maller girls, that Sammy Pinkney,
Iky Goronofsky, and half a dozen other boys of Tess' age, came whooping
around from the boys' entrance to the school, chasing a small,
disreputable dog that ran zigzag along the street, acting very
strangely.

"Oh, Tess!" cried Alfredia Blossom, the colored girl, "see those boys
chasin' that poor dog. I declar'! ain't they jest the wust--"

"Oh, dear me, Alfredia!" urged Tess, gravely, "_do_ remember what Miss
Shipman tells you. 'Worst,' not 'wust.'"

"I'm gwine to save dat dog!" gasped Alfredia, too disturbed by the
circumstances to mind Tess' instructions.

She darted out ahead of the boys. Sammy Pinkney yelled at the top of his
voice:

"Let that dog alone, 'Fredia Blossom! You want to catch hydrophobia?"

"Wha' dat?" demanded Alfredia, stopping short and her eyes rolling.

"That dog's mad! If he bites you you'll go mad, too," declared Sammy,
coming puffing to the spot where the little girls were assembled.

At this startling statement some of the girls screamed and ran back into
the yard. There they met the smaller girls coming forth, and for a time
there was a hullabaloo that nearly deafened everybody on the block.

Said Sammy with disgust:

"Hoh! if hollerin' did any good, those girls would kill all the mad dogs
in the State."

As it was, the police officer at the corner used his club to kill the
unfortunate little animal that had caused all the excitement. The
S. P. C. A. wagon came and got the poor dead dog, and the doctors at
the laboratory examined his brain and sent word to the newspapers that
the animal had actually been afflicted with rabies.

It was a strange dog; nobody knew where it had come from. It had bitten
several other dogs in his course as far as the school. Some of these
dogs were sent to the pound to be watched; but some foolish owners would
not hear of sacrificing their pets for the general good. So, within a
fortnight there was a veritable epidemic of rabies among the dogs of
Milton.

One man lost a valuable horse that was impregnated with the poison from
being bitten by the stable dog that had been his best friend.

The order went forth that all dogs should be muzzled and none should be
allowed on the street save on a leash. Sammy was very careful to keep
Buster chained. Buster had not many friends in the neighborhood at best.
So Sammy took no chances with his bulldog.

As for Tom Jonah, the old dog was such a universal pet, and was so
kindl