hope it yet may be,'
And all for one penny!"

And thus he went down the street disposing of his wares with wonderful
rapidity, and producing sundry forced accompaniments to his own wretched
song by treading on the toes of all the pups who were attracted by
curiosity to his vicinity.

A second and a third supply was exhausted before the canine and feline
public of Caneville got tired of purchasing their own measure of song;
whether a fourth would have been successful there was no chance of
discovering, for Old Powtry looked in vain for Bruin with the proceeds
of the last lot. Day after day passed by and still he was absent, until
it was deemed necessary to have a search after him. For some time he
eluded all inquiries, as he well knew his fate if his hiding-place were
discovered; for having appropriated the money of his master to his own
use, he was fully aware that his person would have to pay the penalty of
his transgression. He skulked about the lowest purlieus of the city,
among curs of the most degraded character, as dirty and negligent in
body as they were debased in mind, until, in hourly fear of being
betrayed, he felt that the worst certainty would be preferable to such a
state of suspense and alarm, so resolved to deliver himself up and brave
the worst. He was again cast into prison: for that he was prepared; but
he was _not_ prepared for the wretched place of confinement to which he
was now condemned. On being first thrust into it, he could not behold
all its horror; but when his eyes got accustomed to the semi-darkness,
he found himself in a dismal cell under ground, half full of water from
the overflowing of the river, and teeming with numerous crawling, slimy
things. A little hole, half choked with earth and stones, let in all the
place possessed of light and air; and as the only air which could ever
visit the place had to pass over a bed of stagnant mud ere it reached
the spot, it possessed but few refreshing properties.

Bruin, who had in his despair given himself quietly up to the
authorities, thinking probably that by the very act he might procure
some mitigation of his sentence, now that he perceived his doom, gave
way to one of those fearful bursts of rage which no experience had
succeeded in teaching him to curb. He howled till the dirt sticking
about the vaulted ceiling, and the earth choking up the air-hole,
dropped piecemeal to the ground, and every insect that had ears covered
them up the