was at best, and well he knew the length of
Trusty the house-dog's chain, which less favoured quadruped was never
let loose by day, from a well-grounded fear that he might, if allowed,
resent, by summary punishment, the constant insults he was doomed to
submit to from this most petted and presumptuous myrmidon of the
drawing-room. With all this, although time and over-feeding had soured
his temper, Froll still retained much of, if not all, his former
intelligence (a trait so peculiar to his species), declared by many
long-past but still vaunted proofs of his being a wonder in his way.
One of his peculiarities was a fondness for apples--not indeed all
apples, but those which grew on a particular tree, called 'Froll's
tree,' and no others; this tree was, by the way, the best in the
garden, and the small, sweet, delicate fruit therefrom (my
reminiscence is distinct on this point) were carefully preserved for
this canine favourite. Nothing would entice him to eat any other sort
of apple. And in the season he would constantly urge his mistress into
the garden by repeated barking, and other unmistakable symptoms. His
daily meals, too, of which I think there were three regular ones, were
events in themselves, the careful attention to which tended perhaps to
relieve the monotony of a country life: they are indeed not speedily
to be forgotten by those who witnessed them. He would take food from
no one but his mistress or her maid, which latter person was his chief
purveyor, who had been an inmate of the house contemporary with
himself, or I believe long before; but this feeding was generally a
task of great trouble, such coaxing and humouring on the one hand,
such growling and snarling on the other, has been perhaps seldom
heard. At length, after much beseeching on the part of the maid, and a
few words of entreaty from the mistress, he would condescend to eat;
but never, I believe, without some symptoms of discontent, how savoury
soever the morsel, submitting to that as a favour which is generally
snatched at and devoured with so much gusto and avidity by most others
of his tribe. I should not have entered into these peculiarities,
which are scarcely evidence of any intelligence beyond that of other
dogs, were it not that the circumstances attending his death were
really extraordinary, the more so when the character of the dog is
considered; and as we have so often heard of a presentiment of that
great change being strongly impri