he great majority of their kind at the
Show. Knowing that they would be unhappy if left in the building at
night, that they probably would be too much wrought up to eat
there, and that they would feel being chained up for so long more
than most dogs, the Master had arranged to take them out at night,
in order that they might have half an hour's freedom before supper
and retirement to a sleeping place in the room he had taken for
himself. There were dogs in the Show whose masters did not come
near them after the judging on the first day, until the end of the
third day. These unfortunates were left to the rather chancy
attentions of the show attendants, who, with thousands of dogs to
care for, could hardly be expected to give any of them much
individual notice.

On the evening of the second day of the Show, while the Master was
engaged in conversation at some distance from Finn's bench, the
young hounds from the cottage by the Downs received a visit from a
man who showed the utmost admiration for them, and particularly, of
course, for Finn. This man, whose appearance rather reminded Finn
of one whom he had heard referred to as the gamekeeper, down in
Sussex, looked up Finn's name and ancestry in the show catalogue,
and gave particular heed to the fine display of prize cards over
his head. He fondled Finn for several minutes, and Finn knew by the
various smells which hung about the man that he was accustomed to
mixing a good deal with dog-folk. Before turning away, this
friendly and admiring man presented Finn with a small piece of meat
which he took from a paper-bag in one of his pockets; and, of all
the meat that Finn had ever tasted, this piece had the most
fascinating smell and the most provocatively exciting and pleasing
flavour. He meditated over this piece of meat for quite a long
time, and when, during the last afternoon of the Show, the friendly
stranger appeared before him again, Finn welcomed the man
effusively, and, with nose and paw, plainly asked for some more of
that fascinating meat. The man chuckled, and rubbed the backs of
Finn's ears in an affectionate manner for several minutes. What
Finn found more to the point was that, before leaving, the man did
present him with another small section of this delicious meat with
the fascinating smell. Finn wished there was more of it, but he
felt exceedingly grateful to the stranger for the one piece and for
the rest of his friendly attention.

By payment of a sm