ia. She turned, and saw that
Arabella was shaking some green pills from a bottle.

"It's hard work trying to mind two people who say different things,"
complained Arabella. "Aunt Matilda told me to take these green pills
every hour, wherever I happen to be, and Mrs. Marvin says I must not be
continually taking medicine in the class-room. How can I do both?"

"Don't take it at all!" cried Patricia.

"But my health--"

"Oh, bother your health," said Patricia. "I should think you'd be sick
of hearing about it."

"I am," confessed Arabella.

"Then pitch every one of those bottles out, and see what happens! No
wonder the girls here call you the 'medicine-chest.' The doses you take
make me sick just to see them."

Arabella looked sulky, and when Patricia started for a walk, Arabella
refused to go. She was usually afraid of Patricia, and did as she
directed, but when she became sulky, not even Patricia could move her,
try as she might.

Arabella was standing near the window when Patricia returned, and what
she saw was anything but pleasing.

At the end of a leash was a small, shaggy, yellow dog, of no especial
breed!

Arabella detested dogs, and was desperately afraid of them as well.

She told herself that the dog would also be in Judy's care, and was
wondering how he would get on with the cat, when she heard a loud
whisper outside the door.

"Let me in, quick!" it said, and when Arabella opened the door, Patricia
stumbled over the dog who had run between her feet, and the two landed
on the middle of the rug in a heap.

"There! Isn't he a beauty?" Patricia asked and without waiting for an
answer continued, "A man told me he was a valuable dog that _ought_ to
bring fifty dollars, but because he was going to leave town, he let me
have him, for two dollars, and threw in the leash. Wasn't that a
bargain?"

"What are you going to do with him?" Arabella asked. "Oh, take him away!
I don't want him sniffing at me!"

Patricia made an outrageous face, and tugged at the leash.

"Keep him in this room until I go home, and then take him with me," she
said.

"I'll not sleep in this room if that dog is kept in here!" declared
Arabella.

"Where will you sleep?" Patricia asked, coolly. "They wouldn't let you
sleep out in the hall, and if I put the dog out there, 'The Fender'
will take him."

By extreme care, Patricia managed not to do anything that would make him
bark.

CHAPTER XI

AN INNOCENT SNEAK-THIEF