ion with Dora, a whisper in her ear, a look of her
eye, or a touch of her hand; such favors were reserved for the military
cavalier who walked at her side, exultant and triumphantly good-natured,
though I seemed to read sneering and defiance in the very cock of his
hat. Sullen and morose, as I saw her lifted over muddy places in his
proud arms, or climbing a stile by his gallant assistance, I followed
more slowly, and completing this pleasant party behind me and before me,
and about me, wherever he could get within stumbling reach, trotted my
favorite aversion, Rover, an ugly, awkward, senseless, and
ill-conditioned puppy, whom Dora had elected her prime pet and favorite,
for no better reason apparently than that we all hated him. The colonel
kicked him, Mrs. Marston chased him, the cook scalded him, the boys
stoned him, and I could hardly refrain from giving public utterance to
the anathemas that burned on my tongue, when the wretched animal, who
seemed to have an insane attraction to me, floundered about my legs as I
moved, or flapped his stump tail under my chair when I sat still. Dora
alone, with strange perversity, persisted in ignoring his bad habits,
his vulgar manners, his uselessness, his ugliness, and his impudence,
and set me at defiance when I objected to him, by pressing him in her
beautiful arms--happy cur that he was!--and laying her soft cheek
against his villainous bristles, till in very disgust and jealousy I
ceased to complain, and learned to submit quietly to his revolting
familiarities.

On the present occasion the few private kicks and pinches which I
ventured to bestow, availed nothing against his clinging affection, till
we drew near the water, and the sight of a rabbit's white tail further
up the bank effected my release from his attentions, for he immediately
galloped in pursuit of it, and a similar happy accident left me for a
moment free to approach Dora without the intervention of my friend, Mr.
Hayes, who had gallantly volunteered to scramble up a steep bank for a
cluster of pink flowers which Miss Dora persistently admired, as they
waved in inaccessible beauty above her head, though sister blossoms
bloomed all about her feet. Being thus freed from the attendance of both
puppies, as I suitably classed them in my mind, I approached the little
queen of my heart, who stood on the very verge of the wet sand, where
she had planted herself in express defiance of my professional warning,
with the