able of rearing two or three. Therefore that one pup ought to
do exceedingly well with her. Now Finn, as you see him, is the
biggest pup I ever knew, and I want to give him every chance of
growing into the biggest Irish Wolfhound living. That's why he is
going to have this sheep-dog foster all to his little self, and,
unless I'm mistaken, you'll find him in a week the fattest little
tub of a pup in all England--the fatter the better at this stage,
so the food's wholesome and digestible."

In about one hour from that time, Finn woke among his strange
bedfellows, and trampled all over them, in a vain and wrathful
search for his mother's dugs. Then he bleated vigorously for three
minutes; and then the warmth of that snug corner of the kitchen
sent him off to sleep again.

Another hour passed, and when Finn woke this time one could tell
from the furious lunges he made over the little bodies of his
foster-brothers that he had arrived at a serious determination to
let nothing stand any longer between himself and a good square
meal. He would take one indignant step forward (as it might have
been a rather gouty and very choleric old gentleman, prepared to
tear down his bell-rope if dinner were not served that minute);
then his podgy little fore-legs would double up, and the next few
inches of progress would be made on blunt little pink nose, and
round little stomach, his hind-legs being flattened out behind him
in the exact position of a frog's while swimming. Several times
Finn quite thought he had at length found a teat, and, in its
infantile, impotent way, the blind fury he displayed was quite
terrible, when he discovered that he was merely chewing the muzzle
of one of the other pups. On one of these occasions, Finn
spluttered and swore so vehemently that the effort completely
robbed him of what rudimentary sense of balance he had, and he
rolled over on his back, leaving all his four pink feet wriggling
in the air in a passion of protest.

It was in this undignified position that the Master presently found
the grey whelp, and he chuckled as he picked up Finn, with two of
the other pups, and wrapped them together in a warm blanket. The
remaining puppy was handed over to the gardener and seen no more in
that place; so it is safe to assume that this little creature's
life embraced no sorrows or disillusions. The next thing Finn knew
was that his gaping mouth, held open by the Master's thumb and
forefinger, was being presse