had done an amazing amount of work in the
meantime. When he had eaten all of it, he was still hungry. As a polite
hint, he polished the empty plate with his pink tongue and looked up
expectantly; but the best-intentioned people, if they have had little to
do with dogs, cannot read such signs.

"Ye needna lick the posies aff," the wifie said, good humoredly, as she
picked the plate up to wash it. She thought to put down a tin basin of
water. Bobby lapped a' it so eagerly, yet so daintily, that she added:
"He's a weel-broucht-up tyke, Jamie."

"He is so. Noo, we'll see hoo weel he can leuk." In a shamefaced way he
fetched from a tool-box a long-forgotten, strong little currycomb, such
as is used on shaggy Shetland ponies. With that he proceeded to give
Bobby such a grooming as he had never had before. It was a painful
operation, for his thatch was a stubborn mat of crisp waves and knotty
tangles to his plumy tail and down to his feathered toes. He braced
himself and took the punishment without a whimper, and when it was done
he stood cascaded with dark-silver ripples nearly to the floor.

"The bonny wee!" cried Mistress Jeanie. "I canna tak' ma twa een aff o'
'im."

"Ay, he's bonny by the ordinar'. It wad be grand, noo, gin the
meenister'd fancy 'im an' tak' 'im into the manse."

The wifie considered this ruefully. "Jamie, I was wishin' ye didna hae
to--"

But what she wished he did not have to do, Mr. Brown did not stop to
hear. He suddenly clapped his bonnet on his head and went out. He had
an urgent errand on High Street, to buy grass and flower seeds and tools
that would certainly be needed in April. It took him an hour or more
of shrewd looking about for the best bargains, in a swarm of little
barnacle and cellar shops, to spend a few of the kirk's shillings. When
he found himself, to his disgust, looking at a nail studded collar for
a little dog he called himself a "doited auld fule," and tramped back
across the bridge.

At the kirkyard gate he stopped and read the notice through twice: "No
dogs permitted." That was as plain as "Thou shalt not." To the pious
caretaker and trained servant it was the eleventh commandment. He shook
his head, sighed, and went in to dinner. Bobby was not in the house, and
the master of it avoided inquiring for him. He also avoided the
wifie's wistful eye, and he busied himself inside the two kirks all the
afternoon.

Because he was in the kirks, and the beautiful memorial wind