Live Toys; Or Anecdotes of Our Four-Legged and Other Pets Read online

  BLUEBEARD, THE SHETLAND PONY. _Page 85._]

  LIVE TOYS;

  Or

  Anecdotes of Our Four-Legged and Other Pets.

  by

  EMMA DAVENPORT,

  Authoress Of

  "Jamie's Questions," "Weak And Wilful," etc.

  With Illustrations by Harrison Weir.

  London:Griffith and Farran,(Successors to Newbery and Harris,)Corner of St. Paul's Churchyard.M DCCC LXII.

  London:Printed by Wertheimer and Co.,Circus Place, Finsbury.

  TO

  LADY NEPEAN,

  THIS

  LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED,

  AS

  CONTAINING TRUE ANECDOTES OF THE VARIOUS ANIMALS THAT WERE IN THEPOSSESSION OF A LITTLE BOY AND GIRL, IN WHOM SHE HAS ALWAYS SHEWNA KIND INTEREST.

  Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been correctedwithout note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text havebeen retained as printed. The cover of this ebook was created bythe transcriber and is hereby placed in the public domain.

  CONTENTS.

  PAGE

  MOPPY, THE WHITE RABBIT 1

  THE TWO BIRDS, GOLDIE AND BROWNIE 4

  POLL PARROT 10

  NEDDY AND THE RIFLE DONKEY 19

  BUNNY, THE WILD RABBIT 31

  THE JACKDAW 38

  PRICKER, THE HEDGEHOG 50

  DRAKE, THE RETRIEVER 55

  TAWNEY, THE TERRIER 60

  PUFFER, THE PIGEON 70

  DR. BATTIUS, THE BAT 75

  THE CHOUGH 80

  THE KITTENS, BLACKY AND SNOWDROP 83

  BLUEBEARD, THE SHETLAND PONY 85

  JOE, THE GERMAN DOG 96

  LIVE TOYS;

  OR

  ANECDOTES OF OUR FOUR-LEGGED AND OTHER PETS.

  MOPPY, THE WHITE RABBIT.

  The first Pet that we ever remember possessing was a large whiterabbit. We were then very little children; and, being at the sea-side,we spent the greater part of the day on the shore, or rather on thebroad esplanade, that stretched for full half-a-mile round the prettybay. When we were quite tired of running there, or of picking up stonesand weeds on the shingle below the esplanade wall, we were enabled toprolong our stay out of doors by means of the pretty littlegoat-carriages that were kept in readiness on the esplanade. Some ofthem were made with two seats; some were drawn by one goat, and somewith two. There were reins and regular harness to these little goats,and we were indeed pleased, when our nurse allowed us to drive in oneof the double-seated carriages. We took turns to sit in front anddrive, and we tried hard to persuade our Mamma to let us have a goat,and a goat-carriage for ourselves. What a nice Pet that would havebeen! But Mamma said she could not take it about, as we travelled much,and also that a goat would butt at us and knock us down. Therefore wewere obliged to be content with patting and coaxing the goats on thewalk.

  During one of our drives in the goat-carriage, we met with a boycarrying a beautiful white creature with pink eyes; "Look! look!nurse," we cried, "what is that?" "It is a rabbit," she said, "wouldyou like to stroke it?" and she took it out of the boy's hands, andheld it close to us; we kissed it and stroked it, and buried our facesin its long white hair, felt its curious long ears, and wondered at thestrange colour of its eyes. The boy said that a sailor gave it to him;but that his mother wished him to sell it, as it was troublesome in hersmall cottage, and they had no yard to keep it in, and he asked nurseif she would buy it from him. We earnestly begged that we might haveit; "Do buy it, Mary," we cried; "please buy it." And, after sometalking, Mary gave sixpence to the boy for the rabbit, and, my sistergiving up her front seat and her reins to me, went home with the prettycreature in her lap.

  We called the rabbit Moppy; it was a source of great amusement to us.Mary contrived a bed for it in a large packing-box in an empty garretat the top of the house, and when we wished to play with it, it wasbrought down to the nursery. We always fed it from our hands. It becameextremely tame, and would follow us about the room, and allow us tolift it and carry it in all sorts of strange ways; for we could notmanage lifting it by the ears in the proper way. When it began to betired of us, it used to get under the sofa, and when we dragged it outagain it appeared angry and would kick with its hind legs, and makequite a loud knocking on the floor, with what we called its hindelbows. When this commenced, nurse usually carried it off to its box,fearing that it might bite, or else she covered it up in her lap, whenit would remain asleep for some time.

  Now and then we took it with us when we drove in the little carriage,and it lay so snugly on our knees and kept us so warm. Before we hadbecome at all weary of our plaything, or indifferent to its welfare, weremoved to Ireland; and going first to visit grand-mamma, it wasthought impossible to take Moppy, so after much consultation, nursespoke to one of the little boys who kept the goats, and seemed to be agentle good-natured lad, and with many instructions and requests thathe would be most kind and careful to the poor little animal, we kissedand stroked our pet, and, burying our faces in its long white hair forthe last time, we made him a present of beautiful soft Moppy.