Ponto

“ Poor Ponto is much to be pitied. Either having a cold in his nose, or having ante-breakfasted by stealth on a red herring, he can scent nothing short of a badger, and, every other field, he starts in horror, shame, and amazement, to hear himself, without having attended to his points, enclosed in a whirring covey. He is still duly taken between those inexorable knees; out comes the speck-and-span new dog-whip, heavy enough for a horse; and the yowl of the patient is heard over the whole parish. Mothers press their yet unchastised infants to their breasts ”

“ Frequent flogging will cow the spirit of the best man and dog in Britain. Ponto travels now in fear and trembling, but a few yards from his tyrant’s feet, till, rousing himself to the sudden scent of something smelling strongly, he draws slowly and beautifully, and
“There fixed, a perfect semi-circle stands.”
Up runs the Tyro, ready-cocked, and in his eagerness, stumbling among the stubble, when mark and lo! ”

“ It's so weak that no wonder Ponto's sleep isn't disturbed by it.
Of mornings we used to go out shooting. We had Ponto's own fields to sport over (where we got the landrail) , and the non-preserved part of the Hawbuck property: and one evening in a stubble of Ponto's skirting the Carabas woods, we got among some pheasants, and had some real sport. I shot a hen, I know, greatly to my delight. 'Bag it,' says Ponto, in rather a hurried manner: 'here's somebody coming.' So I pocketed the bird.
'You infernal poaching thieves!' roars out a man from the hedge in the garb of a gamekeeper. ”

“ Take me out there right away, Ponto.”
“Take you out dere, Perfesser?”
“Yes, right away.”
“I—I s’pects I’d better go back an’ ’tend t’ mah weedin’!” exclaimed Ponto, looking as pale as a colored man can look. “Weeds grow powerful fast in dis climate. Dey’ll choke de flowers in about an hour. I’se got t’ ’tend t’ ’em immejeet, sah. I ain’t got no time t’ go huntin’ horned toads. I hopes you’ll ’scuse me, sah,” and with that Ponto was gone, walking faster than he had at any time since the travelers arrived.
“He’s afraid,” said Rose, with a laugh. “I’m not. ”

“ Ponto never came home in that way before. Could a tree have fallen on Reginald?' and Jay's small hand shivered in Linda's at the thought. They hurried after the dog, over the spotless surface of snow, into the charred forest, where now every trunk and bough of ebony seemed set in silver. Thither Reginald had gone to chop at noon, in a little fit of industry. They were guided to the spot by the sad whinings of faithful Ponto, who could not comprehend why his master was lying on the ground, half against a tree, [316] and what meant that large crimson stain deepening in the pure snow. ”

“ It was a whine.
"Why Ponto!" he exclaimed. "You old black devil. How are you, hound? Long time no see."
"Hot damn!" he exclaimed, after a pause. "Have I been on a drunk! You know, Ponto, I dreamed that I was you and if there's anything in dreams I bet I'm the only Republican in Westchester County that ever married a brindle bitch named Buglebell.
"Let's see," he continued. "Where were we? Earlier today I went to the Pond Club and had a couple of drinks. How in hell do I find myself here? I must have drawn one hell of a blank, Ponto, the damndest blank I've ever drawn in my life." ”

“ Parsons, I appeal to you, as a clergyman of the Church of England, is it not painful to hear her putting forward Jones’s asthma, when we all know the true fact is that Ponto’s tastes are so aristocratic that he can’t take exercise with an under servant, and the housekeeper is too fat to waddle. ”

“ It was a most unusual thing for Lord Bill to make a faux pas.
The Simla Season of 1882 passed much in the usual way, a round of social gatherings and festivities. One character I must not fail to introduce to you, namely, Ponto, Lord William’s poodle; he appears in many photographs, and so he ought, being quite a personage; he lived with his master after he became [142] Military Secretary in quite a palatial house called “Inverarm,” standing on the hill, not far from the Viceregal Lodge. ”

“ Tabby was very thankful to Ponto for this ride. She said to herself that she would help him to climb a tree the next time that he tried. But as she drank her milk, she was glad that they both could follow Mary home by the long path through the orchard.
Tabby did not forget her strange ride. But she has never taught Ponto how to climb a tree! She has not even helped him up to the lowest limb. Do you think she ever will? ”

“ I waited until he had to draw a breath and made swift to congratulate him on his professional skill. "I wouldn't have lost Ponto for a thousand dollars," I said. "Let's get him out of your car and up in my bedroom," I added. "He's been like a member of the family and—"
A series of deep bass backs interrupted me, followed by ominous sounds of a heavy body hurling itself recklessly around inside a small enclosed space.
"There!" said the vet. "He recognized your voice. Come on, Ponto. I'll fetch you. He's pretty weak, Mr. Tompkins, but he'll get strong fast if you feed him right." ”

“ If it is fixed on some subject that we are contemplating inwardly, we see nothing at all, although our eyes may not only be wide open, but absolutely fixed on some particular object. For instance, suppose a sportsman is out in the fields preceded by his dogs, Bran and Ponto. If he follows the movements of Bran with attention, he becomes the only object animate or inanimate, that depicts itself on his retina. Ponto may jump and caper in vain: he is lost to his master's eye as much as if he were not there at all ”

“ Ponto del Gada is, on the whole, rather a neat town, containing from twelve to fourteen thousand inhabitants; but being built, especially in the outskirts, without much regard to compactness, it covers more ground than many places of double the amount in population. It stands upon a little bay, formed by two projecting headlands, and can boast of a tolerable harbour excellent roadstead. ”

“ Ponto had done it himself, as we had proof enough afterward; [Pg 313] for ever since that time he has used the knocker as regularly as any two-legged member of the family.
I could tell you stories for a whole evening about Ponto, but these two must answer for the present.
BRUIN AT A MAPLE-SUGAR PARTY.
ONE evening near the first of April, three years ago this spring, I was making my way the best I could down from the west branch of the Penobscot River towards the plantation of Nikertou. (Up in Maine they call an unincorporated town a plantation. Down south the word has a different meaning.) ”

“ We’re not afraid to go home alone. It’s nice and bright, and there is no danger.”
“Deed an’ there be, Miss Nellie,” interrupted Ponto, who did not relish going off on a strange hunt with the boys. “Some ob dem horned toads might git after yo’, an’ if Ponto wasn’t along dey’d bite you. I shorely am gwine home wid yo’. Massa Seabury, he done ’specially stipulate it, an—”
“Yes, I guess Ponto had better go with you,” said Jerry. “We can do better alone. It won’t be the first time we’ve had a midnight hunt, though never before one just like this. ”

“ Pontonnière, f. (popular) , prostitute who plies her trade under the arches of bridges.
Les pontonnières fréquentent le dessous des ponts ... toutes ces filles sont des voleuses. Le macque qui joue ici un rôle [355] plus actif que le barbillon ne quitte sa largue ni jour ni nuit.—Canler.
Popotte, f. (familiar) , table d’hôte. Faire la ——, to cook. Etre ——, is said of a very plain, homely woman. (Military) Popotte, military mess in a small way. ”

“ Pontoon Bridge.
101At the head of the mill-race, where the channel was fifty feet wide, we built a pontoon bridge. We were fortunate in securing six good cider barrels at low cost, also a quantity of “slabs” from one of the sawmills of Lumberville. ”

“ Most fellows, of course, would think themselves in luck, but Ponty has all the tin he knows what to do with, and a wife would suit his book about as well as a tame white elephant. He is dog-in-the-manger in spite of himself. No others need apply. ”

“ I, that have lived months in that province, and am the only traveller that ever did so, must corroborate every word Poncet has said upon this occasion. To dwell on landscapes and picturesque views, is a matter more proper for a poet than a historian. Those countries which are described by Poncet, merit a pen much more able to do them justice, than either his or mine. ”

“ When the vague twilight began to gather, the lonely valley seemed to fill itself with the shadow of the Roman name, as if the mighty empire were still as erect as the supports of the aqueduct; and it was open to a solitary tourist, sitting there sentimental, to believe that no people has ever been, or will ever be, as great as that, measured, as we measure the greatness of an individual, by the push they gave to what they undertook. The Pont du Gard is one of the three or four deepest impressions they have left ”

“ POND, JOHN (c. 1767–1836) , English astronomer-royal, was born about 1767 in London, where his father made a fortune in trade. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of sixteen, but took no degree, his course being interrupted by severe pulmonary attacks which compelled a long residence abroad. ”

“ These are the true causes of the outflow of the Pontus, which do not depend for their credit on the stories of merchants, but upon the actual observation of nature, which is the most accurate method discoverable. ”

“ Atkinson's bench with its array of microscopes, test-tubes, spirit lamps, &c., is next the dark room in which Ponting spends the greater part of his life. I would describe him as sustained by artistic enthusiasm. This world of ours is a different one to him than it is to the rest of us—he gauges it by its picturesqueness—his joy is to reproduce its pictures artistically, his grief to fail to do so. No attitude could be happier for the work which he has undertaken, and one cannot doubt its productiveness. ”

“ For a certain Potts, a creature who, in reality, had no existence; “For who is Potts?” said I. “Potts is no more a substance than Caleb Williams or Peregrine Pickle; Potts is the lay figure that the artist dresses in any costume he requires—a Rachero to-day, a Railway Director to-morrow. What an absurdity in the importance we lend to mere names! Here, for instance, I take the label off the port, and I hang it round the neck of the claret decanter: have I changed the quality of the vintage? have I brought Bordeaux to the meridian of Oporto? ”

“ Am I to be great in Art, or illustrious in Letters? Is there to be an ice tract of Behring's Straits called Potts's Point, or a planet styled Pottsium Sidus? And when centuries have rolled over, will historians have their difficulty about the first Potts, and what his opinions were on this subject or that?”
Then came a low soft sound of half-suppressed laughter, and then the rustle of a muslin dress hastily brushing through the trees. I rushed out from my retreat, and hurried down the walk. No one to be seen,—not a soul ”

“ Even if we cannot see all the bends and [120] creeks of the river from Fowey to Lostwithiel, we must at least take our boat between the woods and slopes of Pont Pill, where it is only at the water’s very edge that the ferns and heather yield to rocks and crimson weed. Landing at Pont, we may climb the steep hillside to Lanteglos Church among the orchards, and see the old stone cross beside the porch, and the wonderful bench-ends within, and the elaborately painted shields that bear so many famous arms. ”

“ PONCE, JOHN (d. 1660?) , author, a native of Cork, studied at Louvain in the college of the Irish Franciscans. He became a member of the order of St. Francis, and, after further studies at Cologne, he removed to the Irish College of St. Isidore at Rome, where he was appointed professor of philosophy and theology. Ponce contributed to the Franciscan edition of the works of Duns Scotus, issued at Lyons in 1639. ”

“ But you cannot upset the punt any more than you can discompose the Englishman; the punt simply upsets you without seeming to be aware of it. And when you crawl dripping up the bank, consoled only by the fact that the Humane Society man was not at hand with his boat-hook to pull you out by the seat of the trousers, your mentor will gravely explain how you made your mistake. ”

“ And Ponty, as he lay there blinking in the sun, moralised on the matter, and came to the conclusion that there is hope for a boy as long as he loves to don his flannels and roll up his shirt-sleeves, and stand up, with his head in the air, to face his rival like a man. ”

“ Rejecting upon those benign ends which the gods chose to make him serve, I can but marvel how lightly each of us may meet and scorn a casual Potts, unrecking his gracious and predestined office in the play of Fate. ”

“ We might begin by imagining Potts in search of this, that, or t'other,—love, happiness, solitude, climate, scenery, anything, in short. Let us fancy him on a journey, try and personate him; that would be the real way. Do you, for instance, be Potts, and I 'll be his sister Susan. It will be the best fun in the world, as we go along, to see everything, note everything, and discuss everything Potts-wise. ”

“ LAUDISI. Yes, yes, I don't deny that. But just a moment! If you think of it, isn't Signora Frola right? Well, in that case who is the woman in Ponza's eyes? The phantom of a second wife, of course! Or else Ponza himself is right, and in that case you have the phantom of a daughter in the old lady's eyes! Two phantoms, in other words! Now we've got to find out, ladies and gentlemen, whether this woman, who must be a mere phantom for the one or for the other, is a person, after all for herself. In the situation we are in, I should say there was very good ground for doubting. ”