muzzle."

In due course the wheel began to revolve, and it had scarcely stopped
before Ferdinand jumped from the platform and embraced Chippo with emotion.

"_Mon ami_," he said, "_mes felicitations! Vous avez gagne le premier
prix!_"

Opening a crate he extracted an athletic young cockerel, which he thrust
under Chippo's arm, and the latter walked away with a prize for which he
had not the slightest use.

Presently the cockerel began to struggle, and Chippo, after considering all
methods of transport, took the string intended for Jane from his pocket,
attached it to the rooster's leg and marched it before him. He had not
proceeded far before he was confronted by the scandalised Sergeant Bulter,
with Jane trailing miserably at his heels.

"Hi!" shouted the Sergeant, "what do you mean parading the town like a
blamed poultry show?"

"A chap must 'ave a bit o' company when he goes out. _I_ ain't got no dawg
now," replied Chippo pathetically.

"Dawgs is one thing," said the Sergeant, "and a mangy wry-necked rooster
wot's probably missing from some-one's back-yard is another. It ain't
regimental."

"It's as regimental as a yellow flap-eared mongrel wot's bin enticed away
from its rightful owner," said the insubordinate Chippo. "There ain't
nothink in _King's Regs._ against it."

"P'r'aps there ain't," said Bulter; "but it ain't soldierlike."

"One minit, Sergeant. Wot's our regimental mascot? It's a goat. An' what's
the Dampshires'? A chattering monkey. If monkeys an' goats is soldierlike
so's poultry."

The Sergeant was silenced, and Chippo and his rooster proceeded on their
way, giving a finished exhibition of the goose-step.

Thereafter Chippo and his pet ostentatiously paraded the lines, selecting
the occasions when the Sergeant was starting out for a constitutional.
Though Bulter's feelings were sorely outraged he preserved an air of icy
aloofness, which Jane imitated as long as she was on the lead. This
apparent indifference should have been a warning to the cockerel, but he
did not know Jane's peculiar temperament. The full revelation came one
morning when they met in the lines unattended by their respective masters.
The rooster quickly fell a victim to feminine duplicity, and Jane carried
the mangled bundle of claws and feathers and dropped it at Chippo's feet.

Chippo took the remains to Sergeant Bulter.

"See what your dawg's done," he said with indignation.

"An' a good job too," answered Bulter