The Argosy — page 299: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

About Dogs. 28 5 mourners—around the faithful companion that had shared our house- hold joys and sorrows for fourteen years. It is a bright, joyous little form which comes bounding in to dispel the shadow cast by those sad old memories. Of all our dogs, Mimie is the acknowledged queen of beauty. What easy grace there is in each movement of the round, symmetrical little body ; what mingled pertness and gentleness in the expression of the tiny, delicately- chiselled head ; what subtle elegance in the slender, snake-like neck, as it turns hither and thither in harmony with the long, mobile, ever- watchful velvet ears ! The brown eyes sparkle, the orange paws twinkle, the slim tail whisks jauntily, as she comes dancing towards us over the flower-beds, scarce bending a petal as she goes. Yes, Mimie is a beauty ; and we regret to say she knows it quite as well as any pretty girl in the country knows the same important fact. She is as thorough a coquette, in her way, as any belle that ever fluttered a fan. Whena gentleman visitor enters the room, she begins by growling and barking furiously. As soon, however, as he sits down, all this ill-humour vanishes suddenly, like the steam from a cooling tea-urn. She springs upon his lap, and standing on her hind legs, begins to scratch his face vigorously with her fore paws. If truth must be told, she has caused some trouble of mind to certain of our guests {by this strange pro- ceeding, which she, however, apparently intends as a most civil attention. She once honoured with this doubtful compliment the reverend face of a bishop, who evidently deemed the scraping of those needle-like ' claws a great deal more unpleasant than the “ tickling of the tithe-pig’s tail,” to which churchmen were subject in the days of Romeo; and by the same treatment she also considerably disconcerted a luckless gentleman who was more indebted for his glossy black whiskers to the hairdresser than to Mother Nature. If the visitor receives her advances coldly, she soon leaves him, and trots away with a disgusted, scornful air. But if he is’fmendly and begins to admire her, she puts herself into a succession of the most affected attitudes conceivable: now looking up into his face with her head held languishingly on one side; now resting her paws on his arm that he may see their shape and colour ; now nestling her muzzle inside his waistcoat. With ladies her manners are quite different. The little monkey has learnt that their laps are the most delightful things in the world, and she will steal up to them, and touch gently a fnll or a bow with her paw, in token that she wants to be raised to the owner's knee. If, however, the lady is a familiar friend, she will spring up without ceremony, and make herself at home. Towards those with whom she always lives she has the prettiest and most caressing ways of any animal we ever knew. She loves to insinuate herself softly under your shawl on a cold day; and to lie with her COLMA a) NOOKS (CO)