Page:Soldiers Three - Kipling (1890).djvu/27

 me as 'ad a naame for bein' knowledgeable about a door, an' axes what's ailin' wi' him.

"Why," says I, "he's getten t' mopes, an what he wants is his libbaty an' coompany like t' rest on us; wal happen a rat or two 'ud liven him oop. It's low, mum," says I, "is rats, but it's t' nature of a dog; an' soa's cuttin' round an' meetin' another dog or two an' passin' t' time o' day, an' hevvin' a bit of a turn-up wi' him like a Christian."

So she says her dog maunt niver fight an' noa Christians iver fought.

"Then, what's a soldier for?" says I; an' I explains to her t' contrairy qualities of a dog, 'at, when yo' coom to think on't, is one o' t' curusest things as is. For they larn to behave theirsens like gentlemen born, fit for t' fost o' coompany—they tell me t' Widdy herself is fond of a good dog and knaws one when she sees it as well as onny body: then on t'other hand a-tewin' round after cats an' gettin' mixed oop i' all manners o' blackguardly street rows, an' killin' rats, an' fightin' like divils.

T' Colonel's Laady says:—"Well, Learoyd, I doant agree wi' you, but you're right in a way o' speeakin, an' I should like yo' to tek Rip out a walkin' wi' you sometimes; but yo' maun't let him fight, nor chase cats, nor do nowt 'orrid": an' them was her very wods.

Soa Rip an' me gooes out a' walkin' o' evenin's, he bein' a dog as did credit tiv' a man, an' I catches a lot o' rats an' we hed a bit of a match on in an awd dry swimmin' bath at back o' t' cantonments, an' it was none so long afore he was as bright as a button again. He hed a way o' flyin' at them big yaller pariah dogs as if he was a harrow offan a bow, an' though his weight were nowt, he tuk 'em so suddint-like they rolled over like skittles in a halley, an' when they coot he stretched after 'em as if he were rabbit-runuin'. Saame with cats when he cud get t' cat agaate o' runnin'.

One evenin', him an' me was trespassin' ovver a compound wall after one of them mungooses 'at he'd started, an' we was