CHAPTER XI.

ROB.


Blinks was not the only dog on the Loudon place. There was another one,
a much larger fellow, named Rob.

Rob was a big puppy, in the first place, and then he grew up to be a
tall, long-legged dog, who was not only very fond of Harry and Kate, but
of almost everybody else. In time he filled out and became rather more
shapely, but he was always an ungainly dog--"too big for his size," as
Harry put it.

It was supposed that Rob was partly bloodhound, but how much of him was
bloodhound it would have been very difficult so say. Kate thought it was
only his ears. They resembled the ears of a picture of a beautiful
African bloodhound that she had in a book. At all events Rob showed no
signs of any fighting ancestry. He was as gentle as a calf. Even Blinks
was a better watch-dog. But then, Rob was only a year old, and he might
improve in time.

But, in spite of his general inutility, Rob was a capital companion on a
country ramble.

And so it happened, one bright day toward the close of April, that he
and Harry and Kate went out together into the woods, beyond Aunt
Matilda's cabin. Kate's objects in taking the walk were wild flowers and