up in the
stable, and then he snapped at everyone who came near, and howled all
night--they were really almost afraid of him.

'So when Pepper's mistress heard that, she felt more thankful than ever
that the dog had been sent away, and tried to think no more about him.
She had quite forgotten all about it, when, one day, a new nursemaid,
who had taken the baby out for an airing, came back with a terrible
account of a savage dog which had attacked them, and leaped up at the
perambulator so persistently that it was as much as she could do to
drive it away. And even then Pepper's mistress did not associate the dog
with him; she thought he had been destroyed long ago.

'But the next time the nurse went out with the baby she took a thick
stick with her, in case the dog should come again. And no sooner had she
lifted the perambulator over the step, than the dog _did_ come again,
exactly as if he had been lying in wait for them ever since outside the
gate.

'The nurse was a strong country girl, with plenty of pluck, and as the
dog came leaping and barking about in a very alarming way, she hit him
as hard as she could on his head. The wonder is she did not kill him on
the spot, and, as it was, the blow turned him perfectly giddy and silly
for a time, and he ran round and round in a dazed sort of way--do you
think you could lower that candle-shade just a little? Thanks!' she
broke off suddenly, as I obeyed. 'Well, she was going to strike again,
when her mistress rushed out, just in time to stop her. For, you see,
she had been watching at the window, and although the poor beast was
miserably thin, and rough, and neglected-looking, she knew at once that
it must be Pepper, and that he was not in the least mad or dangerous,
but only trying his best to make his peace with the baby. Very likely
his dignity or his conscience or something wouldn't let him come back
quite at once, you know; and perhaps he thought he had better get the
baby on his side first. And then all at once, his mistress--I heard all
this through her, of course--his mistress suddenly remembered how
devoted Pepper had been to her, and how fond she had once been of him,
and when she saw him standing, stupid and shivering, there, her heart
softened to him, and she went to make it up with him, and tell him that
he was forgiven and should come back and be her dog again, just as in
the old days!----'

Here she broke off for a moment. I did not venture to look at her,