still; but, anon, when the breath of spring banished all the snow
and ice, and cowslips and violets began to peep forth from the released
hedgerows, and the sparrows chuckled instead of chirped, busying
themselves nest-building in the ivy round the vicarage, and when the
thrush sang to the accompaniment of the blackbird's whistle, the
children found that Jupp was even a better playfellow in the open than
he had been indoors, being nearly as much a child in heart as
themselves.

Whenever he had half a day given him in the week free from duty he would
make a point of coming up to take "Master Teddy and the young ladies"
out into the woods, fern-hunting and flower-gathering, the vicar
frequently popping upon the little picnickers unawares, whilst they were
watching the rabbits and rabbitikins combing out their whiskers under
the fir-trees, and Jupp and Mary getting an al fresco tea ready for the
party.

The little tabby kitten had long since been eclipsed in Teddy's
affections by a small Maltese terrier with a white curly coat of hair,
which his fond grandmother had rather foolishly given him, the poor
little animal being subjected to such rough treatment in the way of
petting that it must have over and over again wished itself back in its
Mediterranean home.

"Puck" was the little dog's name, and he appeared in a fair way of
"putting a girdle round the earth," if not in forty minutes like his
elfish namesake, at least in an appreciable limited space of time, Teddy
never being content except he carried about the unfortunate brute with
him everywhere he went, hugging it tightly in his arms and almost
smothering its life out by way of showing his affection.

Having once had his hair cut, too, unluckily by Mary, Teddy seized an
opportunity, when alone in the nursery, to treat poor Puck in similar
fashion, the result of which was that the little animal, deprived of his
long curly coat, not only shivered constantly with cold, but looked, in
his closely-shorn condition, like one of those toy lambs sold in the
shops in lieu of dolls for children, which emit a bleating sort of sound
when pressed down on their bellows-like stands.

Of course, Puck was as invariable an attendant at the picnic excursions
in the woods as Master Teddy himself, and, having developed sufficient
interest in the rabbits to summon up courage to run after them, which
Teddy graciously permitted him to do, these outings perhaps gave the
little animal the