very unpleasant to the taste, and he should like something to take the taste away. When he got downstairs, however, he found the butcher was calling and had left the gate open, which struck him as a good opportunity for a ramble. By the time he came back Hilda would have forgotten all about it, or she might think he was lost, and find out which was the more valuable animal-a silly, useless doll, or an intelligent dog like himself.

16. Hilda saw him from the window as he bolted out with tail erect.

I

"He's doing it to show off," she said to herself; "he's a horrid dog sometimes. But I suppose shall have to forgive him when he comes back!"

17. However, Dandy did not come back that night, nor all the next day, nor the day after that, nor any more; for, the fact was, Dandy happened that very morning to come across a dog stealer who had long had his eye upon him.

18. He was not such a stupid dog as to be unaware he was doing wrong in following a stranger; but then the man had such delightful suggestions about him of things dogs love to eat, and Dandy had started for his run in a disobedient temper.

19. So he followed the man till they reached a narrow, lonely alley, and then, just as Dandy was thinking about going home again, the stranger turned suddenly on him, caught him up in one

hand, tapped him sharply on the head, and slipped him, stunned, into a big inside pocket.

II

20. For some reason or other, the dog stealer did not think it prudent to claim the reward offered for Dandy, as he had intended to do at first, and the dog not being of a breed in fashionable demand, the man tried to get rid of him for the best price that could be obtained. And so Dandy was bought by Bob and Jem, two traveling showmen, and became the dog Toby in their Punch-and-Judy show. Though in time the new Toby learned to perform his duties respectably enough, he did so without the least enthusiasm. Day by day he grew more miserable and homesick.

21. He never could forget what he had once been and what he was, and often in the close sleeping room of some common lodging house he dreamed of the comfortable home he had lost and Hilda's pretty, imperious face, and woke to miss her more than ever.

At first his new masters had been careful to keep him from all chance of escape, and Bob led him after the show by a string; but, when he seemed to be getting resigned to his position, he was allowed to run loose.

22. He was trotting tamely at Jem's heels one

hot August morning, followed by a small train of admiring children, when all at once he became aware that he was in a street he knew well, — he was near his old home, a few minutes' hard run and he would be safe with Hilda !

He looked up sideways at Jem, who was beating his drum and blowing his pipes. Bob's head was inside the show, and both were in front and not thinking of him just then.

23. Dandy stopped, turned round upon the unwashed children behind, looked wistfully up at them, as much as to say, "Don't tell," and then bolted at the top

of his speed.

There was a shrill cry from the children at once of "Oh, Mr. Punch, sir, please your dog's running away from you!" and angry calls to return from the two men. Jem even made an attempt to pursue him, but the drum was too much in his way, and a small dog is not easily caught at the best of times when he takes it into his head to run away. So he gave it up sulkily.

24. Meanwhile Dandy ran on, till the shouts behind died away. And at last, panting and exhausted, he reached the well-remembered gate, out of which he had marched so defiantly, it seemed long ages ago. Fortunately, some one had left the gate open, and he pattered eagerly down the steps, feeling safe and at home at last.

The kitchen door was shut, but the window was not, and, as the sill was low, he contrived to scramble up somehow and jumped into the kitchen, where he reckoned upon finding friends to protect him.

25. But he found it empty, and looking strangely cold and desolate; only a small fire was smoldering in the range, instead of the cheerful blaze he remembered there, and he could not find the cook-an especial friend of his- - anywhere.

He scampered up into the hall, making straight for the room where he knew he should find Hilda curled up in one of the armchairs, with a book.

26. But that room, too, was empty, the shutters were up, and the half light which streamed in above them showed a dreary state of confusion: the writing table was covered with a sheet and put away in a corner, the chairs were piled up on the center table, the carpet had been taken up and rolled under the sideboard, and there was a faint, warm smell of flue and dust and putty in the place.

27. He pattered out again, feeling puzzled and a little afraid, and went up the bare staircase to find Hilda in one of the upper rooms, perhaps in the

nursery.

But the upper rooms, too, were all bare and sheeted and ghostly, and, higher up, the stairs were spotted with great stars of whitewash, and there were ladders and planks on which strange men in

dirty white clothes were talking and joking a great deal, and doing a little whitewashing now and then, when they had time for it.

28. Their voices echoed up and down the stairs with a hollow noise that scared him, and he was afraid to venture any higher. Besides, he knew by this time somehow that Hilda, her father and mother, all the friends he had counted upon seeing again, would not be found in any part of that house.

It was the same house, though stripped and deserted, but all the life and color and warmth had gone out of it; and he ran here and there, seeking for them in vain.

29. He picked his way forlornly down to the hall again, and there he found an old woman with a duster pinned over her head and a dustpan and brush in her hand; for, unhappily for him, the family, servants and all, had gone away some days before into the country, and this old woman had been put into the house as a caretaker.

30. She dropped her brush and pan with a start as she saw him, for she was not fond of dogs.

"Why, dear me," she said. "How did the little beast get in, running about as if the whole place belonged to him?"

31. Dandy sat up and begged. In the old days he would not have done such a thing for any servant below a cook, who was always worth while being