huge old boar, caught sight of the intruders at
the same time, and stood for a moment or two grunting in stolid
astonishment.

With all the gaiety of inexperience, the pup went at them single-handed,
causing the whole herd to turn and fly with ear-splitting screams--the
old boar bringing up the rear, and looking round, out of the corner of
his little eyes, with wicked intent.

Bladud, knowing the danger, sprang after them, shouting to the pup to
come back. But Brownie's war-spirit had been aroused, and his training
in obedience had only just begun. In a moment he was alongside the
boar, which turned its head and gave him a savage rip with a gleaming
tusk. Fortunately it just barely reached the pup's flank, which it cut
slightly, but quite enough to cause him to howl with anger and pain.

Before the boar could repeat the operation, Bladud sent his club
whizzing in advance of him. It was well aimed. The heavy head alighted
just above the root of the boar's curly tail. Instantly, as if
anticipating the inventions of the future, fifty steam whistles seemed
to burst into full cry. The other pigs, in sympathetic alarm, joined in
chorus, and thus, yelling inconceivably, they plunged into a thicket and
disappeared.

Bladud almost fell to the ground with laughing, while Brownie, in no
laughing mood, came humbly forward to claim and receive consolation.
But he received more than consolation, for, while the prince was engaged
in binding up the wound, he poured upon him such a flood of solemn
remonstrance, in a tone of such injured feeling, that the pup was
evidently cut to the heart--his self-condemned, appealing looks proving
beyond a doubt that the meaning of what was said was plain to him,
though the language might be obscure.

On continuing the march, Brownie limped behind his master--a sadder and
a wiser dog. They had not gone far when they came on another family of
pigs, which fled as before. A little further on, another herd was
discovered, wallowing in a marshy spot. It seemed to Bladud that there
was no good feeding in that place, and that the creatures were dirtying
themselves with no obvious end in view, so, with the pup's rather
unwilling assistance, he drove them to more favourable ground, where the
acorns were abundant.

At this point he reached a secluded part of the valley, or, rather, an
off-shoot from it, where a low precipice rose on one side, and thick
flowering shrubs protected the other. Th