Aileen Aroon, A Memoir With other Tales of Faithful Friends and Favourites

"I'm not sure, Ida, that you will like the following story. There is truth in it, though, and a moral mixed up with it which you may unravel if you please. I call it--"

Scene: The old pine forest; a beautiful day in later summer. Grey clouds flitting across the sky's bright blue, and occasionally obscuring the sun's rays. A gentle breeze going...

"I'm of the same opinion," I assented; "but as I intend the story of `Greyfriars' Bobby' to be printed in my next book, I will just read it over to you as I have written it."

Ida continued to improve, and she did not let me forget my promise to resume my office of story-telling, which I accordingly did next evening, bringing my portfolio into Ida's b...

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the pie called Maggie, who was very busy in the bottom of her cage. I never, by the way, heard any bird or human being laugh in such a cuttingly tantalisin...

Simplicity was one of the most prominent traits of Aileen's character. In some matters she really was so simple and innocent, that she could hardly take her own part. Indeed, in...

"A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain Breaks the serene of heaven: In full-orbed glory, yonder moon divine Rolls through the...

I was idly sauntering along the only street in Simon's Town one fine day in June, when I met my little, fat, good-humoured friend, Paymaster Pumpkin. He was walking at an enormo...

Just eighteen months after the events mentioned in last chapter, as novelists say, things took a turn for the better, and we retired a little farther into the country into a lar...

"Twilight grey Had in her sober livery all things clad: Silence accompanied; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch; these to their nests Were slunk, all save the wakefu...

Dogs are never ungrateful for kindnesses, but I have seen many noted instances of revenge, and so doubtless have many of my readers. Here is a case. At one time of day my father...

Blue-jackets, as Her Majesty's sailors are sometimes styled, are passionately fond of pets. They must have something to love, if it be but a woolly-headed nigger-boy or a cockro...

"Very prettily put, birdie," I said; "resume the thread of Nero's narrative. Did I actually make use of those words? Very well, I will, though I fear you will think the story a...

In my last chapter I mentioned the name of Ida. Ida Graham was my little niece. Alas! she no longer brightens our home with the sunshine of her smile. Poor child, she was very b...

"Do I think that Master Nero knows we are talking about him? Yes, birdie, of that I am quite convinced. Just look at the cunning old rogue lying there pretending to be asleep, b...

"You see, dear," I continued, "that Nero had even in his younger days a very high sense of humour and fun, and was extremely fond of practical joking, and this trait of his char...

"With eye upraised his master's looks to scan, The joy, the solace, and the aid of man, The rich man's guardian, and the poor man's friend, The only creature faithful to the end."

I certainly had no intention of bringing tears to little Ida's eyes; it was mere thoughtlessness on my part, but the result was precisely the same; and there was Ida kneeling be...

Frank and I had been away all the afternoon, on one of our long rambles. Very pleasantly shone the morning sun, that had wooed us away; the ground was frozen hard as iron, there...

The spider, however, is the great enemy of the small genus of cockroaches. These spiders are queer little fellows. They do not build a web for a fly-trap, but merely for a house...

"Then craving leave, he spake Of life, which all can take but none can give; Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep, Wonderful, dear, and pleasant unto each, Even to...

When cruising round Africa some years ago in a saucy wee gunboat, that shall be nameless, I was not only junior assistant surgeon, but I was likewise head surgeon, and chief of...

"Ye ken where yon wee burnie, love, Runs roarin' to the sea, And tumbles o'er its rocky bed Like spirit wild and free. The mellow mavis tunes his lay, The blackbird swells his n...

"The dove flies on. In lonely flight She flies from dawn to dark; And now, amidst the gloom of night, Comes weary to the ark. `Oh! let me in,' she seems to say, `For long and lo...

If ever two days passed by without my seeing the portly form of my friend Captain D--, that is Frank, heaving in sight about twelve o'clock noon, round the corner of the road th...

"They sang, as blithe as finches sing, That flutter loose on golden wing, And frolic where they list; Strangers to liberty, 'tis true, But that delight they never knew, And ther...

Bonnie Berkshire! It is an expression we often make use of. Bonnie Berks--bonnie even in winter, when the fields are robed in starry snow; bonnie in spring-time, when the fields...

"Old dog, you are dead--we must all of us die-- You are gone, and gone whither? Can any one say? I trust you may live again, somewhat as I, And haply, `go on to perfection'--som...

"Now," said Frank, next night (we are all assembled drinking tea on the lawn), "after all those tales about your foreign favourites, and your pet creepie-creepies, I think the b...

"Adieu, sweet bird! thou erst hast been Companion of each summer scene, Loved inmate of our meadows green, And rural home; The music of thy cheerful song We loved to hear; and a...

"I think you are right, Frank," was my reply; "change will do it--a few weeks' residence in a bracing atmosphere; and it would do us all good too; for of course you would be of...

Shortly after the melancholy death of Tip, some one presented me with a puppy, and some one else presented me with a rook. My knowledge of natural history was thus progressing....

Scene: A lofty pine wood, from which can be caught distant glimpses of the valley of the Thames. "Aileen Aroon," a noble Newfoundland, has thrown herself down by her master's si...

Meggie was a collie, a Highland collie, and a very beautiful one too. So much for her appearance. As for her moral qualities, it is sufficient to say that she was Frank's dog--a...