pups.
"You mean to say you put down the Formers of your mouth' for'a slight thing like that!" So spuke a great white Persian cat tow little white mongrel dog who sat close up against a closed door, blinking eyes and locking very mournful.
There was no reply—not eveu_a wag of the tail, Duds turned away his head, but though he pretended not to care what the cat said, he did very much—and the cat saw it at once.
She laughed a little, walked away a few steps—just fur aggravation—so that Duds might think she was going to leave him in peace. She licked one of her dainty paws, looked out of the open hall dyer as if in thought, and then turned round and came back to Duds' side and sat down, "You little stupid," sneered she, as if sitting up against the door of empty room would bring back an absent man, Your master has gone away for " woek—a week I tell you—a week The last two words she shouted into Duds' ear. It was too true, but chat made no difference to Duds. For five years his master had never left him, he knew nu cause why he should now, but his master had disappeared and his friend the Persian cat, who had lived in the house quite us long us himself, insisted upon saying their master had gone away for a week—why then had he not taken Duds for 0 short a period? Duds had always been grent friends with Bingo the cut, though ut times she was 40 condetcoding and put on such terrible airs that Duds had often been obliged to leave her society by the fire and turn in despair to the friendly greeting of the dogs in the street. She jeered him ubout it when he returned home, and Duds being sv very tenderhearted, had paid her great attention until her good humour came round again, and then they had great romps in the hall, But Duds' master had always been a looker-un on these occasions, and sometimes after great acamper Duds, all excitement, would stand on his hind logs and place his two forelegs on his master's knee, and look up xt him with his mouth half open as if he longed to speak, and tell him of something Bingo had done. Duds thought of all the good times he had had—and sobbed as much as he could without letting Bingo see. Such " thing as removing himself from the door never occurred to him to wait for his master was his one object just then, whether Bingo sat there and nagged or not. During the morning two children and their nurse came down the stairs on their way out for a walk, and seeing the dog and cat sitting side by side, stopped to look at them. Duds growled; he disliked children. "Qh," said one of the children, "that is Mr, Barlow's little dog—they live the top flat—this is Mr. Barlow's office.
seen him often."
""So it is," said the other, and he went forward to pat Duds—but he growled so furiously, thinking he was going to be taken from his master's office door, that the nurse pulled the children away and left Duds alone. Bingo then began to re-open the wound.
"'Suppose he never comes back," said she referring to Mr. Barlow. Well, one's plate of bread and milk or fish is as good from one person as another, and there are other masters."
Duds drooped his ears, and kept his eye on the open hall door. "For a slight thing like this," continued the cat, "you sit here like a dummy and look an idiot." She got up and walked away, "I'm sick of you"—she explained as a parting salute, but just as she was leaving," some 0 called Pussy! Pussy Duds! Dude and a young women came down the stairs with a plate in her hand. Bingo gave a little new and ran towards the plate, but
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.