e someone in a lawyer's office
to receive clients and keep dogs from being lonely.

[Sidenote: Pangs of Hunger]

The pangs of a devastating hunger assailed Fido, which was not strange,
for it was long past the hour when the old man usually took a bulky
parcel out of his desk, spread a newspaper upon the floor, and bade Fido
eat of cold potatoes, meat, and bread. There was, nearly always, a nice,
juicy bone to beguile the tedium of the afternoon. Fido and the old man
seldom went home to supper before half past five, and Fido would have
been famished were it not for the comfort of the bone.

He sniffed around the larger of the two desks. A tempting odour came
from a drawer far above. He stood on his hind legs and reached up as far
as he could, but the drawer was closed. So was every other drawer in the
office, except one, and that was in the young man's desk. Probably
there was nothing in it for a hungry dog--there never had been.

[Sidenote: The Little Red Box]

Still, it might be well to investigate. Fido laboriously climbed up on
the chair and put his paws upon the edge of the open drawer. There was
nothing in it but papers and a small, square, red box with a rubber band
around it.

Fido took the box in his mouth and jumped down. He pushed it with paws
and nose over to his own particular corner, sniffing appreciatively
meanwhile. It took much vigorous chewing to get the rubber band off and
to make a hole in one corner of the box, out of which rolled a great
number of small, cylindrical objects. They were not like anything Fido
had ever eaten before, but hungry little dogs must take what they can
find. So he gulped them all down but one. This one refused to be
swallowed and Fido quickly repented of his rashness, for it was
distinctly not good. He ate the rubber band and all but a little piece
of the red box before the taste was quite gone out of his mouth. Even
then, a drink of fresh, cool water would have been very acceptable, but
there was nobody to care whether a little dog died of thirst or not.

The bluebottle fly buzzed loudly upon the window-pane, but Fido no
longer aspired to him. A vast weariness took the place of his former
restlessness. He sat and blinked at his ill-assorted feet for some
time, then dragged himself lazily toward his cushion in the corner.
Before he reached it, he was so very sleepy that he lay down upon the
floor. In less than five minutes, he was off to the canine dreamland,
one paw