en did not have their father's
sense of humour, and they looked at him reproachfully as he poured the
medicine into Nana's bowl. "What fun!" he said doubtfully, and they did
not dare expose him when Mrs. Darling and Nana returned.

"Nana, good dog," he said, patting her, "I have put a little milk into
your bowl, Nana."

Nana wagged her tail, ran to the medicine, and began lapping it. Then
she gave Mr. Darling such a look, not an angry look: she showed him the
great red tear that makes us so sorry for noble dogs, and crept into her
kennel.

Mr. Darling was frightfully ashamed of himself, but he would not give
in. In a horrid silence Mrs. Darling smelt the bowl. "O George," she
said, "it's your medicine!"

"It was only a joke," he roared, while she comforted her boys, and Wendy
hugged Nana. "Much good," he said bitterly, "my wearing myself to the
bone trying to be funny in this house."

And still Wendy hugged Nana. "That's right," he shouted. "Coddle her!
Nobody coddles me. Oh dear no! I am only the breadwinner, why should I
be coddled--why, why, why!"

"George," Mrs. Darling entreated him, "not so loud; the servants
will hear you." Somehow they had got into the way of calling Liza the
servants.

"Let them!" he answered recklessly. "Bring in the whole world. But I
refuse to allow that dog to lord it in my nursery for an hour longer."

The children wept, and Nana ran to him beseechingly, but he waved her
back. He felt he was a strong man again. "In vain, in vain," he cried;
"the proper place for you is the yard, and there you go to be tied up
this instant."

"George, George," Mrs. Darling whispered, "remember what I told you
about that boy."

Alas, he would not listen. He was determined to show who was master in
that house, and when commands would not draw Nana from the kennel, he
lured her out of it with honeyed words, and seizing her roughly, dragged
her from the nursery. He was ashamed of himself, and yet he did it.
It was all owing to his too affectionate nature, which craved for
admiration. When he had tied her up in the back-yard, the wretched
father went and sat in the passage, with his knuckles to his eyes.

In the meantime Mrs. Darling had put the children to bed in unwonted
silence and lit their night-lights. They could hear Nana barking, and
John whimpered, "It is because he is chaining her up in the yard," but
Wendy was wiser.

"That is not Nana's unhappy bark," she said, little guessing what wa