the point of turning away when I noticed that someone was
moving about inside, and presently an ancient dame began to take
certain jars from the window and fill them with sweets from boxes on
the counter. Evidently a new stock had just arrived. Then I remembered
that sweets had been "freed."

A little girl stopped beside me, stared through the window and
then ran off at top speed. Within a couple of minutes half-a-dozen
youngsters were peering into the shop, and a pair of them marched in,
consulting earnestly as they went. The news spread; more children
arrived. I distributed a largesse of pennies which gave me a
popularity I have never achieved before. The street seemed to take on
a different aspect. I almost liked it.

* * * * *

AN OLD DOG.

There can be no doubt about it. Not merely is Soo-ti getting to be an
old dog, but he has already got there. He _is_ an old dog. Yet the
change in the case of this beloved little Pekinese has been so gradual
that until it was accomplished few of us noticed it. Yesterday, as
it seemed, Soo-ti was a young dog, capable of holding his own for
frolics and spirits with any Pekinese that ever owned the crown of
the road and refused to stir from it though all the hooters of Europe
endeavoured to blast him off it. To-day he is still a challenger of
motor-cars; but he hurls his defiance with less assurance and has been
seen to retire before the advance of a motor-bicycle.

Moreover, there are other signs of what his master calls, let us hope
with accuracy, a _cruda viridisque senectus_. Quite a short time ago
his muzzle, like the rest of him, was as black as ebony. Now he wears
a pair of thick white moustachios, which are comparable only with
those worn by that great chieftain, Monsieur le Marechal JOFFRE.

In another way too our little dog gives proof that his years are
advancing. He used to welcome ecstatically the moment of the
_promenade_; not that he intended thus to show any deference to the
humans who were inviting him to take a walk, but that he thought it
was a fine manly thing to do, and one that might bring about that
fight of his against a neighbouring and detested deer-hound to which
he looked forward as to one of his unachieved pleasures. He therefore
fell not more than one hundred yards behind his accompanists, and when
this was pointed out to him made a very creditable effort to hurry up
and rejoin. Now, however, when taken for a duty-