She finally held out a bun towards him, and
just as he was about to take it, she snatched it away and kicked him
instead. This fairly exasperated the bulldog, and as Amelia would not
let him bite the bun, he bit Amelia's leg.

Her mamma was so distressed that she fell into hysterics, and hardly
knew what she was saying. She said the bulldog must be shot for fear he
should go mad, and Amelia's wound must be done with a red-hot poker for
fear _she_ should go mad (with hydrophobia). And as of course she
couldn't bear the pain of this, she must have chloroform, and she would
most probably die of that; for as one in several thousands dies
annually under chloroform, it was evident that her chance of life was
very small indeed. So, as the poor lady said, "Whether we shoot Amelia
and burn the bulldog--at least I mean shoot the bulldog and burn Amelia
with a red-hot poker--or leave it alone; and whether Amelia or the
bulldog has chloroform or bears it without--it seems to be death or
madness every way!"

And as the doctor did not come fast enough, she ran out without her
bonnet to meet him, and Amelia's papa, who was very much distressed
too, ran after her with her bonnet. Meanwhile the doctor came in by
another way, and found Amelia sitting on the dining-room floor with the
bulldog, and crying bitterly. She was telling him that they wanted to
shoot him, but that they should not, for it was all her fault and not
his. But she did not tell him that she was to be burnt with a red-hot
poker, for she thought it might hurt his feelings. And then she wept
afresh, and kissed the bulldog, and the bulldog kissed her with his red
tongue, and rubbed his pink nose against her, and beat his own tail
much harder on the floor than Amelia had ever hit it. She said the same
things to the doctor, but she told him also that she was willing to be
burnt without chloroform if it must be done, and if they would spare
the bulldog. And though she looked very white, she meant what she said.

But the doctor looked at her leg, and found that it was only a snap,
and not a deep wound; and then he looked at the bulldog, and saw that
so far from looking mad, he looked a great deal more sensible than
anybody in the house. So he only washed Amelia's leg and bound it up,
and she was not burnt with the poker, neither did she get hydrophobia;
but she had got a good lesson on manners, and thenceforward she always
behaved with the utmost propriety to animals, though