ass, the crabbed and the crusty,
who would, had they belonged to Us, have retired behind their papers in
the Club windows, but as it was, and being dogs, merely made off out of
earshot, with their ruffs up, grumbling to themselves and crabbing all
things.

There were some of all classes here as elsewhere. It is indeed surprising
how closely the dog family approximates to the human. The same
counterparts are to be found in both. We mostly hunt in packs. And if
dogs are wont to bark and bite and rend, We, on our part, are often not
behind in practising the same strange arts, though not always with the
same sportsmanship and generosity.

As for Murphy, he took the whole matter with a skip and a laugh, as if it
was all part of the jolly fun of life, and as not in any way reflecting
credit on himself. By nature he was modest and shy, and if he did things
occasionally that were out of the common, he never seemed to grasp the
fact, invariably looking puzzled and impatient at all praise. "Never mind
all that; let's come on and look for something else," was what he said,
exhibiting in this way, perhaps, one of those traits of character that
made him so lovable, and that grew to such fair proportions as he
advanced in years. His disposition was happy and generous, and though
essentially manly--if such a term, without offence, is applicable to
dogs--there was also about him a peculiar gentleness that was exemplified
in all his actions, right down to his inability to use his teeth. He was
never known to fight; and, what was still more strange, bones were to him
altogether negligible things.

For a character such as this to meet with harsh treatment, much less
cruelty, was, if not to ruin it completely, at least to undermine all
confidence. Yet this, sad to relate, was now precisely what befell. Up to
this, life had been without a cloud. Of course, as in every other
society, there had been the necessity of fending for oneself--of picking
up a scrap, for instance, quickly, if you wanted it at all. Such things
are good, and make for progress and development. But harshness and
unkindness, like injustice, had been altogether foreign to the mill and
all who lived or worked there. Life sped on in that favoured spot with as
even a surface as that of the river, whose waters flowed sluggishly up to
the mill, barring the dam, and then went bubbling down the race,
revivified and having done its spell, for the time.

How it came about is no