flowers and ran after the dog, as swiftly and softly as he could; for
he did not know what forest secret he might be about to discover.

Brutus led him straight to a hollow under a great rock. And there John
soon saw the cause of the dog's excitement. Stretched out on a bed of
leaves were four little gray bodies. John ran up to them with a cry.

"Why, they are puppies!" he said. "Brutus, you have found some little
brothers of your own!"

Brutus whined and sniffed about the rock strangely. John bent over the
little bodies, which lay quite still and seemed to be asleep. He
touched one softly. It was stiff and cold.

"Oh, they are dead, poor little things!" said John. "I am so sorry. I
hoped to take them home to my father. How came they here, I wonder?
They must have starved to death!"

Just then John saw one of the puppies give a tiny shiver. Its legs
moved feebly and its eyes opened. "Ah! One of them still lives!" he
cried eagerly. "Perhaps I can save its life, the dear little thing!"

He took the gray body up in his arms and hugged it tenderly, but it
made no response. Then, laying it down again on the leaves, he drew
from his basket a crust of bread which he had brought to nibble while
he walked. (It is such fun to have something to nibble when one goes
for a ramble in the woods!) John ran to the brook which babbled close
by, and, dipping the bread in the water until it was soft, returned to
put some in the mouth of the little gray thing that lay so pitifully on
the leaves.