me when a small dog was
obdurate, he took him by the nape of the neck, and shook him thoroughly,
before turning him over to me for another trial. On another occasion,
the pig of the family drank too deep, as it were, from the flowing bowl,
and might have been drowned had it not been for his watchful parent.
Duke noticed that the small fore-quarters were plunged into the liquid
dinner; he also observed that the hind quarters were slowly rising in
midair. He watched all this, with his accustomed, kindly gravity, until
the equilibrium was lost, and Master Pup plunged into the pearly sea.
Then the startled father leaped to his feet, snatched his offspring from
a milky grave, and laid him, sneezing and choking, sadder and wiser, on
the sunny grass-plat to dry.

"In due time Duke recovered, in a measure, from his grief over Lady's
death, and took unto himself another partner. As is usual in the case of
widowers, his second choice was injudicious, for Fanchon was a giddy,
young thing, that didn't have sense enough to come in out of the rain.

"But Duke saw no defects; he was all tenderness and attention.

"It was early winter, but the weather was intensely cold, and we had
taken Duke and Fanchon in from the stable, and had housed them
comfortably in the cellar.

"One night I was wakened out of a sound sleep by cries of distress. I
called my sister and her husband, who were visiting me, and in various
costumes, all hands went below. Fanchon was running about, crying and
moaning, and Duke was alternately making frantic efforts to soothe her,
and kiyiying in a manner that was fearful to hear. We succeeded at last
in getting Fanchon to heed us, and coaxed her to settle down in a
comfortable bed we made for her on the far side of the cellar, where she
would have the benefit of the warmth from the furnace, and would be out
of the way of the cold air which came in through a window, broken the
day before.

"As soon as she was pacified, Duke was again happy, and he cheerfully
lay down to rest. We retired to our rooms, and being very weary, with
much sightseeing during the day, dropped into a sound sleep. The next
morning I hurried down into the cellar, wondering whether I should see
two dogs, or a dozen. To my surprise and dismay, I saw none at all. The
cellar was silent and deserted. I opened the outer door, and with a
failing heart, stepped into the clear, bitter cold of a temperature
something like fifteen degrees below zero. J