ind them myself."

"Here they come now," Rosslyn excitedly interrupted; and sure enough,
the trio had appeared on the hillcrest, each tugging something which
squirmed and twisted, and snarled and yapped until their flushed,
panting owners could scarcely hold them.

"Holy snakes!" ejaculated Decker Simmons.

Mr. Catt whistled. The rest of the party stared.

"What in creation have you got, Susie McKittrick?" demanded Mercedes,
with all the severity her gentle nature could muster, as the three
children came within speaking distance, Susie in advance.

"A pup," gasped the red-faced girl, taking a fresh grip on the
wriggling, sharp-nosed little animal, half hidden in the torn skirt of
her dress. "Isn't he cute? See what bright eyes he's got."

"And see how you've snagged your clothes," said Irene reprovingly.

"And scratched your face," added Inez, glad now that she had not been a
party in the expedition.

"That's nothing to what Billiard's did to him," Susie retorted sharply,
nettled at her reception. "He picked out the prettiest of the bunch
for Tabitha. We told him how much you used to want a dog all your own,
Kitty. But it's the wildest thing I ever saw. Here he comes now.
Billiard, didn't you choose your pup for Tabitha?"

"Would you accept it?" he panted somewhat shyly, embarrassed and a
little provoked that Susie should have announced his intentions the
first thing. "I--I got the handsomest fellow of them all, but I pretty
near had to club it to death before it would come along peaceably."

"But Billiard," gasped Tabitha, finding her tongue at last, "that isn't
a pup!"

"What is it then?" Susie bristled so aggressively that she forgot to
keep a tight hold on her unwilling prisoner, and with a final scratch
and yap of exultation, it freed itself from her arms, and darted away
among the sagebrush.

"A coyote."

"No!" Toady dropped his as if it were poison, and lifted startled eyes
to Tabitha's face.

"You're fooling!" cried Susie in exasperation over her loss.

"Dad, Uncle Decker, isn't that a baby coyote?"

Both men nodded silently, a look of amusement flickering about their
lips.

"But--but--" spluttered Billiard, still hugging his half-smothered
treasure to his bosom. "It--they _look_ like pups."

"Yes, they do, but you found them pretty frisky for pups, didn't you?"

"They _were_ pretty lively," admitted the older boy slowly.

"And as scratchy as--" began Toady.

"As _cats_," fi