ly out of his wits."

"Then when she rang the bell he trotted in just as proud, hanging down
his head as meek as could be. He thought she rang the bell for him as
much as any of the rest of the scholars. His seat was right by the
stove on the floor--it _wasn't_ a seat, I mean; and he just lay there
the whole living time, and slept and snored--you see he was so old,
auntie! But then we all loved him, we just loved him so! O dear me,
it's as much as I can do to keep from crying, and I don't know how
_any body_ could help it!"

"What was I talking about--O, he used to walk round under the seats
just as sly sometimes, and put his nose into the dinner baskets. I
tell you he liked cake, that dog did, and he liked meat and mince pie.
You see he could _smell_, for his nose was as good as ever it was, and
the girls used to cry sometimes when he picked out the nice things."

"But then we just loved him so, you know, auntie! Why, we thought he
was just as good as any body. He never bit nor growled, that dog
didn't, not a mite. There wasn't one of us but he loved,--'specially
Miss All'n."

"Now wasn't it too bad Mrs. Snell made such a fuss? She didn't love
that dog one speck,--I don't know as she ever saw him,--and she didn't
care whether he was dead or alive. I just know she didn't."

"I'll tell you how it was. Sometimes he got locked up all night. He'd
be asleep, you know, by the stove, or else under the seats, and Miss
All'n would forget, and suppose he was gone with the rest of the
scholars."

"Well, he was a darling old dog, if he _did_ chew up the books! I just
about know he got hungry in the night, or he never would have thought
of it. How did _he_ know it was wrong? he didn't know one letter from
another. He spoiled Jenny Snell's spelling-book, I know, and lots of
readers and things; but what if he did, auntie, now what of it?"

"I ain't crying any thing about that, I wouldn't have you to think!
But you see Mrs. Snell made a great fuss, and went to her husband and
told him he ought to be shot."

"That Mr. Snell ought to be shot?"

"Now, Susy, I shouldn't think you'd feel like laughing or making
fun.--The dog, of _course_; and they sent for the city marshal. You
know Mr. Garvin, Horace?"

"Yes, the man that scowls so, with the scar on his nose, and a
horse-whip in his hand."

"Miss All'n cried. She lifted up the lid of her desk, and hid her
head, but we all knew she was crying. You see we had such a time about