hat fierce that I guessed he was going
to whip me, so I turned over on my back and begged with my legs and
tail.
"Why, you beat him!" says "Mr. Wyndham, sir," very stern.
"No fear!" the Master says, getting very red. "The party I bought him
off taught him that. He never learnt that from me!" He picked me up in
his arms, and to show "Mr. Wyndham, sir," how well I loved the Master, I
bit his chin and hands.
"Mr. Wyndham, sir," turned over the letters the Master had given him.
"Well, these references certainly are very strong," he says. "I guess
I'll let the dog stay. Only see you keep him away from the kennels--or
you'll both go."
"Thank you, sir," says the Master, grinning like a cat when she's safe
behind the area railing.
"He's not a bad bull-terrier," says "Mr. Wyndham, sir," feeling my head.
"Not that I know much about the smooth-coated breeds. My dogs are St.
Bernards." He stopped patting me and held up my nose. "What's the matter
with his ears?" he says. "They're chewed to pieces. Is this a fighting
dog?" he asks, quick and rough-like.
I could have laughed. If he hadn't been holding my nose, I certainly
would have had a good grin at him. Me the best under thirty pounds in
the Province of Quebec, and him asking if I was a fighting dog! I ran to
the Master and hung down my head modest-like, waiting for him to tell my
list of battles; but the Master he coughs in his cap most painful.
"Fightin' dawg, sir!" he cries. "Lor' bless you, sir, the Kid don't know
the word. 'E's just a puppy, sir, same as you see; a pet dog, so to
speak. 'E's a regular old lady's lap-dog, the Kid is."
"Well, you keep him away from my St. Bernards," says "Mr. Wyndham, sir,"
"or they might make a mouthful of him."
"Yes, sir; that they might," says the Master. But when we gets outside
he slaps his knee and laughs inside hisself, and winks at me most
sociable.
The Master's new home was in the country, in a province they called Long
Island. There was a high stone wall about his home with big iron gates
to it, same as Godfrey's brewery; and there was a house with five red
roofs; and the stables, where I lived, was cleaner than the aerated
bakery-shop. And then there was the kennels; but they was like nothing
else in this world that ever I see. For the first days I couldn't sleep
of nights for fear some one would catch me lying in such a cleaned-up
place, and would chase me out of it; and when I did fall to sleep I'd
dream I was
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