Page 13 - A Little Bush Maid

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER II

PETS AND PLAYTHTNGS

After her father, Norah’s chief companions were her pets.

These were a numerous and varied band, and required no small amount of

attention. Bobs, of course, came first--no other animal could possibly
approach him in favour. But after Bobs came a long procession, beginning
with Tait, the collie, and ending with the last brood of fluffy Orpington

chicks, or perhaps the newest thing in disabled birds, picked up, fluttering
and helpless, in the yard or orchard. There was room in Norah’s heart for

them all.

Tait was a beauty-- a rough-haired collie, with a splendid head, and big,

faithful brown eyes, that spoke more eloquently than many persons’
tongues. He was, like most of the breed, ready to be friends with any one;

but his little mistress was dearest of all, and he worshipped her with abject
devotion. Norah never went anywhere without him; Tait saw to that. He
seemed always on the watch for her coming, and she was never more than a

few yards from the house before the big dog was silently brushing the grass
by her side. His greatest joy was to follow her on long rides into the bush,

putting up an occasional hare and scurrying after it in the futile way of
collies, barking at the swallows overhead, and keeping pace with Bobs’
long, easy canter.

Puck used to come on these excursions too. He was the only being for

whom it was suspected that Tait felt a mild dislike--an impudent Trish
terrier, full of fun and mischief, yet with a somewhat unfriendly and
suspicious temperament that made him, perhaps, a better guardian for

Norah than the benevolently disposed Tait. Puck had a nasty, inquiring
mind--an unpleasant way of sniffing round the legs of tramps that generally

induced those gentry to find the top rail of a fence a more calm and more
desirable spot than the level of the ground. Tndian hawkers feared him and
hated him in equal measure. He could bite, and occasionally did bite, his

victims being always selected with judgment and discretion, generally