To the volume of Aunt Judy’s Magazine for 1870 she gave “Amelia and the Dwarfs,” and “Christmas Crackers,” “Benjy in Beastland,” and eight[14] “Old-fashioned Fairy Tales.”  “Amelia” is one of her happiest combinations of real child life and genuine fairy lore.  The dwarfs inspired Mr. Cruikshank[15] to one of his best water-colour sketches:  who is the happy possessor thereof I do not know, but the woodcut illustration very inadequately represents the beauty and delicacy of the picture.

[Footnote 14:  Letter, Sexagesima, 1869.]

[Footnote 15:  Letters, August 3, 1880.]

[Illustration:  IN THE DEAR OLD CAMP.  NO. 1 HUT, X LINES, SOUTH CAMP.]

Whilst speaking of the stories in this volume of Aunt Judy’s Magazine, I must stop to allude to one of the strongest features in Julie’s character, namely, her love for animals.  She threw over them, as over everything she touched, all the warm sympathy of her loving heart, and it always seemed to me as if this enabled her almost to get inside the minds of her pets, and know how to describe their feelings.[16]

[Footnote 16:  October 20, 1868.]

Another Beast Friend whom Julie had in New Brunswick was the Bear of the 22nd Regiment, and she drew a sketch of him “with one of his pet black dogs, as I saw them, 18th September, 1868, near the Officers’ Quarters, Fredericton, N.B.  The Bear is at breakfast, and the dog occasionally licks his nose when it comes up out of the bucket.”

[Illustration:  CAN HANG NO WEIGHT UPON MY HEART.]

The pink-nosed bull-dog in “Amelia” bears a strong likeness to a well-beloved “Hector,” whom she took charge of in Fredericton whilst his master had gone on leave to be married in England.  Hector, too, was “a snow-white bull-dog (who was certainly as well bred and as amiable as any living creature in the kingdom),” with a pink nose that “became crimson with increased agitation.”  He was absolutely gentle with human beings, but a hopeless adept at fighting with his own kind, and many of my sister’s letters and note-books were adorned with sketches of Hector as he appeared swollen about the head, and subdued in spirits, after some desperate encounter; or, with cards spread out in front of him, playing, as she delighted to make him do, at “having his fortune told."[17] But, instead of the four Queens standing for four ladies of different degrees of complexion, they represented his four favourite dishes of—­1.  Welsh rabbit. 2.  Blueberry pudding. 3.  Pork sausages. 4.  Buckwheat pancakes and molasses; and “the Fortune” decided which of these dainties he was to have for supper.

[Illustration:  THE BULLDOGUE’s FORTUNE]

[Footnote 17:  Letter, November 3, 1868.]