ey felt more sad about Mrs. Montague's death than if she had died in
an ordinary way. Her dear little canary Barry, died with her. She would
never be separated from him, and his cage had been taken up to the top
of the hotel with her. He probably died an easier death than his poor
mistress. Charley's dog escaped, but was so frightened that he ran out
to their house, outside the town.
At tea time, Mr. Morris went down town to see that the Italian got a
comfortable place for the night. When he came back, he said that he had
found out that the Italian was by no means so old a man as he looked and
that he had talked to him about raising a sum of money for him among the
Fairport people, till he had become quite cheerful, and said that if Mr.
Morris would do that, he would try to gather another troupe of animals
together and train them.
"Now, what can we do for the Italian?" asked Mrs. Morris. "We can't
give him much money, but we might let him have one or two of our pets.
There's Billy, he's a bright, little dog, and not two years old yet. He
could teach him anything."
There was a blank silence among the Morris children. Billy was such a
gentle, lovable, little dog, that he was a favorite with every one in
the house. "I suppose we ought to do it," said Miss Laura, at last; "but
how can we give him up?"
There was a good deal of discussion, but the end of it was that Billy
was given to the Italian. He came up to get him, and was very grateful,
and made a great many bows, holding his hat in his hand. Billy took to
him at once, and the Italian spoke so kindly to him, that we knew he
would have a good master. Mr. Morris got quite a large sum of money for
him, and when he handed it to him, the poor man was so pleased that
he kissed his hand, and promised to send frequent word as to Billy's
progress and welfare.
CHAPTER XXXVI DANDY THE TRAMP
ABOUT a week after Billy left us, the Morris family, much to its
surprise, became the owner of a new dog.
He walked into the house one cold, wintry afternoon and lay calmly
down by the fire. He was a brindled bull-terrier, and he had on a
silver-plated collar with "Dandy" engraved on it. He lay all the evening
by the fire, and when any of the family spoke to him, he wagged his
tail, and looked pleased. I growled a little at him at first, but he
never cared a bit, and just dozed off to sleep, so I soon stopped.
He was such a well-bred dog, that the Morrises were afraid that
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