whose name was
Fleetfoot.

"What do you think of them all?" said Mr. Wood, looking down at me. "A
pretty fine-looking lot of horses, aren't they? Not a thoroughbred
there, but worth as much to me as if each had pedigree as long as this
plank walk. There's a lot of humbug about this pedigree business in
horses. Mine have their manes and tails anyway, and the proper use of
their eyes, which is more liberty than some thoroughbreds get.

"I'd like to see the man that would persuade me to put blinders or
check-reins or any other instrument of torture on my horses. Don't the
simpletons know that blinders are the cause of--well, I wouldn't like to
say how many of our accidents, Joe, for fear you'd think me extravagant
and the check-rein drags up a horse's head out of its fine natural curve
and presses sinews, bones, and joints together, till the horse is
well-nigh mad. Ah, Joe, this is a cruel world for man or beast. You're a
standing token of that, with your missing ears and tail. And now I've
got to go and be cruel, and shoot that dog. He must be disposed of
before anyone else is astir. How I hate to take life."

He sauntered down the walk to the tool shed, went in and soon came out
leading a large, brown dog by a chain. This was Bruno. He was snapping
and snarling and biting at his chain as he went along, though Mr. Wood
led him very kindly, and when he saw me he acted as if he could have
torn me to pieces. After Mr. Wood took him behind the barn, he came back
and got his gun. I ran away so that I would not hear the sound of it,
for I could not help feeling sorry for Bruno.

Miss Laura's room was on one side of the house, and in the second story.
There was a little balcony outside it, and when I got near I saw that
she was standing out on it wrapped in a shawl. Her hair was streaming
over her shoulders, and she was looking down into the garden where there
were a great many white and yellow flowers in bloom.

I barked, and she looked at me. "Dear old Joe, I will get dressed and
come down."

She hurried into her room, and I lay on the veranda till I heard her
step. Then I jumped up. She unlocked the front door, and we went for a
walk down the lane to the road until we heard the breakfast bell. As
soon as we heard it we ran back to the house, and Miss Laura had such an
appetite for her breakfast that her aunt said the country had done her
good already.

* * * * *

CHAPT