t true? Did it really happen?"

"Yes, it is true; I know Maggie myself,--met her last summer, when I
went to B----."

"I should like to know her," said Kristy. "Can't you tell another,
Mrs. Wilson?"

"Kristy," said her mother, reprovingly, "it's bad enough for you to
tease me for stories without making victims of others."

"Oh, I like to tell stories," said Mrs. Wilson, laughing, "and I think
I have time to tell Kristy about the naughtiest day of my life."

"Oh, do!" cried Kristy eagerly.

"Did you ever notice in my sitting-room a little dog preserved in a
glass case?"

"Yes, I have," said Kristy, "and I have always wondered about it."

"Well; I'll tell you why I preserve it so carefully. That little dog
saved my life, I believe, and if not my life, he certainly saved my
reason."

"Oh, how was that, Mrs. Wilson?" said Kristy earnestly.

CHAPTER XI

HOW A DOG SAVED MY LIFE

I was twelve years old when I had the most dreadful experience of my
life--an experience that I am sure would have ended in my death or
insanity if it had not been for the love of my little dog Tony.

It was all my own fault, too--my own naughtiness. But let me begin at
the beginning. My father and mother were going away from home on a
short visit to my grandmother. They had arranged to have me stay at my
Uncle Will's and had given Molly, the maid, leave to spend the time at
her own home; so the house was to be shut up and left alone.

Now I had an intimate friend, a schoolmate, of whom my mother did not
approve, for family reasons, which I understood when I was older, and
she never liked to have me be much with her. When Maud--for that was
her name--found out that I was to be at my uncle's a few days, she at
once asked me to stay with her instead. She offered all sorts of
inducements. She was going to have a party--a dance it was--and my
parents did not approve of dancing. In fact, she drew such an enticing
picture of the good times we would have that I was tempted to do what
I had never done in my life--deceive my own mother.

I did not dare ask her to let me go to Maud's, for I knew she would
not consent, and if she positively forbade me, I think I should not
have ventured to disobey, but if I did not ask her and she did not
forbid, that--I thought--would not be so very bad. Fortifying myself
by these thoughts, I decided to accept Maud's invitation secretly.

I made up my mind not to go to Uncle Will's at all, for I did