ggedly.

"Cousin Harry!" and the young girl stood up very straight and tall, her
brown eyes flashing, and one hand pointing at me; "will you let that
pass? That animal has been wronged, it looks to you to right it. The
coward who has maimed it for life should be punished. A child has a
voice to tell its wrong a poor, dumb creature must suffer in silence;
in bitter, bitter silence. And," eagerly, as the young man tried to
interrupt her, "you are doing the man himself an injustice. If he is bad
enough to ill-treat his dog, he will ill-treat his wife and children. If
he is checked and punished now for his cruelty, he may reform. And even
if his wicked heart is not changed, he will be obliged to treat them
with outward kindness, through fear of punishment."

The young man looked convinced, and almost as ashamed as if he had been
the one to crop my ears. "What do you want me to do?" he said, slowly,
and looking sheepishly at the boys who were staring open-mouthed at him
and the young girl.

The girl pulled a little watch from her belt. "I want you to report that
man immediately. It is now five o'clock. I will go down to the police
station with you, if you like."

"Very well," he said, his face brightening, and together they went off
to the house.

CHAPTER IV THE MORRIS BOYS ADD TO MY NAME

THE boys watched them out of sight, then one of them, whose name I
afterward learned was Jack, and who came next to Miss Laura in age, gave
a low whistle and said, "Doesn't the old lady come out strong when any
one or anything gets abused? I'll never forget the day she found me
setting Jim on that black cat of the Wilsons. She scolded me, and then
she cried, till I didn't know where to look. Plague on it, how was I
going to know he'd kill the old cat? I only wanted to drive it out of
the yard. Come on, let's look at the dog."

They all came and bent over me, as I lay on the floor in my corner. I
wasn't much used to boys, and I didn't know how they would treat me. But
I soon found by the way they handled me and talked to me, that they knew
a good deal about dogs, and were accustomed to treat them kindly. It
seemed very strange to have them pat me, and call me "good dog." No one
had ever said that to me before to-day.

"He's not much of a beauty, is he?" said one of the boys, whom they
called Tom.

"Not by a long shot," said Jack Morris, with a laugh. "Not any nearer
the beauty mark than yourself, Tom."

Tom flew at him, and