nd-legs
to bring Frisk back; and what would you do then?"

Then Dash did wish with all his might that he could talk, "O dear!" he
said to him-self; "I would give all my ears, and half my nose, if I
could let them know that Frisk would not run off;" and then, strange
to say, his love and wish to help Frisk made him get up on his
hind-legs, and put his fore-paws up in the air; and he gave such a
droll whine, that May and Hal burst out in a laugh, and said, "Look,
pa-pa! just look at Dash! He too begs you to buy Frisk!" and then
they both went and stood one on each side of the dog, put their hands
up, and made such a queer whine just like him, that it was the best
fun in the world to see and hear them.

"But," said pa-pa, "if the show-man will sell him to me, do you not
know it would be wrong to make the poor dog keep up his tricks?"

"Wrong! why how, pa-pa?"

"Well, my dears, it seems too sad a thing to tell you, but it is too
true. The show-man has to beat his dogs, and starve them, to get them
to learn the tricks that made you laugh so much. You saw how thin they
were, and you heard them cry out, when they left the stage. If they
made the least slip or mis-take, they got a hard blow for it. In this
way they find out that they must do all their tricks quite right, or
they will have the whip laid on their poor thin sides and heads; and
so not a day goes by that the dogs are not starved and made to feel
the whip.

"Oh! oh!" cried Hal and May, "we did not know that. _We_ would not
beat or starve a dog, or a cat, or a worm. What a bad show-man! We
would like to beat _him_."

"Oh! I hope not," said pa-pa. "The show-man may not think that dogs
feel as much as we do. But I know you will be kind to all. I know you
would not strike Dash, if he, by chance, broke one of your toys or
hurt you in play."

"O no! in-deed," they both cried; and they ran up to the dog, and gave
him a good hug, and a kiss on the top of his head.

You may be sure that Dash had not lost one word of all this talk; and
he was still more sad when he knew how much poor Frisk had to bear.
He made up his mind to tell Frisk to run off, and come to him. "I will
hide him in my house till the show-man goes," he said to him-self. "I
saw a great ham-bone on the shelf to-day. I know it will fall to my
share, and, oh! won't it be good! I will give this to Frisk, and eat
bits of bread. Yes, I will save up all the nice bones for him. Was he
not a good dog?"

B