thrown a strap for us, instead of a bone or something hard.

Of course I did not know, so Jim told me it was on his account. He was a
bird dog, and was never allowed to carry anything hard in his mouth,
because it would make him hard-mouthed, and he would be apt to bite the
birds when he was bringing them back to any person who was shooting with
him. He said that he had been so carefully trained that he could even
carry three eggs at a time in his mouth.

I said to him, "Jim, how is it that you never go out shooting? I have
always heard that you were a dog for that, and yet you never leave
home."

He hung his head a little, and said he did not wish to go, and then, for
he was an honest dog, he gave me the true reason.





* * * * *





CHAPTER VIII

A RUINED DOG