By-and-by it got dark. The boys finished their play, and went into the
house, and I saw lights twinkling in the windows. I felt lonely and
miserable in this strange place. I would not have gone back to Jenkins'
for the world, still it was the only home I had known, and though I felt
that I should be happy here, I had not yet gotten used to the change.
Then the pain all through my body was dreadful. My head seemed to be on
fire, and there were sharp, darting pains up and down my backbone. I did
not dare to howl, lest I should make the big dog, Jim, angry. He was
sleeping in a kennel, out in the yard.

The stable was very quiet. Up in the loft above, some rabbits that I had
heard running about had now gone to sleep. The guinea pig was nestling
in the corner of his box, and the cat and the tame rat had scampered
into the house long ago.

At last I could bear the pain no longer, I sat up in my box and looked
about me. I felt as if I was going to die, and, though I was very weak,
there was something inside me that made me feel as if I wanted to crawl
away somewhere out of sight. I slunk out into the yard, and along the
stable wall, where there was a thick clump of raspberry bushes. I crept
in among them and lay down in the damp earth. I tried to scratch off my
bandages, but they were fastened on too firmly, and I could not do it. I
thought about my poor mother, and wished she was here to lick my sore
ears. Though she was so unhappy herself, she never wanted to see me
suffer. If I had not disobeyed her, I would not now be suffering so much
pain. She had told me again and again not to snap at Jenkins, for it
made him worse.

In the midst of my trouble I heard a soft voice calling, "Joe! Joe!" It
was Miss Laura's voice, but I felt as if there were weights on my paws,