Gambier

“ The man and the dog were drawing very close to one another, and in more ways than one.
The pens were only tenanted now by some thirty ewes, still to lamb, and by those “in hospital,” as Job spoke of them. Four hundred tegs, ewes, and lambs were in fold on the hill, on a clover stubble, or what remained of it, being given crushed swedes and other things, for keep was scarce so early in the year. The shepherd’s boy and his dog were up there with them: only Job and Scot were in the pens. Murphy knew this last, savage though he was ”

“ All his life he was a comparatively poor man. His only residence, when he was not living at the Admiralty, was a small copyhold house, with a garden and one field. He never had any landed estate.
In the year 1809 Lord Gambier commanded the fleet in the Basque Roads. Auxiliary fireships were commanded by Lord Cochrane, under Gambier’s directions; the fireships were sent at Gambier’s suggestion, the only alteration being that the direction of them was given to Cochrane and not to Mr. ”

“ There were others like him in appearance in the yard; on the eyot on which the mill-buildings stood, gorgeous in many-coloured tiles; round the dwelling-house, or in a large wired enclosure close by. His master, the Over-Lord, bred dogs of his kind for the nonce, not necessarily for profit, but because, with a great heart for dogs, he chose to, claiming indeed the proud boast that not a single dog of his class walked these Islands that was not of his strain—and claiming that, moreover, truly. ”

“ The first permanent building, “Old Kenyon” (still standing, and used as a dormitory) , was erected on Gambier Hill in 1827 in the midst of a forest. In 1907–1908 the theological seminary had 18 students and the collegiate department 119. ”

“ They were barking and jumping round him, and to avoid risk he was covering up the hare beneath his coat. His face was a study as he looked at Murphy lying in the snow. No fault was to be 27 found with the dog; that was very certain. He had been given an opportunity of showing what he could do. The snow had equalised the race. And this was the end—the hare not hurt at all. He would look again at her presently. It had been a pretty sight: Nature’s working; no real cruelty in any of it. Such were the thoughts that were passing in the tall man’s mind. ”

“ Dogs—well, sheep, if you do please to understand, is sheep; but dogs is dogs, and God Almighty do know as they be wonderful.”
“It’s not all dogs, though, that are as shepherds’ dogs, Nutt—or capable of being.”
Nutt shook his head. The two men and their dogs were on the hillside, with two hundred and fifty tegs moving before them. The sheep were walking with a wide front, but in single files, following those parallel tracks that had marked this steep hillside for centuries, to puzzle strangers.
“You can’t make a shepherd’s dog out of every dog, can you?” ”

“ To thrash him would be almost an act of cruelty by a dog of such a temperament: it might make him more nervous than ever, even if he could be caught for the purpose and made to understand the rudiments of cause and effect. Dan had learnt to “come and be thrashed,” when such was necessary and he was summoned in those most ominous of words. It might be possible to teach Murphy in the same way: dogs, somehow or other, were almost universally capable of differentiating between justice and injustice, and bore no resentment. ”

“ Moby reproachfully, “there’ll be murder, and then trouble to follow: the Master is not one to put up with cruelty to any dog. Bless the man—you’re gettin’ like a mad thing. Leave the dog alone, I tell yer.” Seth had taken off his boots, and flung them at the dog before going up to bed: Mrs. Moby had been engaged trying to disconcert his aim. ”

“ Graf, another of the same breed, but belonging to a period twenty years later than Fritz, had also curious ways of his own. He could run down a rabbit in the open, and did it on many an occasion; but if this was remarkable—a rabbit being reckoned one of the quickest of all animals 123 for a hundred yards—his curious behaviour exhibited itself in quite another way. He was a dog of great character and cleverness, as well as perfect manners. It was the custom in the family at that date to have prayers on Sunday evenings. This Graf never failed to resent. ”

“ He’s a good dog—a good dog,” he repeated, when he left.
It was after dark when Moby returned. “Wants for us to kep the dog, do ’e? There be a sight too many on ’em about; and for what he do want to kep such a lot o’ such curs, nobody can’t think. A-bringin’ a’ the dirt into our housen too. Err ... I’ll warm yer!” he added, making as though he would fling something at the dog.
Murphy looked puzzled, and crept into a corner.
“Don’t carry on like that, Seth; don’t do it, man. The dog’s a poor, nervous little thing with we, and don’t mean to do no hurt.” ”

“ At a quiet turn of the road the dog was put down, being somewhat heavy, when once again he could not be persuaded to walk, or even to stand upon his feet. Again and again he acted in this way, till at length the house was reached and he was deposited on a mat by the fire, close to a bowl of good food.
And this poor little abject was Murphy!—Murphy, the dog with the pedigree of kings and even emperors; the dog that had run a hare to a standstill; the dog of the happiest disposition of any one in the kennel, and that had been the favourite 62 and playmate of the whole great company. ”

“ So he might be trained to sheep. Job Nutt’s words kept repeating themselves in the mind—“I believe as I could; I do believe as I could.” What the shepherd had said was a testimony to this dog’s marvellous intelligence; but then every 144 one had come to testify to that and to remark upon it. He was of course nervous and shy, and no doubt would always be so. Perhaps it was these characteristics that gave him the further one of extraordinary gentleness, that won all hearts. Many had already said, with a laugh, that he was “born good” ”

“ Hindus of good class and Mahomedans are found generally to avoid them; but here again many Hindus, and such a caste as Sweepers, will touch a dog without considering themselves defiled, just as a Mahomedan will often hold or take charge of a dog, though he be careful not to do so by the chain, or leather lead, but by slipping his jharan, or cloth, through the dog’s collar, and handling him that way. ”

“ It is indeed surprising how closely the dog family approximates to the human. The same counterparts are to be found in both. We mostly hunt in packs. And if dogs are wont to bark and bite and rend, We, on our part, are often not behind in practising the same 32 strange arts, though not always with the same sportsmanship and generosity.
As for Murphy, he took the whole matter with a skip and a laugh, as if it was all part of the jolly fun of life, and as not in any way reflecting credit on himself. ”

“ It is never necessary in the case of ordinary offences and with ordinary dogs to be over severe with the stick—if a suitable one is handy, which it generally is not. A lecture and a shaking does as well, with a tap or two with a stick to show it is there. Provoking as the incident had been, this last is what 103 Murphy duly received. The shooting-stick was much brandished in the air, and the dog called “Murder,” long and loudly. ”

“ We can’t keep a dog like that—it is impossible!”
Later, Dan appeared. The young dog got up, went respectfully towards him, and licked him deliberately upon the lips. Dan wagged his tail. They were friends. Then once again the newcomer crept on his stomach to the corner of the hearthrug, and remained there cringing when any one went near. ”

“ So, too, the great Theron walked as the close companion of the Gothic king; and Cavall became the trusty servant and liegeman of King Arthur. The huge white hound Gorban sat ever at the side of the Welsh bard Ummad as he sang his songs; and the beautiful Bran was the friend for life of Fingal. Most men have heard of William the Silent’s spaniel, who saved his master’s life; and many may have seen the form of the dog, fashioned in white marble, lying at his master’s feet on the well-known 85 tomb at Delft. ”

“ If there had been hesitation about keeping Murphy before, there was an end to it now. Here was a dog—a young life—that had once, and not so long ago, been the delight of the kennel, the very embodiment of light-hearted fun and happiness; the most promising of all the 73 younger lot, and one that had never been guilty of wrong. Send him back! Give him up! What might his fate be if he went elsewhere? Death? ”

“ Many people labour under the idea that a camel can and will, with comparative comfort to himself, go for a considerable length of time without water. That he can do so I do not wish for one moment to deny, but that he does so only with a corresponding loss of power was apparent to us all at Suakin. ”

“ At the peace of 1783 he was placed on half-pay; but, on the outbreak of the war of the French Revolution, he was appointed to the command of the 74–gun ship “Defence,” under Lord Howe; and in her he had an honourable share in the battle on the 1st of June 1794. In recognition of his services on this occasion, Captain Gambier received the gold medal, and was made a colonel of marines; the following year he was advanced to the rank of rear-admiral, and appointed one of the lords of the admiralty. ”

“ Paul speaks of false prophets as dogs because of their impudence and love of gain—characteristics hardly to be attributed to the animal itself. The term “dead dog” was the most opprobrious to which a Jew could lay his tongue; when David endeavoured to convey to the mind of Saul that the persecution to which he was subjecting him was a dishonour to himself, he asked him whom he was pursuing; was he pursuing “after a dead dog”? If, as Horace has it, “death is the utmost boundary of wealth and power,” it is surely no less so of pursuit. ”

“ We could form these up in lines of twenty and march them abreast, but the Indian camels were generally marched four in a string, one behind the other, and thus it was difficult to close them up so as to occupy as little ground as possible. The camel is a curious sort of beast, and he gives one the impression of being in a chronic condition of low spirits. ”

“ I be sure as they does: ’tisn’t a mossel o’ use to tell folks the like o’ we different.” 129 Shepherds, stockmen, farm labourers, old villagers who have had many experiences though living in a narrow circle, and who look back over a long life, constantly make use of such remarks. And probably dog-lovers of all classes will re-echo the same.
It was certainly the method adopted in the further training and education of Murphy. ”

“ But as man and dog worked further still, for very joy of the wind and the snow and love for the elements at their worst—the horses struggling, the waggoners calling to them loudly and urging them to put their best into it, with many a crack of the whip—there suddenly fell a lull, and for a moment there was peace. ”

“ In many Mahomedan villages the dog is found in numbers, the inhabitants 209 being glad of his services in shepherding their goats, though condemning him to live outside the house, even though there be likelihood of his being carried off by a prowling leopard. ”

“ It was too hot in the day to go far—that is, for those in life who can choose 150 their own time. So the dog and the man took their walks late, and prolonged them to the hour when the ruddy moon rose solemnly into the sky over the woods and set out on its low, summer curve to the west. ”

“ When you see a camel open his mouth and give vent to a loud gurgling sound, a large red-coloured inflated bag as big as a good-sized melon appearing at the same time from his throat, my advice would be, to those who are strangers to camels, to stand off! A well-bred camel may be known by the fineness of his coat and the smallness of his hind feet.
The camels from India came accompanied by native drivers, and a certain number of transport officers from the Indian Transport Staff. ”

“ When snow falls and a hare finds itself being gradually covered by the flakes, it does what it can to bury itself deeper; but always with this eye on life—that it assiduously keeps a hole open that it may breathe, and always to the leeward. Such is one of many evidences of clever instinct to be met with for ever in the fields.
Thus, before this young dog knew well what had happened, there sprang, as if by magic, from the snow a beauteous animal, strong of scent and fleet of foot, and heading straight away from him at top speed. ”

“ To look ahead in the hey-day of youth is to look forward to unclouded happiness. And, no doubt, to Murphy and those of his own age, the fact that the summer waned and that autumn followed, when leaves fell mysteriously from the trees and there were sporting scents in the air, made little difference to their outlook. Happiness had no relation to the seasons: they were all good in their turn. ”

“ The lives of the Man and the Dog are found to be ever intertwined. Yet is there always this besides—the rift in the lute and the familiar refrain, that the life of the dog shall be short, and that Man shall go on his way with his head bent, till such time as he shall become rich once more in the love of a new-found friend—if that be always possible. ”

“ From this last there sounded at intervals the music of bells, chiming, or ringing solemnly, and beneath its shadow slept other folk, who had once walked the world with these same dogs of many generations, earning epitaphs no better, if as good, as they. To lie in either, seeing what falls to some, might well be thought a stroke of luck for dog or man. ”