ill, there they were, all
owing to his carelessness, and the only thing to be done now was to see
that they did not escape.

There were three plumbers (it always takes three plumbers to do a job;
the first man comes on ahead to tell you that the second man will be
there soon, the second man comes to say that he can't stop, and the
third man follows to ask if the first man has been there); and that
faithful, dumb animal kept them pinned up in the kitchen--fancy wanting
to keep plumbers in a house longer than is absolutely necessary!--for
five hours, until my uncle came home; and the bill ran: "Self and two
men engaged six hours, repairing boiler-tap, 18s.; material, 2d.; total
18s. 2d."

He took a dislike to the cook from the very first. We did not blame him
for this. She was a disagreeable old woman, and we did not think much
of her ourselves. But when it came to keeping her out of the kitchen,
so that she could not do her work, and my aunt and uncle had to cook the
dinner themselves, assisted by the housemaid--a willing-enough girl, but
necessarily inexperienced--we felt that the woman was being subject to
persecution.

My uncle, after this, decided that the dog's training must be no longer
neglected. The man next door but one always talked as if he knew a lot
about sporting matters, and to him my uncle went for advice as to how to
set about it.

"Oh, yes," said the man, cheerfully, "very simple thing, training a
bull-dog. Wants patience, that's all."

"Oh, that will be all right," said my uncle; "it can't want much more
than living in the same house with him before he's trained does. How do
you start?"

"Well, I'll tell you," said next-door-but-one. "You take him up into a
room where there's not much furniture, and you shut the door and bolt
it."

"I see," said my uncle.

"Then you place him on the floor in the middle of the room, and you go
down on your knees in front of him, and begin to irritate him."

"Oh!"

"Yes--and you go on irritating him until you have made him quite
savage."

"Which, from what I know of the dog, won't take long," observed my uncle
thoughtfully.

"So much the better. The moment he gets savage he will fly at you."

My uncle agreed that the idea seemed plausible.

"He will fly at your throat," continued the next-door-but-one man, "and
this is where you will have to be careful. _As_ he springs toward you,
and _before_ he gets hold of you, you must hit him a fair straight blow