eight she was released, and shutting up the
book with a bang would scamper off, in summer to stretch herself, and
in winter to warm her hands and toes. I used to watch their fingers
with childish awe, wondering how such thin pieces of flesh and bone
hit such hard blows to the notes without cracking, and being also
somewhat puzzled by the run of good luck which seemed to direct their
weak and random-looking skips and jumps to the keys at which they were
aimed. I have seen them in tears over their "music," as it was called,
but they were generally persevering, and in winter (so I afterwards
discovered) invariably blue.

It was not till we had finished breakfast that Miss Blomfield became
fairly conscious of the presence of Rubens, and when she did so her
alarm was very great.

Considering what she suffered from her own proper and peculiar
worries, it seemed melancholy to have to add to her burdens the hourly
expectation of an outbreak of hydrophobia.

In vain I testified to the sweetness of Rubens' temper. It is
undeniable that dogs do sometimes bite when you least expect it, and
that some bites end in hydrophobia; and it was long before Miss
Blomfield became reconciled to this new inmate of the school-room.

The girls, on the contrary, were delighted with my dog; and it was on
this ground that we became friendly. My particular affection for Polly
was also probably due to the discovery that with an incomparably
stolid expression of countenance she was passing highly buttered
pieces of bread under the table to Rubens at breakfast.

Polly was my chief companion. The other girls were good-natured, but
they were constantly occupied in the school-room, and hours that were
not nominally "lesson time" were given to preparing tasks for the next
day. By a great and very unusual concession, Polly's lessons were
shortened that she might bear me company. For the day or two before
this was decided on I had been very lonely, and Cousin Polly's holiday
brought much satisfaction both to me and to her; but it filled poor
Miss Blomfield's mind with disquietude, scruples, and misgivings.

In the middle of the square where my uncle and aunt lived there was a
garden, with trees, and grass, and gravel-walks; and here Polly and I
played at hide and seek, and ran races, and chased each other and
Rubens.

The garden was free to all dwellers in the square, and several other
children besides ourselves were wont to play there. One day as I w