urse Laddie was not their first dog. The checks of the school are
still stamped with the head of Don, their black Newfoundland, who had a
passion for attending the morning service in the school hall and
nipping the heels of the kneeling girls. In the repeating of the Lord's
Prayer he would join with a subdued rumble, doubtless acceptable to his
Creator, but when shut out from the sacred exercises, he would howl
under the windows an anthem of his own that offended both Heaven and
earth.

In the inexorable process of the years, Don grew old, becoming a very
Uncle Roly-Poly, but he was only loved the more. A cherished legend of
the school relates how he was sleeping on his rug by the bed of one of
his mistresses on a winter night, dreaming a saintly dream of chasing
cats out of Paradise, when some real or fancied noise awoke him and,
the faithful guardian of the school, he rushed through the low, open
window and out upon the piazza roof, barking his thunderous warning to
all trespassers. But he was still so bewildered with sleep that his
legs ran faster than his mind and, before he knew it, he had pitched
off the edge of that icy roof and was floundering in the snow beneath,
the most astonished dog that ever bayed the moon. What happened to him
then is supposed to have been related by Don himself:

"My howls dismayed the starry skies,
The Great and Little Dippers, _O!_
Till came an angel in disguise,
In dressing gown and slippers, _O!_
I staggered up the steepy stair;
She pushed me from behind, _Bow wow!_
She tended me with mickle care,
O winsome womankind! _Bow wow!_
She bathed my brow and bruised knee.
I only whined the louder, _O!_
She murmured: 'Homeopathy!
I'll give dear Don a powder,' _O!_
And may I be a pink-eyed rabbit
If she chose not from her stock, _Bow wow!_
FOR PERSONS OF A GOUTY HABIT
WHO'VE HAD A NERVOUS SHOCK. _Bow wow!_"

Other dogs had come after, notably Cardigan, a stately St. Bernard, who
made the fatal mistake of biting a pacifist, but Laddie, the only real
rival of Don in the Sisters' affections, was the crown of their delight
in doghood.

Sigurd had been with us only a few days when we took him over to see
his brother, already for nearly three months a resident at The Orchard.
We found Laddie, slender, white and dainty, quite at home on the
luxurious drawing-room sofa.

"I'm stronger than you," growled Sigurd