did not know what it was to swim. He had
never seen a sheet of water larger than a road-side puddle or than the
stationary wash-tubs of his own laundry at home. He would have nothing
to do with the Pond, at first, except for drinking purposes; and he
would not enter the water until Jack went in, and then nothing would
induce him to come out of the water--until Jack was tired. His surprise
and his pride at being able to take care of himself in an entirely
unknown and unexplored element were very great. But--there is always a
_But_ in Roy's case--but when he swam ashore the trouble began. Jack,
in a truly Chesterfieldian manner, dried himself in the long grass on
the banks. Roy dried _him_self in the deep yellow dust of the road--a
medium which was quicker and more effective, no doubt, but not so
pleasant for those about him; for he was so enthusiastic over his
performance that he jumped upon everybody's knickerbockers, or upon the
skirts of everybody's gown, for the sake of a lick at somebody's hand
and a pat of appreciation and applause.

Another startling and never-to-be-forgotten experience of Roy's was his
introduction to the partridge. He met the partridge casually one
afternoon in the woods, and he paid no particular attention to it. He
looked upon it as a plain barn-yard chicken a little out of place; but
when the partridge whirled and whizzed and boomed itself into the air,
Roy put all his feet together, and jumped, like a bucking horse, at the
lowest estimate four times as high as his own head. He thought it was a
porcupine! He had heard a great deal about porcupines, although he had
never seen one; and he fancied that that was the way porcupines always
went off!

Roy likes and picks blackberries--the green as well as the ripe; and he
does not mind having his portrait painted. Mr. Beckwith considers Roy
one of the best models he ever had. Roy does not have to be posed; he
poses himself, willingly and patiently, so long as he can pose himself
very close to his master; and he always places his front legs, which he
knows to be his strong point, in the immediate foreground. He tries very
hard to look pleasant, as if he saw a chipmunk at the foot of a tree, or
as if he thought Mr. Beckwith was squeezing little worms of white paint
out of little tubes just for his amusement. And if he really does see a
chipmunk on a stump, he rushes off to bark at the chipmunk; and then he
comes back and resumes his original positio