rkey on newspaper."

"Hadn't we better go to bed?" said Miss Laura, when the hall clock
struck eleven.

"Yes, I suppose we had," said Miss Bessie.

"Where is this animal to sleep?"

"I don't know," said Miss Laura; "he sleeps in the stable at home, or in
the kennel with Jim."

"Suppose Susan makes him a nice bed by the kitchen stove?" said Miss
Bessie.

Susan made the bed, but I was not willing to sleep in it. I barked so
loudly when they shut me up alone, that they had to let me go upstairs
with them.

Miss Laura was almost angry with me, but I could not help it. I had come
over there to protect her, and I wasn't going to leave her, if I could
help it.

Miss Bessie had a handsomely furnished room with a soft carpet on the
floor, and pretty curtains at the windows. There were two single beds
in it, and the two girls dragged them close together so that they could
talk after they got in bed.

Before Miss Bessie put out the light, she told Miss Laura not to be
alarmed if she heard any one walking about in the night, for the nurse
was sleeping across the hall from them, and she would probably come in
once or twice to see if they were sleeping comfortably.

The two girls talked for a long time, and then they fell asleep. Just
before Miss Laura dropped off, she forgave me, and put down her hand for
me to lick as I lay on a fur rug close by her bed.

I was very tired, and I had a very soft and pleasant bed, so I soon fell
into a heavy sleep. But I waked up at the slightest noise. Once Miss
Laura turned in bed, and another time Miss Bessie laughed in her sleep,
and again, there were queer crackling noises in the frosty limbs of the
trees outside, that made me start up quickly out of my sleep.

There was a big clock in the hall, and every time it struck I waked up.
Once, just after it had struck some hour, I jumped up out of a sound
nap. I had been dreaming about my early home. Jenkins was after me
with a whip, and my limbs were quivering and trembling as if I had been
trying to get away from him.

I sprang up and shook myself. Then I took a turn around the room. The
two girls were breathing gently; I could scarcely hear them. I walked
to the door and looked out into the hall. There was a dim light burning
there. The door of the nurse's room stood open. I went quietly to it and
looked in. She was breathing heavily and muttering in her sleep.

I went back to my rug and tried to go to sleep, but I could not. Such