whipping because I
had eaten the steak, and I had hardly recovered from that when Rollo, who
was now what I had been, took me up into the nursery and played with me
just as I had always played with him. He held me up by the tail; he
flicked me with his handkerchief; he harnessed me up to a small cart and
made me drag his sisters' doll babies about the room for one whole hour,
and then when lunch time came the waitress forgot me and I had to go
hungry all the afternoon. Every time I'd try to go into the kitchen the
cook would drive me out with a stick for fear I would eat the other things
in the cellar--and oh, dear, I had a miserable time of it.

"The worst of it came two or three days later," continued the Poker. "It
was Rollo's bath day, and as I was Rollo of course I had to take Rollo's
bath, and my, wasn't it awful! I'd rather take a hundred such baths as I
had when I was a boy than one like Rollo's. The soap got into my eyes and
I couldn't say a word. Then it got into my mouth, and bah! how fearful it
was. After that I was grabbed by all four of my legs and soused into the
water until I thought I should drown, and rubbed until my fur nearly came
off.

"I wished then that I had asked the Fairy to leave her address so that I
could send for her and have her come back and let me be a boy again. All
the fun of being Rollo was spoiled by the woes that were his to bear--woes
I had never dreamed of his having until I took his place.

"I must have been Rollo a month when the Fairy came back one night to see
how I was getting along. Rollo lay asleep in my crib, while I was curled
up in a dog basket at the foot of it.

"'Well,' said the Fairy as she entered the room, 'how do you both do?'

"'I like it first-rate,' said Rollo. 'Being a boy is ever so much nicer
than being a dog.'

"'I think so, too," said I. 'And if you don't mind I'd like to be a boy
again.'

"'What boy do you want to be?' she asked.

"'What boy?' said I. 'Why, myself, of course. Who else?'

"'What has Rollo to say about that?' said the Fairy, turning to him--and I
tell you, Dormy, it made my heart sick to hear that Rollo had anything to
say about it, for there couldn't be much doubt as to how he would
decide."

CHAPTER V.

The Poker Concludes His Story

"It was just as I feared," said the Poker. "Rollo knew a good thing when
he had it."

"'I'm satisfied, the way things are now,' said he. 'I wouldn't change back
and be a Scotch terri