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  [Illustration: 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 THE
POSSESSION OF A LITTLE BOY AND GIRL, IN WHOM SHE HAS ALWAYS SHEWN
A KIND INTEREST.




Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
been retained as printed. The cover of this ebook was created by
the 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 white
rabbit. 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 the
broad esplanade, that stretched for full half-a-mile round the pretty
bay. When we were quite tired of running there, or of picking up stones
and weeds on the shingle below the esplanade wall, we were enabled to
prolong our stay out of doors by means of the pretty little
goat-carriages that were kept in readiness on the esplanade. Some of
them were made with two seats; some were drawn by one goat, and some
with two. There were reins and regular harness to these little goats,
and we were indeed pleased, when our nurse allowed us to drive in one
of the double-seated carriages. We took turns to sit in front and
drive, 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 have
been! 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 we
were obliged to be content with patting and coaxing the goats on the
walk.

During one of our drives in the goat-carriage, we met with a boy
carrying a beautiful white creature with pink eyes; "Look! look!
nurse," we cried, "what is that?" "It is a rabbit," she said, "would
you like to stroke it?" and she took it out of the boy's hands, and
held it close to us; we kissed it and stroked it, and buried our faces
in its long white hair, felt its curious long ears, and wondered at the
strange 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 her
small cottage, and they had no yard to keep it in,