to bed, and we had just gone a tiny bit out into
the lane to see if the sky looked red over the moor where the sun set,
when we heard a sort of rushing, pattering sound, and looking round,
what should be coming banging along towards us, as fast as he could, but
a great big dog. He stopped when he got up to us and began wagging his
tail and rubbing his head against us in the _sweetest_ way, and then we
saw that his tongue was hanging out, and that his coat was rough and
dusty, and he breathed fast and pantingly--he was evidently very tired,
and, above all, thirsty. I was off for a mug of water for him before we
said a word, and oh how glad he was of it! He really said "Thank you"
with his tail and his sweet nose as plainly as if he had spoken. And he
didn't seem to think of leaving us--he was alone, there was no one in
sight, and he seemed as if he was sure he had found friends in us.

[Illustration: LOST ROLLO

"He stopped when he got up to us and began wagging his tail and rubbing
his head against us in the ~sweetest~ way." P. 161]

"He is very like--he is just like----" Persis began at last. But I
interrupted her.

"There are lots of dogs like him," I said. "He is lost--we must take him
in for the night. Oh, Persis, just fancy--if he is really _quite_ lost,
we may have to keep him for good. Mamma might perhaps let us. Oh,
Persis!"

We took him in with us and called to mamma to come out to the door to
look at him. She saw what a beauty he was at once, and stroked his head
and called him "poor doggie," for, as I said, she is always kind to
animals, though she doesn't care for pets.

"We must take him in for the night any way," she said. "Perhaps in the
morning we may find out where he comes from."

There was an empty kennel in the yard, and we found some nice clean hay
in the hampers that we had brought with groceries from London. And the
cook gave us some scraps and one or two big bones. So "Bruno," as of
course we called him, was made very comfortable.

And you can fancy--no, I really--I don't think you _can_--the state of
excitement in which Persis and I went to bed.

CHAPTER III

WE got up very early indeed the next morning, and of course we both
rushed straight to the yard. We had had a dreadful feeling that perhaps
somebody would have come to claim the dog, and that we should find him
gone. But no--there he was, the beauty, and as soon as ever he saw us,
out he came wagging his dear tail and looking