understand, at least in a measure, whatever was said to it.

Carrie saw the longing glance and promptly said, "You can play with him,
too, Puss, and help me teach him things,--to speak when he wants
something to eat, and to bring us sticks or stones when we throw them
for him to chase, and to jump through barrel hoops, and to shake hands,
and to walk on his hind legs like Jimmy's dog, Sport, does, and to play
sleep, and to stand on his hind legs--"

"That will be ever so nice, but it isn't the same as if he was mine,
Carrie," interrupted the mournful Tabitha, completely wrapped up in this
tiny specimen of puppyhood.

"No--that's so," answered the other child thoughtfully, watching the
precious possession with jealous eyes as it curled up in Tabitha's arms
and shut its eyes for a nap.

"He likes me already, doesn't he? I've always wanted a pet, but we've
never stayed long enough in one place to have anything of this kind. I
had a rabbit once, but a dog caught it, and I cried so hard Aunt Maria
said I never should have another."

"I'll tell you what! Part of this dog can be yours," said Carrie
generously, though it cost her an effort to speak those words.

"Oh, Carrie, you don't mean that?" cried the astonished Tabitha. "Really
own part of your beautiful pup? What will your father and mother say?"

"They won't care a bit. The dog is all mine to do what I like with, and
I like to give you a share of him. Course he will live here, and I will
feed him, so papa can tell me what to give him, as pups are very hard to
raise properly and it takes someone that knows how to do it. But you can
really, truly own half of him."

"What a good girl you are, Carrie!" exclaimed the other part owner, much
impressed at Carrie's grand air of knowledge. "If I had a dog all my
own, I'm afraid I'd never want to share him with anyone else, except to
play with. I'd want to keep all the ownership myself."

"Well, it would be different with you. All the pets you ever have had
was a bunny, while I've had a Shetland pony until we came up here on the
desert where there isn't anything for him to eat, and a little lamb out
on grandma's farm, and two brown hens, and a pair of doves, and three
kitties, and this makes the second dog."

"Oh!"

"That's a lot of pets to have one person own, isn't it? But they didn't
all belong to me at the same time, and this dog is the best of them
all--except the pony. Dear little Arrow is at grandma's house no