bit a boy about your size once."

"Hm! I ain't afraid he'll bite me. Don't you think she is? I don't
think you are very polite not to say right off."

"Very pretty, indeed," replied Anderson, laughing. Then he spoke to
the dog, a large mongrel with a masterly air, and an evident strain
of good blood under his white and yellow hide.

"How much did you pay for that dog?" inquired Eddy.

"I didn't pay anything," replied Anderson. "Somebody left him in the
street in front of my office when he was a puppy, or he strayed
there. I never knew which."

"So you took him in?"

"Yes."

"Do you always keep him shut up here?"

"A great part of the time. Sometimes he stays in my store nights. He
is a very good watch-dog."

"You keep him shut up because he bit a boy?"

"Most of the time. He is a little uncertain in his temper, I am
afraid."

"Didn't he bite any one but that one boy?"

"No, not that I know of. But he has sprang at a good many people and
frightened them, and I have either to keep him tied or shoot him."

"He didn't kill the boy?"

Anderson laughed. "Oh no! He was not very badly bitten."

"Well, I know one thing," said Eddy, with conviction. "I would not
like a nice dog like that shut up all his life because he had bitten
me."

Before Anderson knew what he was about to do, Eddy had made a spring,
leaping up sideways in the air like a kitten, and was close to the
dog. And the dog, upon whom there was no reliance to be placed,
except in the case of Anderson himself, hardly stopping for a
premonitory growl, had seized upon the boy's little arm. Having a
strain of pure bulldog in him, it was considerable trouble to make
him let go, and Anderson had to use a good deal of force at his
collar and a thick stick.

Eddy, meanwhile, made not a whimper, but kept his whitening lips
close shut. Luckily he had on a thick jacket, although the day was so
warm, and when Anderson drew away at last from the furious, straining
animal, and examined the injured member, he found only a slight
wound. The marks of the dog's teeth were plainly visible, and there
were several breaks of the surface and a little blood, but it was
certainly not alarming, and the animal's usual temper made it
improbable that any ultra consequences need be feared.

Eddy was trembling and very pale, but he still made not a whimper, as
Anderson examined his arm.

"Well, my son," said Anderson, who was as white as the boy, "I think
there is not mu