it, I never could
entirely convince myself that I was not helplessly overcome by liquor,
or the victim of an accident, en route to the hospital. But at last we
reached the ferry. On the boat, I think no one discovered Baby, except a
drunken man, who approached me to ask for a light for his cigar, but who
suddenly dropped it, and fled in dismay to the gentlemen's cabin, where
his incoherent ravings were luckily taken for the earlier indications of
delirium tremens.

It was nearly midnight when I reached my little cottage on the outskirts
of Oakland; and it was with a feeling of relief and security that I
entered, locked the door, and turned him loose in the hall, satisfied
that henceforward his depredations would be limited to my own property.
He was very quiet that night; and after he had tried to mount the
hatrack, under the mistaken impression that it was intended for his own
gymnastic exercise, and knocked all the hats off, he went peaceably to
sleep on the rug.

In a week, with the exercise afforded him by the run of a large,
carefully-boarded enclosure, he recovered his health, strength, spirits,
and much of his former beauty. His presence was unknown to my neighbors,
although it was noticeable that horses invariably "shied" in passing
to the windward of my house, and that the baker and milkman had great
difficulty in the delivery of their wares in the morning, and indulged
in unseemly and unnecessary profanity in so doing.

At the end of the week, I determined to invite a few friends to see the
Baby, and to that purpos