MOUTON.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1609, 10 April 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

MOUTON.

Ok a cold and rainy morning in March, j 18 —, a young man might have been seen' sauntering leisurely up the Boulevard Sebastopol. He was about twenty-four years of age, with a frank, ingenious face, and his costume, though elegant was almost coquettishly simple, Arriving at the upper end of the Kue dea Lombards, he stopped suddenly and respectfully raised his hat. A. sombre hearse came slowly down the street and crossed the Boulevard. On the threadbare and discolored pall which was thrown across the bier there was not a flower or the slightest token remembrance. A lone, with moist eye, of hanging head and muddy to his middle, followed sadly a spaniel, looking the picture of desolation. At sight of this , moving spectacle the young man shuddered and murmured sadly : 'ft hall it be said that there is not a Christian man capable of following the example of this dog? "What an unfeeling world ! I will follow the poor, abandoned one ; it shall not be said he was buried without a prayer,' and stepping into the muddy street he took a place by the faithful and last friend of the dead.

The dog turned his head and looked inquiringly at the new comer, then falling back a little he walked with him, looking up at him from time to time with his soft brown eyes. They arrived thus at the place of burial. The grave-diggers in a hardened and indifferent manner took the coffin upon their shoulders, muttering at the same time maledictions upon the rain and the bad road leading to the grave. \t the side of this frightful gaping hole, surrounded by the thrown-up earth, the dog stopped, posed himself across it, stretched his paws, _ and raising his head, uttered a long dismal howl.

The young man, already much moved by the desolate surroundings of the place, shuddered, and, carried away by his feelings, cried: ' Stop! this is horrible. Is there no means of depositing these remains in a more decent place than that ?' and with a trembling hand he pointed at the hole where the just and the unjust are thrown pellmell, to the great grief of the poor friends of the departed who have no means of buying a spot of that earth which God made for all.'

' Bah!' growled one of the m > 'there or elsewhere, it is all the saen to-us!' ' Citzen,' said the other, scenting a wind fa 1, "if you will pay it can be arranged, though this person is hardly worth the trouble.' 'It is well,' said tho young man; 'wait for me while I speak to thj superintendent.' They placed the coffin upon the ground and seated themselves upon it with the most philosophical indifference 'I he dog following with nis eyes his new friend, until he was hidden from his view by tLe tombs of the remetery, when, as if fancying that his master's remains were quite abandoned, he recommenced howling; then went and laid his head upon the coffin regardless or the men who vainly endeavored to drive him off. An hour later, the sad ceremony of interment was finished, and the poor dead reposed in six feet of earth, decorated with a black cross.

After Laving commended to G-od fche soul of the departed, the young man arose and called the dog. ' Come,' he said, passing his hand over his wet head, 'the day has been well spent! Come, my poor friend, thy fidelity has been recompensed; come, I adopt thee, and sometimes we will come together to visit thy old master, I promise thee!' And, as if he comprehended these words the dog raised his head, looked at him intelligently, gave a joyous bound, and having licked his hand trotted on before him. Master and dog returned by the Avenue Sebastopol

And here a word of the hero of this little story. The young man, whom we shall designate as Leon Yarens, is a painter, whose talents are too well known to render a eulogy of them at all necessary. He had several years before the period of which we are writing- adopted an artistic career, to the very pinnacle of which his father had arrived long before his death. Educated under the supervision of a pious and good mother, he had so profited by her counsels and example as to have retained the purity of his heart and fiction in the midst of the dissolute artist life of Paris. Gray, frank, and enthusiastic in all that was beautiful and good wherever lie encountered them, he had found him to be—good, truthful, and brave. Living alone, he labored assiduously in his studio in spite of the ridicule of his young friends, who knowing him to be rich sneered at his industry, ignoring the fact that it had preserved him from the temptations to "which an artist, young, rich, and handsome, are subjected. His atelier was decorated with sweet and precious souvenirs of a beloved mother, and with many of his father's chief d'wuvres —objects of respectful pride, examples ef glory to be acquired.

To return to our two friends of the Boulevard Sebastopol. Arrived at the corner of the street Aux Ours, before a high house of a sombre appearance the dog stopped and refused to proceed. ■ : ■

'"Well, will you come?' said Leon, falling back a little after having whistled and called in vain., ' Come, come, we are not yet at home.'. Bui as he heard not, though always looking

at him, the dog went and came — entering the dark corridor cf the house, coming out again, and looking in a provoking way around his new master. 'This is singular,' said Leon. 1 What is the matter with him, after having followed me so well ? But it was here, or near here, that I methim ; perhaps this is the house of his old master. We will see/ Aud_ he followed the dog, who sprang briskly Up a dark and crooked stairway. But the animal yery soon discovered that, notwithstanding his willingness, it was not possible for him to ascend as rapidly as himself; so, stopping at the landing-places, he wagged his tail and gave little joyous y«lps as to encourage him, then recommenced his guidance to the upper story, where he waitedin a dark hallway between two opposite doors ; one of these he pushed open with his muzzle and presented to the artist a piteous spectacle. On a pallet covered with rags an old woman, wasted and wan, and seemingly in the last convulsions of agony and near her a boy of ten years, sobbing, on his knees. In a far corner of the chamber, upon the floor, was a bed of straw, which still preserved the print of a human form. Upon a poor broken table, covered with a white hand kerchief, stood before him an image of the virgin a brass Christ, surrounded by glasses of artificial flowers and two candlesticks, in one of which was still smoking the wick of a wax candle. No other furniture ; nothing but some ragged garments hanging here and there on the walls of this desolate chamber. With a bound the dog threw himself upon the boy and almost devoured him with caresses, while the little fellow put his arms about his neck and sobbed us if his heart would break.

'Ah, Mouton, it is all over then! And now G-od is taking from us my grandmother we shall be all alone. iShe pays wo must die, too ! ' No, no! indeed you shall not die ! interrupted. Leon much moved "We are here, your friend Mouton and J, to prevent it.' The child started at the stranger's voice and looked inquiringly at Leon, whom he and not noticed until now The sick woman slowly raised her head and looked at the stranger, then at her grandson, and endeavored to speak, but her voice was so feeble that she could scarcely articulate. Leon approached her, and leaning over, said, softly, ' I come to bring you hope!'

The woman's eye lighted up for a moment, then, with an almost superhuman effort, she said : Speak, speak ! but—who sent you to us ?'

Leon pointed to the Christ upon the table —' He who cares for all His creatures. For His sake Providence has watched over your child !' Then he told her of his adventure with Mouton, and of his fidelity. She rallied a little and said,' Ah, sir, I thank you !' and she tried with a hand fast growing cold in death to press that of her benefactor, who asked, • What can I do for you ?'

' Me, nothing; for him, much ; he will be alone and friendless,' and her filmy eyes rested sadly on the weeping boy ; she stretched forth her trembling arms, into which the child threw himself, sobbing wildly. My child! my joy !I am going. God biess you.' Leon placed the little fellow upon his knees by the bed, then laying his hand tenderly upon his head he said to the dying: ' I promise, madame, always to protect your child!' A ray of divine peace passed over her face; she could not speak, but placed her hands upon the heads piously bent over her, which were soon raised with the blessing of heaven and of the departed soul upon them

There was an exhibition of 1870 a work of art representing an atelier in which a boy of twelve or thirteen years, handsomely and tastefully attired, smiles upon his teacher under whose supervision he is spiritedly sketching a model very solemnly posed upon a velvet cushion. The boy is the adopted son of our hero, Leon Varens, and his best scholar. The model—is our friend Mouton — Mouton, plump, glossy, and curly, unrecognizable physically, but morally unchanged. Translated from the French.