lasted it is impossible to say. It was
ended by the judgment of George. For a while he had been seeking to
catch, not the dog but the remaining pig, the one still capable of
activity. Cornering it at last, he persuaded it to cease running round
and round the room, and instead to take a spin outside. It shot through
the door with one long wail.

We always desire the thing we have not. One pig, a chicken, nine people,
and a cat, were as nothing in that dog's opinion compared with the quarry
that was disappearing. Unwisely, he darted after it, and George closed
the door upon him and shot the bolt.

Then the landlord stood up, and surveyed all the things that were lying
on the floor.

"That's a playful dog of yours," said he to the man who had come in with
the brick.

"He is not my dog," replied the man sullenly.

"Whose dog is it then?" said the landlord.

"I don't know whose dog it is," answered the man.

"That won't do for me, you know," said the landlord, picking up a picture
of the German Emperor, and wiping beer from it with his sleeve.

"I know it won't," replied the man; "I never expected it would. I'm
tired of telling people it isn't my dog. They none of them believe me."

"What do you want to go about with him for, if he's not your dog?" said
the landlord. "What's the attraction about him?"

"I don't go about with him," replied the man; "he goes about with me. He
picked me up this morning at ten o'clock, and he won't leave me. I
thought I had got rid of him when I came in here. I left him busy
killing a duck more than a quarter of an hour away. I'll have to pay for
that, I expect, on my way back."

"Have you tried throwing stones at him?" asked Harris.

"Have I tried throwing stones at him!" replied the man, contemptuously.
"I've been throwing stones at him till my arm aches with throwing stones;
and he thinks it's a game, and brings them back to me. I've been
carrying this beastly brick about with me for over an hour, in the hope
of being able to drown him, but he never comes near enough for me to get
hold of him. He just sits six inches out of reach with his mouth open,
and looks at me."

"It's the funniest story I've heard for a long while," said the landlord.

"Glad it amuses somebody," said the man.

We left him helping the landlord to pick up the broken things, and went
our way. A dozen yards outside the door the faithful animal was waiting
for his friend. He looked tired,