e. And that was
how it came about, that when the farmer's little daughter Daisy, with a
face like the rosy side of a white-heart cherry set deep in a lilac
print hood, came back from going with the dairy lass to fetch up the
cows, she found Flaps snuffing at the back door, and she put her arms
round his neck (they reached right round with a little squeezing) and
said:

"Oh, I never knew you'd be here so early! You nice thing!"

And Flaps' nose went right into the print hood, and he put out his
tongue and licked Daisy's face from the point of her chin up her right
cheek to her forehead, and then from her forehead down her left cheek
back to her chin, and he found that she was a very nice thing too.

But the dairymaid screamed, "Good gracious! where did that nasty strange
dog come from? Leave him alone, Miss Daisy, or he'll bite your nose
off."

"He won't!" said Daisy indignantly. "He's the dog Daddy promised me;"
and the farmer coming out at that minute, she ran up to him crying,
"Daddy! Isn't this my dog?"

"Bless the child, no!" said the farmer; "it's a nice little pup I'm
going to give thee. Where did that dirty old brute come from?"

"He would wash," said little Daisy, holding very fast to Flaps' coat.

"Fine washing too!" said the dairymaid, "And his hair's all lugs."

"I could comb them," said Daisy.

"He's no but got one eye," said the swineherd. "Haw! haw! haw!"

"He sees me with the other," said Daisy. "He's looking up at me now."

"And one of his ears gone!" cried the dairy lass. "He! he! he!"

"Perhaps I could make him a cap," said Daisy, "as I did when my doll
lost her wig. It had pink ribbons and looked very nice."

"Why, he's lame of a leg," guffawed the two farming-men. "See, missy, he
hirples on three."

"I can't run very fast," said Daisy, "and when I'm old enough to,
perhaps his leg will be well."

"Why, you don't want this old thing for a play-fellow, child?" said the
farmer.

"I do! I do!" wept Daisy.

"But why, in the name of whims and whamsies?"

"Because I love him," said Daisy.

When it comes to this with the heart, argument is wasted on the head;
but the farmer-went on: "Why he's neither useful nor ornamental. He's
been a good dog in his day, I dare say; but now--"

At this moment Flaps threw his head up in the air and sniffed, and his
one eye glared, and he set his teeth and growled.

He smelt the gipsy, and the gipsy's black pipe, and every hair stood on
end with rage