Under the Red Dragon: A Novel
of the chase to where the bright sea is rippling in the distance.
The flowers are blooming as gaily on the terrace as they did on the
day of Dora's fête, and she has long been _Aunt_ Vaughan; for at
Craigaderyn there are little ones now--a violet-eyed Winifred, who
scampers through the park on a Welsh pony; a dark-haired Madoc, who
can almost handle a gun; and a golden-curled Harry to run after the
tossing leaves, to shout to the deer and hare as they lurk among the
fern; to seek for birds' nests among the shrubbery; to grab at the
gold fish in the fountain with his fat little fists; to clamber about
Sir Madoc's chair and knees; to ride on the backs of Owen Gwyllim and
old Corporal Mulligan, and in whom we see mamma's eyes, papa's
expression--nods, winks, and blinks, and so forth, all so exactly
reproduced and blended, that our best friends don't know which of us
he most resembles; so "Time, the avenger" of all things, has brought
nothing but joy and happiness to us at Craigaderyn.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Without God, without everything.]
[Footnote 2: The artillery of the Prussian Guard have also had
constantly a goat, its neck encircled by a beautiful collar, and one,
named by the soldiers "Herr Schneider," accompanied them in every
battle, from the war which broke out in 1866 till the peace in 1870.
He always marched with the men of the first gun. At Köninghof, Herr
Schneider was left in the rear, tied to a powder caisson; but he broke
loose, came to the front at full gallop, and was recaptured under
fire; the soldiers afterwards attached to his collar a copper medal,
made from a pan found among the captured cooking utensils of General
Coronini. His death was formally announced by the artillery of the
Guard in the Berlin _Vossische Zeitung_.]
[Footnote 3: Fusileer regiments did not then wear epaulettes.]
[Footnote 4: May God preserve us!]
[Footnote 5: Good Lord deliver us.]
THE END.
********************
BILLING, PRINTER. GUILDFORD, SURREY