Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/93

Rh One evening he fell asleep by the hearth in the hall at Tetcott. Suddenly he started up with a cry, "Oh, Master," said he, "I was in a sog [sleep] and I thought I was dead and in hell."

"Well, John," said Arscott, "and what did you see there?"

"Sir, everything very much like what it is here in Tetcott Hall, the gentlefolks nearest the fire."

John Arscott had, as already related, an enormous tame toad that came out on the doorstep to be fed every morning, and went by the name of "Old Dawty." The country people thought that it was John Arscott's "familiar." When he whistled, the creature would hop up to him, and leap to his hand or to his knee. One day a visitor with his stick killed it; but seeing this Black John flew at him and knocked him down and belaboured him soundly. John Arscott came out, and when he heard what the visitor had done, turned on his heel, and when the gentleman had picked himself up and drew near, slammed the house door in his face.

This is Mr. Hawker's version of the story of the end of the pet toad, which is at variance with that related by the Rev. P. W. Molesworth, whose authority is more trustworthy than that of Mr. Hawker, a gentleman given to romancing.

"Black John's lair was a rude hut, which he had wattled for a snug abode close to the kennels. He loved to retire to it, and sleep near his chosen companions, the hounds. When they were unkennelled he accompanied and ran with them on foot, and so sinewy and so swift was his stunted form that he was very often in their midst at the death."

John Arscott had another follower called Dogget. "My son Simon" or simply "Simon" he was wont to call him. He also ran after the foxhounds.