Rab and His FriendsCosimo, Inc., 2005 M12 1 - 208 pages I was bitten severely by a little dog when with my mother at Moffat Wells, being then three years of age, and I have remained "bitten" ever since in the matter of dogs. I remember that little dog... and were I allowed to search among the shades in the cynic Elysian fields, I could pick her out still.-from "Our Dogs"The 1858 short story "Rab and His Friends"-based on a true incident about a gray mastiff, Rab, and his relationship with an Edinburgh doctor and one of the doctor's patients-is considered one of the finest examples of Victorian melodrama. It is also beautifully portrays the extraordinary insight author John Brown had into the canine temperament; it and other essays included here on Brown's life with the faithful animals will enchant dog lovers. Also featured in this volume: Brown's renowned 1863 sketch, "Marjorie Fleming."Scottish physician and writer John Brown (1810-1882) is best known for his two volumes of essays, Horae Subsecivae (Leisure Hours) (1858, 1861). |
Contents
| 7 | |
MARJORIE FLEMING | 47 |
THE MYSTERY OF BLACK AND TAN | 109 |
HER LAST HALFCROWN | 131 |
QUEEN MARYS CHILDGARDEN | 189 |
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Common terms and phrases
Ailie asked asleep beautiful better Black and Tan boys Braehead bright Callander called child creature Crieff dark dead dear death delight Divil dogs fighting door Duchess Duchie Duke of Wellington ears eyes face father fear feet fell fond gave gentle gleams Glen Ogle going hair happy head heart Hill Howgate huge HUGH MILLER Isabella James Jess John Pym keen Keith Kirkcaldy knew look Lord lying Maid Maidie Maidie's Maister John MARJORIE FLEMING Mary Duff master mastiff measles morning mother mouth MYSTERY OF BLACK never night plaid plainly poor Quá QUEEN MARY'S Rab's Ravelstone roar round Scott soul Stonehenge Street surgeon sweet tail teeth tell terrier thing thoroughbred thought Toby Tom Jones took touch trotted walked watching wild woman words young
Popular passages
Page 29 - And so he did ; and handy and clever, and swift and tender as any woman, was that horny-handed, snell, peremptory little man. Everything she got he gave her : he seldom slept ; and often I saw his small shrewd eyes out of the darkness, fixed on her. As before, they spoke little. Rab...
Page 10 - ... brutes;' it is a crowd annular, compact, and mobile ; a crowd centripetal, having its eyes and its heads all bent downwards and inwards, to one common focus. Well, Bob and I are up, and find it is not over : a small thoroughbred, white bull-terrier, is busy throttling a large shepherd's dog, unaccustomed to war, but not to be trifled with. They are hard at it ; the scientific little fellow doing his work in great style, his pastoral enemy fighting wildly, but with the sharpest of teeth and a...
Page 40 - ... and came up the stairs and met me. It was less than three hours since he left, and he must have posted out — who knows how? — to Howgate, full nine miles off; yoked Jess, and driven her astonished into town. He had an armful of blankets, and was streaming with perspiration. He nodded to me, spread out on the floor two pairs of clean old blankets having at their corners "AG, 1794" in large letters in red worsted.
Page 24 - ... long — the mobility, the instantaneousness of that bud were very funny and surprising, and its expressive twinklings and winkings, the intercommunications between the eye, the ear, and it, were of the oddest and swiftest. Rab had the dignity and simplicity of great size ; and having fought his way all along the road to absolute supremacy, he was as mighty in his own line as Julius Caesar or the Duke of Wellington, and had the gravity
Page 34 - The body and the soul — companions for sixty years — were being sundered, and taking leave. She was walking, alone, through the valley of that shadow, into which one day we must all enter — and yet she was not alone, for we know whose rod and staff were comforting her. One night she had fallen quiet, and as we hoped, asleep; her eyes were shut. We put down the gas, and sat watching her. Suddenly she sat up in bed, and taking a bedgown which was lying on it rolled up, she held it eagerly to...
Page 32 - So far well; but four days after the operation my patient had a sudden and long shivering, a "groosin'," as she called it. I saw her soon after; her eyes were too bright, her cheek colored; she was restless, and ashamed of being so; the balance was lost; mischief had begun. On looking at the wound, a blush of red told the secret; her pulse was rapid, her breathing anxious and quick, she wasn't herself, as she said, and was vexed at her restlessness. We tried what we could, James did everything, was...
Page 36 - ... breast — to the right side. We could see her eyes bright with a surprising tenderness and joy, bending over this bundle of clothes. She held it as a woman holds her sucking child; opening out her night-gown impatiently, and holding it close and brooding over it and murmuring foolish little words, as over one whom his mother comforteth, and who sucks and is satisfied. It was pitiful and strange to see her wasted, dying look, keen and yet vague — her immense love. "Preserve me!
Page 94 - WHY am I loth to leave this earthly scene ! Have I so found it full of pleasing charms ! Some drops of joy with draughts of ill between: Some gleams of sunshine mid renewing storms : Is it departing pangs my soul alarms?
Page 87 - A direful death indeed they had, As wad put any parent mad ; But she was more than usual calm, She did not give a single dam.
Page 21 - ... gentleman, than did James the Howgate carrier, when he lifted down Ailie, his wife. The contrast of his small, swarthy, weatherbeaten, keen, worldly face to hers — pale, subdued, and beautiful — was something wonderful. Rab looked on concerned and puzzled; but ready for anything that might turn up, — were it to strangle the nurse, the porter, or even me. Ailie and he seemed great friends. "As I was sayin', she's got a kind o' trouble in her breest, doctor; wull ye tak