oom now, and his
mistress never invited him to have a game; she even forgot to have him
washed--and one of his peculiarities was that he had no objection to
soap and warm water. The worst of it was, too, that before very long the
baby followed him into the sitting-room, and, do what he could, he
couldn't make the stupid little thing understand that it had no business
there. If you think of it, a baby must strike a dog as a very inferior
little animal: it can't bark (well, yes, it _can_ howl), but it's no
good whatever with rats, and yet everybody makes a tremendous fuss about
it! The baby got all poor Pepper's bows now; and his mistress played
games with it, though Pepper felt he could have done it ever so much
better, but he was never allowed to join in. So he used to lie on a rug
and pretend he didn't mind, though, really, I'm certain he felt it
horribly. I always believe, you know, that people never give dogs half
credit enough for feeling things, don't you?

'Well, at last came the worst indignity of all: Pepper was driven from
his rug--his own particular rug--to make room for the baby; and when he
had got away into a corner to cry quietly, all by himself, that wretched
baby came and crawled after him and pulled his tail!

'He always _had_ been particular about his tail, and never allowed
anybody to touch it but very intimate friends, and even then under
protest, so you can imagine how insulted he felt.

'It was too much for him, and he lost the last scrap of temper he had.
They said he bit the baby, and I'm afraid he did--though not enough
really to hurt it; still, it howled fearfully, of course, and from that
moment it was all over with poor Pepper--he was a ruined dog!

'When his master came home that evening he was told the whole story.
Pepper's mistress said she would be ever so sorry to part with him, but,
after his misbehaviour, she should never know a moment's peace until he
was out of the house--it really wasn't safe for baby!

'And his master was sorry, naturally; but I suppose he was beginning
rather to like the baby himself, and so the end of it was that Pepper
had to go. They did all they could for him; found him a comfortable
home, with a friend who was looking out for a good house-dog, and wasn't
particular about breed, and, after that, they heard nothing of him for a
long while. And, when they did hear, it was rather a bad report: the
friend could do nothing with Pepper at all; he had to tie him