sense. They were for the most part the beginning of some word which
reminded him of a thing he cared to remember. First he had, in sport,
named some of them after the metrical feet of Latin verse, which had been
but ill friends of his in his school days, and in his kennel there was a
Troch, Iamb, Spond and Dact, whose full names were Trochee, Iambus,
Spondee and Dactyl. Now Spond was the greatest and heaviest of the
wolfhounds; Anap, rightly Anapaest, was a slender and swift greyhound;
and whereas he found this pastime of names good sport he carried it
further. Thus it came to pass that the witless creatures who shared his
loneliness were reminders of many pleasant things. One of a pair of
fleet bloodhounds which were ever leashed together was named Nich, and
the other Syn, in memory that he had been betrothed on the festival of
Saint Nicodemus and wedded on Saint Synesius' day. A noble hound called
Salve, or as we should say Welcome, spoke to him of the birth of his
first born, and every dog in like manner had a name of some
signification; thus Ann took it not at all amiss that he should call a
fine young setter after her name. There had long been a Gred, short for
Margaret.

Nevertheless we spent much more time in seeing the sick to whom my aunt
sent us on her errands, than we did in shooting or heron-hawking. She
ever packed the little basket we were to carry with her own hands, and
there was never a physic which she did not mingle, nor a garment she had
not made choice of, nor a victual she had not judged fit for each one it
was sent to.

Thus many a time our souls ached to see want and pain lying in darksome
chambers on wretched straw, though we earned thanks and true joy when we
saw that healing and ease followed in our steps. And whatever seemed to
me the most praiseworthy grace in my Aunt Jacoba, was, that albeit she