though I doan't haud with it mysen, for it's makin' a fool o' a good
dog to do such like.

An' at lung length it cooms out 'at she'd been thrawin' sheep's eyes,
as t' sayin' is, at Rip for many a day. Yo' see, her childer was grown
up, an' she'd nowt mich to do, an' were allus fond of a dog. Soa she
axes me if I'd tek somethin' to dhrink. An' we goes into t' drawn-room
wheer her husband was a-settin'. They meks a gurt fuss ower t' dog an'
I has a bottle o' aale, an' he gave me a handful o' cigars.

Soa I coomed away, but t' awd lass sings out--'Oh, Mister Soldier,
please coom again and bring that prettee dog.'

I didn't let on to t' Colonel's Laady about Mrs. DeSussa, and Rip, he
says nowt nawther; an' I gooes again, an' ivry time there was a good
dhrink an' a handful o' good smooaks. An' I telled t' awd lass a heeap
more about Rip than I'd ever heeared; how he tuk t' fost prize at
Lunnon dog-show and cost thotty-three pounds fower shillin' from t'
man as bred him; 'at his own brother was t' propputty o' t' Prince o'
Wailes, an' 'at he had a pedigree as long as a Dook's. An' she lapped
it all oop an' were niver tired o' admirin' him. But when t' awed lass
took to givin' me money an' I seed 'at she were gettin' fair fond about
t' dog, I began to suspicion summat. Onny body may give a soldier t'
price of a pint in a friendly way an' theer's no 'arm done, but when
it cooms to five rupees slipt into your hand, sly like, why, it's what
t' 'lectioneerin' fellows calls bribery an' corruption. Specially when
Mrs. DeSussa threwed hints how t' cold weather would soon be ower an'
she was goin' to Munsooree Pahar an' we was goin' to Rawalpindi, an'
she would niver see Rip any more onless somebody she knowed on would
be kind tiv her.