Bruno

A chronometer is a sort of large watch used at sea. It is a very exact and a very costly instrument.

He gave the box to his friend, and said, “Will you be kind enough, sir, to take this chronometer in your lap, and carry it to Lima, and give it to the American minister there?”

The gentleman said that he would, and he took the box in his lap, and carried it with great care.

Before long, however, Pansita, not having quite air enough to breathe inside the box, put her nose out through one of the openings.

“Ah!” said the gentleman, “this is something strange. I never knew a ship’s chronometer to have a nose before.”

Thus he discovered that it was a dog, and not a chronometer that he was carrying.

He, however, continued to carry the box very carefully, and when he arrived at Lima he delivered it safely to the minister, and the minister gave it to his wife.

The beauty of the dog. The lady is much pleased.

The lady was very much pleased to see such a beautiful dog. Its form was graceful, its eyes full of meaning, and its fur was like brown silk, very soft, and smooth, and glossy.

The American flag hoisted.

By-and-by a revolution broke out in Lima, and there was great confusion and violence in the streets. The Americans that were there flocked to the house of the minister for protection. The house was a sort of castle. It had a court, in the centre, and great iron gates across the passage-way that formed the entrance. The minister brought soldiers from the ships to guard his castle, and shut the gates to keep the people that were fighting in the streets from getting in. He hoisted the American flag, too, on the corner of the battlements. The Americans that had fled there for safety were all within the walls, greatly alarmed.[7 - Such a minister as this is a high public officer of government, who resides at a foreign capital for the purpose of attending to the business of his own country there, and of protecting the citizens in case of danger.]

Danger.

Pansita, wondering what all the noise and confusion in the streets could mean, concluded that she would go out and see. So, watching her opportunity, she slipped through among the soldiers to the passage-way, and thence out between the bars of the great iron gates. The lady, when she found that Pansita had gone out, was greatly alarmed.

“She will be killed!” said she. “She will be killed! What can I do to save her? She will certainly be killed!”

But nothing could be done to save Pansita; for if they had opened the gates to go out and find her, the people that were fighting in the streets would have perhaps rushed in, and then they would all have been killed.

Pansita is recovered.

So they had to wait till the fighting was over, and then they went out to look for Pansita. To their great joy, they found her safe in a house round the corner.

After a time, the minister and his wife returned to America, and they brought Pansita with them. They had a house on the North River, and Pansita lived with them there many years in great splendor and happiness.

Pannie’s bed.

The lady made a bed for Pannie in a basket, with nice and well-made bed-clothes to cover her when she was asleep. Pannie would get into this bed at night, but she would always scratch upon it with her claws before she lay down. This was her instinct.

She was accustomed in her youth, when she was burrowing in the ground in the prairies in Mexico, to make the place soft where she was going to lie down by scratching up the earth with her paws, and she continued the practice now, though, of course, this was not a proper way to beat up a bed of feathers.

Pannie was a great favorite with all who knew her. She was affectionate in her disposition, and mild and gentle in her demeanor; and, as is usually the case with those who possess such a character, she made a great many friends and no enemies.

Mistakes.

By-and-by Pannie grew old and infirm. She became deaf and blind, and sometimes, when the time came for her to go to bed at night, she would make a mistake, and get into the wrong basket – a basket that belonged to another dog. This would make Looly, the dog that the basket belonged to, very angry. Looly would run about the basket, and whine and moan until Pansita was taken out and put into her own place.

Pannie’s death and burial.

At last Pansita died. They put her body in a little leaden coffin, and buried it in a very pleasant place between two trees.

This is a true story.

THE DOG’S PETITION

Letter-day.

One day, about the middle of the quarter, in a certain school, what the boys called Letter-day came. Letter-day was a day in which all the boys in the school were employed in writing letters.

Each boy, on these occasions, selected some absent friend or acquaintance, and wrote a letter to him. The letters were written first on a slate, and then, after being carefully corrected, were copied neatly on sheets of paper and sent. The writing of these letters was thus made a regular exercise of the school. It was, in fact, an exercise in composition.

Erskine’s conversation with his teacher.

A boy named Erskine, after taking out his slate, and writing the date upon the top of it, asked the teacher whom he thought it would be best for him to write to.

“How would you like to write to your aunt?” asked the teacher.

“Why, pretty well,” said Erskine, rather doubtfully.

“I think it would be doing good to write to her,” said the teacher. “It will please her very much to have a letter from you.”

“Then I will,” said Erskine. “On the whole, I should like to write to her very much.”

So Erskine wrote the letter, and, when it had been corrected and copied, it was sent.

This is the letter. It gives an account of a petition offered by a dog to his master, begging to be allowed to accompany the boys of the school on an excursion:

Erskine’s letter.

    August 2, 1853.

Dear Aunt, – I hope you have been well since I have heard from you.

We took an excursion up to Orange Pond, and stayed all day. In the morning it was very misty, but in about an hour it cleared up, and the sun came out. Charles and Stephen went over to Mr. Wingate’s to get a stage, and a lumber-wagon, and a carriage. There were two horses in the stage, and an old gray one in the lumber-wagon. Wright and I went down to get William Harmer, a new scholar, to come up here before we started. At last we all were ready, Crusoe and all. The teacher bought a little dog in the vacation, and named him Crusoe. One of the boys wrote a letter, and tied it about Crusoe’s neck, and this was it:

The dog’s petition.

My very dear Master, – Can I go with the boys to-day on the excursion? I will be very good, and not bark or bite. I wish to go very much indeed, and I hope you will let me.

    From your affectionate dog,
    Bow-wow-wow.

Account of an excursion. Diving off the row-boats. The hot rock. Coming home.

Soon we started. It was very cool when we left home, but when we got out on the hills it was very hot. The teacher let us get out once and get some berries. After a ride of about nine miles, we got out, and found it a very cool place. The public house was very near to the pond, and we ran down there as soon as we got our fishing-poles. Some of the boys got into an old boat, and got a fish as soon as they cast their poles out. The man said some of us should go out on an old rock that was there, and the rest of us in a boat. We had a fine time fishing, and caught about thirty small fish. Mr. Wingate went out in another boat, and caught a very large perch and pickerel, and a few other fish. After we had caught a few more fish, we became tired, and wanted to go to the shore; so the teacher took two or three of us at a time, and we went to the shore. After we had played around a little, we had a nice dinner, and then we went in swimming. The man said we might dive off the small row-boats. We had fine fun pulling the boats along while we were wading in the water, for it was nice and sandy on the bottom. We found we could wade out to the rock before named. We all waded out on it; but no sooner had we got on the top, than we jumped off in all directions, for it was so hot that one could roast an egg on it. We all ran back to the shore as fast as we could go, laughing heartily. As soon as we got up and were dressed, we went up to the house. Mr. Wingate harnessed up the horses, and we were soon trotting home. We went around by a different way from the one we came by, through some woods, and had a fine ride home. That is the end of our excursion to Orange Pond.

    From your affectionate friend,
    Erskine.