over a thousand members, including many princes and generals.

"We furnish the money that supports the kennels, and the dogs are bred
and trained free for the army. Now for the last eight years it has been
my greatest pleasure to visit the kennels, where as many as fifty dogs
are kept constantly in training. It was on my last visit that I got
Hero. His leg had been hurt in some accident on the training field. It
was thought that he was too much disabled to ever do good service again,
so they allowed me to take him. Two old cripples, I suppose they thought
we were, comrades in misfortune.

"That was nearly a year ago. I took him to an eminent surgeon, told him
his history, and interested him in his case. He treated him so
successfully, that now, as you see, the leg is entirely well. Sometimes
I feel that it is my duty to give him back to the service, although I
paid for the rearing of a fine Scotch collie in his stead. He is so
unusually intelligent and well trained. But it would be hard to part
with such a good friend. Although I have had him less than a year, he
seems very much attached to me, and I have grown more fond of him than I
would have believed possible. I am an old man now, and I think he
understands that he is all I have. Good Hero! He knows he is a comfort
to his old master!"

At the sound of his name, uttered in a sad voice, the great dog got up
and laid his head on the Major's knee, looking wistfully into his face.

"Of co'se you oughtn't to give him back!" cried the Little Colonel. "If
he were mine, I wouldn't give him up for the president, or the emperor,
or the czar, or _anybody_!"