His face, it is simple and childlike, and he has the most innocent
eye, but he tells any lie which the occasion demands with a freedom
from embarrassment which at a later age will be impossible to him.
He stands his ground, too, under any fire of cross-examination. The
rattan would dislodge him, but unfortunately his guileless
countenance too often shields him from this searching and wholesome
instrument. When he is sent for a hack buggy and returns after half-
an-hour, with a perplexed face, saying that there is not one to be
had anywhere, who would suspect that he has been holding an auction
at the nearest stand, dwelling on the liberality and wealth of his
master and the distance to which his business that morning will take
him, and that, when he found no one would bid up to his reserve, he
remained firm and came away. Perhaps I seem hard on the dog-boy, but
my experience has not been a happy one. My first seemed to be an
average specimen, moderately clean and well-behaved; but he was not
satisfied with his wages. He assured me that they did not suffice to
fill his stomach. I told him that I thought it would be his father's
duty for some years yet to feed and clothe him, but his young face
grew very sad and he answered softly, "I have no father." So I took
pity on him and raised his pay, at the same time assuring him that,
if he behaved himself, I would take care of him. His principal duty
was to take the faithful Hubshee for a walk morning and evening, and
when he returned he would tell me where he had gone and how he had
avoided consorting with other dog-boys and their dogs. When matters
had gone on in this satisfactory way for some time, I happened to
take an unusual walk one evening, and I came suddenly on a company of
very lively little boys engaged in a most exciting game. Their
shouts and laughter mingled with the doleful howls of a dozen dogs
which were closely chained in a long row to a railing, and among them
I had no difficulty in recognising my Hubshee. Suffice it to say