"Some
of its teeth are filled with gold," continued Howell. "We had to stay a
whole week in New York while Beauty was in the dog hospital, having them
filled. They could only do a little at a time. One of his tricks is to
laugh so that he shows all his fillings. Laugh, Beauty!" he commanded.
"Laugh, old fellow, and show your gold teeth!"

He shook a dirty finger in the poodle's face, and it obediently stretched
its mouth, to show all its little gold-filled teeth.

"See!" exclaimed Howell, much pleased. "Do it again!"

But the maid interfered. "Your mother told you not to touch Beauty again.
You'd have the poor little thing's mouth stretched till it had the
face-ache, if you weren't watched all the time. Go away! You are a naughty
boy!"

Howell's lips shot out in a sullen pout, and the maid, not knowing what he
might do next, rose with the poodle in her arms and walked to the other
side of the vessel.

"Wish't the little beast was dead!" he muttered. "I get scolded and
punished for nothing at all whenever it is around. It and Fidelia! I
haven't any use for girls and puppy-dogs!"

After this uncivil remark he waited for the angry retort which he thought
would naturally follow, but to his surprise Lloyd only laughed
good-naturedly. She found him amusing, even if he was rude and cross, and
she could not wonder that he had such an opinion of girls, after
witnessing his quarrel with Fidelia. The boys had begun it, but she was
older and could have turned it aside had she wished. And she thought it
perfectly natural that he should dislike the dog if he thought his mother
preferred its comfort to his.

"You'd like dogs if you could have one like my old Fritz," began Lloyd,
glad of some one to talk to. Sitting down on the bench that the maid had
left, she began talking of him and the pony and the other pets at Locust,
At first the boys listened carelessly. Howell cracked his whip, and
Henderson slapped his feet with the ends of the reins he wore. They were
not used to having stories told them, except when they were being scolded,
and their mother or the maid told them tales of what happens to bad little
boys when they will not obey. Although Lloyd's wild ride in a hand-car
with one of the two little knights began thrillingly, they listened with
one foot out, ready to run at first word of the moral lecture which they
thought would surely come at the end.

The poodle had a maid to make it happy and comfortable, every mome