(1853)
This story really consists of two parts. The first part might be left out, but
it gives us a few particulars, and these are useful.
We were staying in the country at a gentleman’s seat, where it happened
that the master was absent for a few days. In the meantime, there arrived
from the next town a lady; she had a pug dog with her, and came, she said,
to dispose of shares in her tan-yard. She had her papers with her, and we
advised her to put them in an envelope, and to write thereon the address of
the proprietor of the estate, “General War-Commissary Knight,” &c.
She listened to us attentively, seized the pen, paused, and begged us to
repeat the direction slowly. We complied, and she wrote; but in the midst of
the “General War-” she struck fast, sighed deeply, and said, “I am only a
woman!” Her Puggie had seated itself on the ground while she wrote, and
growled; for the dog had come with her for amusement and for the sake of
its health; and then the bare floor ought not to be offered to a visitor. His
outward appearance was characterized by a snub nose and a very fat back.
“He doesn’t bite,” said the lady; “he has no teeth. He is like one of the
family, faithful and grumpy; but the latter is my grandchildren’s fault, for
they have teased him; they play at wedding, and want to give him the part
of the bridesmaid, and that’s too much for him, poor old fellow.”
And she delivered her papers, and took Puggie upon her arm. And this is
the first part of the story which might have been left out.
PUGGIE DIED!! That’s the second part.
It was about a week afterwards we arrived in the town, and put up at the
inn. Our windows looked into the tan-yard, which was divided into two
parts by a partition of planks; in one half were many skins and hides, raw
and tanned. Here was all the apparatus necessary to carry on a tannery, and
