Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Though duly from my hand he took His pittance ev'ry night,

He did it with a jealous look,

And, when he could, would bite.

His diet was of wheaten bread

And milk, and oats, and ftraw ;Thiftles, or lettuces inftead,

With fand to fcour his maw.

On twigs of hawthorn he regal'd,
On pippins' ruffet peel,

And, when his juicy falads fail'd,
Slic'd carrot pleas'd him well.

A Turkey carpet was his lawn
Whereon he lov'd to bound,
To fkip and gambol like a fawn,
And fwing his rump around.

His frifking was at evening hours,
For then he lost his fear,

But moft before approaching fhow'rs,
U when a florm drew near.

Eight years and five round-rolling moons

He thus faw fteal away,

Dozing out all his idle noons,
And ev'ry night at play.

I kept him for his humour* fake,
For he would oft beguile

My heart of thoughts that made it ache,
And force me to a smile..

But now, beneath this walnut fhade
He finds his long, laft home,
And waits, in fnug concealment laid,

Till gentler Pufs fhall come.

He, ftill more aged, feels the fhocks
From which no care can fave,

And, partner once of Tiney's box,

Muft foon partake his grave.

EPITAPHIUM ALTERUM.

Hic etiam jacet

Qui totum novennium vixit

Pufs.

Sifte paulifper

Qui præteriturus es

Et tecum fic reputa

Hunc neque canis venaticus
Nec plumbum miffile
Nec laqueus

Nec imbres nimii

Confecêre

Tamen mortuus eft→→→

Et moriar ego.

NOTE to line 8, page 109.

In the year 1774, being much indisposed both in mind and body, incapable of diverting myself either with company or books, and yet in a condition that made fome diverfion neceffary, I was glad of any thing that would engage my attention without fatiguing it. The children of a neighbour of mine had a leveret given them for a plaything; it was at that time about three months old. Understanding better how to tease the poor creature than to feed it, and, soon becoming weary of their charge, they readily confented that their father, who faw it pining and growing leaner every day, fhould offer it to my acceptance. I was willing enough to take the prisoner under my protection, perceiving that, in the management of such an animal, and in the attempt to tame it, I should find just that fort of employment which my cafe required. It was foon known among the neighbours that I was pleased with the prefent; and the confequence was, that in a short time I had as many leverets offered to me as would have stocked a paddock. I undertook the care of three, which it is neceffary that I should here diftinguish by the names I gave them-Pufs, Tiney, and Befs. Notwithstanding the two feminine appellatives, I must inform you that they were all males. Immediately commencing carpenter, I built them houses to fleep in; each had a separate apartment, fo contrived that their ordure would pafs through the bottom of it; an earthen pan placed under each received whatsoever fell, which being duly emptied and washed, they were thus kept perfectly fweet and clean. In the daytime they had the range of a hall, and at night retired each to his own bed, never intruding into that of another.

Pufs grew presently familiar, would leap into my lap, raise himself upon his hinder feet, and bite the hair from my tem

ples. He would fuffer me to take him up and to carry him about in my arms, and has more than once fallen fast asleep upon my knee. He was ill three days, during which time I nurfed him, kept him apart from his fellows that they might not moleft him (for, like many other wild animals, they perfecute one of their own fpecies that is fick), and by conftant care, and trying him with a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health. No creature could be more grateful than my patient after his recovery; a fentiment which he most fignificantly expreffed by licking my hand, firft the back of it, then the palm, then every finger feparately, then between all the fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unfaluted; a ceremony which he never performed but once again upon a fimilar occafion. Finding him extremely tractable, I made it my custom to carry him always after breakfast into the garden, where he hid himself generally under the leaves of a cucumber vine, fleeping or chewing the cud till evening; in the leaves alfo of that vine he found a favourite repaft. I had not long habituated him to this taste of liberty, before he began to be impatient for the return of the time when he might enjoy it. He would invite me to the garden by drumming upon my knee, and by a look of fuch expreffion as it was not poffible to mifinterpret. If this rhetoric did not immediately fucceed, he would take the fkirt of my coat between his teeth, and pull at it with all his force. Thus Pufs might be faid to be perfectly tamed, the shyness of his nature was done away, and, on the whole, it was vifible, by many symptoms, which I have not room to enumerate, that he was happier in human society than when fhut up with his natural companions..

Not fo Tiney; upon him the kindest treatment had not the. leaft effect. He too was fick, and in his fickness had an equal fhare of my attention; but if, after his recovery, I took the^ liberty to stroke him, he would grunt, ftrike with his fore feet, fpring forward, and bite. He was, however, very entertain

« ПредишнаНапред »