around us. I shall never forget how Uncle Peabody talked to him.

"Go back, Shep--go back to the house an' stay on the piaz," he began.
"Go back I tell ye. It's Christmas day an' we're goin' down to ol' Aunt
Liza's. Ye can't go way down there. No, sir, ye can't. Go back an' lay
down on the piaz."

Shep was fawning at my uncle's foot and rubbing his neck on his boot and
looking up at him.

"What's that ye say?" Uncle Peabody went on, looking down and turning
his ear as if he had heard the dog speak and were in some doubt of his
meaning. "Eh? What's that? An empty house makes ye terrible sad on a
Chris'mas day? What's that? Ye love us an' ye'd like to go along down to
Aunt Liza's an' play with the children?"

It was a clever ruse of Uncle Peabody, for Aunt Deel was softened by his
interpretation of the dog's heart and she proposed:

"Le's take him along with us--poor dog! ayes!"

Then Uncle Peabody shouted:

"Jump right into the sleigh--you ol' skeezucks!--an' I'll cover ye up
with a hoss blanket. Git in here. We ain't goin' to leave nobody alone
on Chris'mas day that loves us--not by a jug full--no, sir! I wouldn't
wonder if Jesus died for dogs an' hosses as well as for men."

Shep had jumped in the back of the sleigh at the first invitation and
lay quietly under his blanket as we hurried along in the well-trod snow