Bernards.

"Yes," Bruno added in a queer voice, "but this man said he was from
California, where they never have any snow!"

"What?" shouted all the dogs together. "A place where they never have
any snow? Oh, what a funny place that must be!"

"What do they walk on?" asked Jan's mother curiously.

Before Bruno could answer, Jan shoved up and said earnestly: "But,
mother, how do dogs save people where there is no snow?"

"I am sure I don't know," she told him. "Ask Bruno."

Neither Bruno nor any of the other dogs could explain this mystery,
though Jan went to each in turn for an answer to his question. At last
he lay down, his nose wedged between his paws, his yellow forehead
wrinkled with thought, and he stared across at the tops of the great
white peaks above the enclosure until his soft eyes closed in sleep.
Soon he was dreaming that he was digging travellers from the snow and
asking them, "Won't you please tell me how a dog can save people in a
land where there is no snow?"

But none of them could answer his question.




Chapter III