orted the man, sitting up and speaking in a
tone of bitter, but not unnatural, indignation. 'Why, in the course of
my dooty, that's 'ow _I_ come 'ere. I see a burglar getting in through
the window, so I just follows and slips in after 'im.'

"'Did you catch him?' asked my father.

"'Did I catch 'im!' almost shrieked the man. ''Ow could I catch 'im with
that blasted dog of yours 'olding me down by the throat, while 'e lights
'is pipe and walks out by the back door?'

"The dog was for sale the next day. The mater, who had grown to like
him, because he let the baby pull his tail, wanted us to keep him. The
mistake, she said, was not the animal's fault. Two men broke into the
house almost at the same time. The dog could not go for both of them. He
did his best, and went for one. That his selection should have fallen
upon the policeman instead of upon the burglar was unfortunate. But
still it was a thing that might have happened to any dog.

"My father, however, had become prejudiced against the poor creature, and
that same week he inserted an advertisement in _The Field_, in which the
animal was recommended as an investment likely to prove useful to any
enterprising member of the criminal classes."

MacShaughnassy having had his innings, Jephson took a turn, and told us a
pathetic story about an unfortunate mongrel that was run over in the
Strand one day and its leg broken. A medical student, who was passing at
the time, picked it up and carried it to the Charing Cross Hospital,
where its leg was set, and where it was kept and tended until it was
quite itself again, when it was sent home.

The poor thing had quite understood what was being done for it, and had
been the most grateful patient they had ever had in the hospital. The
whole staff were quite sorry when it left.

One morning, a week or two later, the house-surgeon, looking out of the
window, saw the dog coming down the street. When it came near he noticed
that it had a penny in its mouth. A cat's-meat barrow was standing by
the kerb, and for a moment, as he passed it, the dog hesitated.

But his nobler nature asserted itself, and, walking straight up to the
hospital railings, and raising himself upon his hind legs, he dropped his
penny into the contribution box.

MacShaughnassy was much affected by this story. He said it showed such a
beautiful trait in the dog's character. The animal was a poor outcast,
vagrant thing, that had perhaps neve