th mortification,
comes back by the way they both went. He wades through puddles up to his
own knees, but over Roy's head; and then he trots cheerfully away, far
in advance, while Roy has to stop long enough to shake himself dry.
But it was Roy's turn once! He traversed a long and not very clean
drain, which was just large enough to give free passage to his own small
body; and Jack went rushing after. Jack got through; but he was a
spectacle to behold. And there are creditable eye-witnesses who are
ready to testify that Roy took Jack home, and sat on the steps, and
laughed, while Jack was being washed.

[Illustration: ROY]

Each laughed on the wrong side of his mouth, however--Jack from agony,
and Roy from sympathy--when Jack, a little later, had his unfortunate
adventure with the loose-quilled, fretful, Onteora porcupine. It nearly
cost Jack his life and his reason; and for some time he was a helpless,
suffering invalid. Doctors were called in, chloroform was administered,
and many delicate surgical operations were performed before Jack was on
his feet again; and for the while each tail drooped. Happily for Roy, he
did not go to the top of the Hill-of-the-Sky that unlucky day, and so he
escaped the porcupine. But Roy does not care much for porcupines,
anyway, and he never did. Other dogs are porcupiney enough for him!

Roy's association with Jack Ropes is a liberal education to him in more
ways than one. Jack is so big and so strong and so brave, and so gentle
withal, and so refined in manners and intellectual in mind, that Roy,
even if he would, could not resist the healthful influence. Jack never
quarrels except when Roy quarrels; and whether Roy is in the right or in
the wrong, the aggressor or the attacked (and generally he begins it),
Jack invariably interferes on Roy's behalf, in a good-natured,
big-brother, what-a-bother sort of way that will not permit Roy to be
the under dog in any fight. Part of Roy's dislike of Blennie--Blennie is
short for Blenheim--consists in the fact that while Blennie is nice
enough in his way, it is not Roy's way. Blennie likes to sit on laps, to
bark out of windows--at a safe distance. He wears a little sleigh-bell
on his collar. Under no circumstances does he play follow-my-leader, as
Jack does. He does not try to do stunts; and, above all, he does not
care to go in swimming.

The greatest event, perhaps, in Roy's young life was his first swim. He
did not know he could swim. He