ong as he has a person who can be trusted with his
priceless pups. Why, I heard the other day that a dealer from New York
had offered five thousand dollars for the smallest one."

"Walter!"

"Straight goods!"

"Five thousand dollars for a dog!" gasped Mrs. King.

Her son chuckled at her incredulity.

"Sure!"

"But it's a fortune," murmured she. "I had no idea there was a dog on
earth worth that much."

"All of them are not."

"But five thousand dollars!" she repeated. "Why, Walter, I wouldn't
have you responsible for a creature like that for anything in the
world. You might as well attempt to be custodian of a lot of gold
bonds. I shouldn't have a happy moment or sleep a wink thinking of it.
Suppose some of the little wretches were to run away and get lost? Or
suppose they were to be stolen? Or they might get sick and die on your
hands."

"That is why they want a responsible person to keep an eye on them."

His Highness squared his shoulders and threw out his chest.

"But you are not a responsible person," burst out Mrs. King with
unflattering candor.

"Mother!"

"Well--are you?" she insisted.

The boy's figure shriveled.

"No," he confessed frankly, "I'm afraid I'm not."

"Of course you're not," continued his mother with the same brutal
truthfulness. "It isn't that you do not mean to be, sonny," added she
kindly. "But your mind wanders off on all sorts of things instead of
the thing you're doing. That is why you do not get on better in
school. All your teachers say you are bright enough if you only had
some concentration to back it up. What you can be thinking of all the
time I cannot imagine; but certainly it isn't your lessons."

"I know," nodded Walter without resentment. "My mind does flop about
like a kite. I think of everything but what I ought to. It's a rotten
habit."

"Well, all I can say is you'd be an almighty poor one to look after a
lot of valuable dogs," sniffed his mother.

"I'll bet I could do it if I set out to."

"But would you set out to--that is the question? Would you really put
your entire attention on those dogs so that other people could drop
them from their minds? That is what taking care means."

"I couldn't promise. I could only try."

"I should never dare to have you undertake it."

"That settles it, Ma," announced His Highness. "I've evidently got to
prove to you that you are wrong. I'm going up to Crowninshields' this
minute to tell Jerry he can count on me