mother was allowed to come and grace the wedding with her
presence; and she promised so many blessings that Caspar and Mabel ought
to have been still happier if that had been possible.

As for Dame Dimity, she married Christie Clogs herself; and report says
she led a sore life of it when he came home tipsy at night, and began to
fling his wooden shoes about.

IV.

DAME DOROTHY'S DOG.

On the outskirts of Langaffer village, and not far from the great pine
forest, stood the cottage of old Dame Dorothy, with its latticed windows
and picturesque porch, and its pretty little garden, fenced in with
green palings and privet hedge.

Dame Dorothy was a nice, particular old lady, who spent her time in and
about her house, trying to make things neat and cosy. In winter she
might be seen polishing her mahogany furniture, rubbing bright her
brazen candlesticks and copper kettle, or sweeping about the fireplace;
whilst in summertime she was mostly busy weeding her garden, raking the
little walks, and watering her flowers.

Yet she never smiled, only sighed very often; and toiled every day more
diligently than the day before.

Strange to say, Dame Dorothy was not comfortable in spite of all her
conscientiously-performed labours; nor happy, although she lived in such
a beautiful little cottage. She never imagined for a moment that the
cause of this could be the fact--that she kept a black dog.

Black Nero was a magnificent mastiff, with not a white hair on his back.
He had run into Dame Dorothy's one Fifth of November from the forest,
when quite a little puppy; and she had housed him and fed him ever
since; and now she was so much attached to him that she declared she
could not part with him for the world.

In return for her care he trampled over her flower-beds, tore down her
hollyhocks, and scraped up the roots of her "London Pride" with his
fore-paws; made a passage for himself through her privet hedge, and lay
stretched on fine days his full length on her rustic sofa in the
door-porch.

When the rosy-cheeked village children passed by to school in the
morning Nero snarled and snapped at them through the railings, so that
not one durst venture to say "Good-morrow, Dame Dorothy."

Even the next-door neighbours were afraid of him; and some acquaintances
of the widow, who themselves kept cats and dogs, and nice little soft
kittens as pets, now rarely invited her over to a friendly dance or a
wedding or christening; fo