Page:Poems Merrill.djvu/110

As snugly it nestled 'neath the boy's ragged frock
It said (as plainly as a poor dog can talk)
I love you, dear friend—I'll help you if I can;
For in all this vast throng there's but you that's a man!

Then came the dog's master, who found it so wet,
And he sought now to fondle his dearly loved pet
In a loving embrace.—but it clung to the boy
With many plain manifestations of joy.
While its glance towards its master said plain as it could:—
"I'll stay with this laddie because he is good."
"Oh! my little pet knows you are honest and true;
The dog's name is Gipsy, and well he loves you.

But say, little man, how came you to save
'A poor little cur ' from a watery grave?"
"I know what it is to be friendless," he said,—
"I've no friends, or home, now since Mother is dead—
I know what it is to be hungry—forlorn—
I've not tasted food, sir, since yesterday morn.
And at night I must sleep where I happen to be—
And I thought this poor doggie was friendless like me.

The gentleman's head was bowed low.—And he thought
Of his sister, who married a poor drunken sot,—
Ten years it had been since he last saw her face—
And five it had been since of her he lost trace.