just curled over on his back,
holding up his feet in the most supplicating way, till no dog would
have had the heart to hurt him.

At last one day he disappeared, and no efforts could find him. He was
hunted for high and low; advertisements were put in the papers; a
reward was offered, and every exertion was made to find him; but in
vain. The last that had been seen of him he was playing out in the
street in front of the house, and had gone down a side street. It was
in the direction of the worst part of the town, and, after he did not
turn up, there was no doubt that he was stolen, or maybe killed.
Mildred was inconsolable. She cried herself almost sick. Her father
offered to get her another puppy just like Roy; but it did no good; it
would not be Roy, she said; it would not be lame. The sight of the
dolls which Roy had so often chewed with so much pleasure made her cry
afresh. She prayed that he might come back to her.

IV.

That very afternoon on which Roy disappeared Molly had just got her
dinner--a little soup, with a knuckle-bone in it, and a piece of
bread--and she was thinking what a pity the bone was so large, as she
was hungry, when she heard something on the staircase outside. The
door had been left slightly open by the woman who had brought the
dinner, and the sound was quite distinct; it sounded like something
dragging up the steps. She thought it was a rat, for there were a
great many of them about, and she was wishing the door was shut, for
she did not want it to come into her room, and, besides, it was cold.
But as she could not reach the door, she was about to begin on her
dinner. Just as she started, however, she heard a soft and low step at
her door, and she looked up. There came a dear, fat, yellow-gray
puppy, with a black nose, walking in just as straight and solemnly as
if he were a doctor and had a visit to pay. She did not dare to move
for fear he would be frightened and go out; but he did not trouble
himself. Walking straight on, he took a glance around as if to assure
himself that this was the place he wanted, and then, looking at her, he
gave a queer little switch of his tail, which twisted half his body in
the funniest way, and, quickening his pace, came trotting up to her bed
and reared up to try and climb up on it. Molly put her hand over on
it, and he began to lick it rapidly and whimper in his efforts to get
up. She gave a little cry of delight and, catching him,