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Brown John. Spare Hours

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

POST PREFACE

RAB AND HIS FRIENDS

RAB AND HIS FRIENDS

“With BRAINS, Sir.”

“WITH BRAINS, SIR.”

THE MYSTERY OF BLACK AND TAN

THE MYSTERY OF BLACK AND TAN

HER LAST HALF-CROWN

HER LAST HALF-CROWN

OUR DOGS

OUR DOGS

QUEEN MARY’S CHILD-GARDEN

QUEEN MARY’S CHILD-GARDEN

PRESENCE OF MIND, AND HAPPY GUESSING

PRESENCE OF MIND, AND HAPPY GUESSING

MY FATHER’S MEMOIR. A LETTER TO JOHN CAIRNS, D. D

MY FATHER’S MEMOIR. LETTER TO JOHN CAIRNS, D. D

“MYSTIFICATIONS.”

“MYSTIFICATIONS.”32

“OH, I’M WAT, WAT!”

“OH, I’M WAT, WAT!”

ARTHUR H. HALLAM

ARTHUR H. HALLAM

EDUCATION THROUGH THE SENSES

EDUCATION THROUGH THE SENSES

VAUGHAN’S POEMS, &c

VAUGHAN’S POEMS, &c

DR. CHALMERS

DR. CHALMERS

DR. GEORGE WILSON

ST. PAUL’S THORN IN THE FLESH: WHAT WAS IT?

ST. PAUL’S THORN IN THE FLESH: WHAT WAS IT?

THE BLACK DWARF’S BONES

THE BLACK DWARF’S BONES

NOTES ON ART

NOTES ON ART.59

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I have to thank the public and my own special craft cordially and much for their reception of these Idle Hours – Brown Studies, as a friendly wag calls them – and above all, for their taking to their hearts that great old dog and his dead friends, – for all which the one friend who survives thanks them. There is no harm and some good in letting our sympathy and affection go forth without stint on such objects, dead and homely though they be.

When I think of that noble head, with its look and eye of boundless affection and pluck, simplicity and single-heartedness, I feel what it would be for us, who call ourselves the higher animals, to be in our ways as simple, affectionate, and true, as that old mastiff; and in the highest of all senses, I often think of what Robert Burns says somewhere, “Man is the god of the dog.” It would be well for man if his worship were as immediate and instinctive – as absolute as the dog’s. Did we serve our God with half the zeal Rab served his, we might trust to sleep as peacefully in our graves as he does in his. When James turned his angry eye and raised his quick voice and foot, his worshipper slunk away, humbled and afraid, angry with himself for making him angry; anxious by any means to crouch back into his favor, and a kind look or word. Is that the way we take His displeasure, even when we can’t think, as Rab couldn’t, we were immediately to blame? It is, as the old worthy says, something to trust our God in the dark, as the dog does his.

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Next day, my master, the surgeon, examined Ailie. There was no doubt it must kill her, and soon. It could be removed – it might never return – it would give her speedy relief – she should have it done. She curtsied, looked at James, and said, “When?” “To-morrow,” said the kind surgeon – a man of few words. She and James and Rab and I retired. I noticed that he and she spoke little, but seemed to anticipate everything in each other. The following day, at noon, the students came in, hurrying up the great stair. At the first landing-place, on a small well-known blackboard, was a bit of paper fastened by wafers, and many remains of old wafers beside it. On the paper were the words, – “An operation to-day. J. B. Clerk.”

Up ran the youths, eager to secure good places: in they crowded, full of interest and talk. “What’s the case?” “Which side is it?”

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