dawg's name is Chum. Like you c'n see in my entry blank, what's
layin' on the table in front of you. I adv'tised Chum as a bird
dawg because I s'posed he WAS a bird dawg. I ain't a sharp on
dawgs. He's the fust one ever I had. If he ain't a bird dawg,
'tain't my fault. He looks more like one than like 'tother breeds
I'd seen. So I called him one."

"There is no need to raise your voice at me!" rebuked the
colonel. "I am disposed to accept your explanation. But if you
read the local papers you must have seen--"

"I did read 'em," said Ferris. "I read 'em steady for a month or
more, to see was there was adv'tisement fer a lost dawg. Nary an
adv'tisement did I see excep' one fer a 'sable' collie. 'Sable'
means 'black.' I know, because our dominie told me so. I asked
him, when I see that piece in the paper. Chum ain't black, nor
nowheres near black. So I knowed it couldn't be him. What d'j'
want of me, anyhow?" he demanded once more.

"Again, I am disposed to credit your explanation," boomed the
colonel, frowning down a ripple of giggles that had its rise in
Miss Gault. "And I am disposed to acquit you of consciously
dishonest intent. I am glad to do so. Here is the situation:
Early last spring, Mr. Gault," indicating the sport-suit wearer
at his left, "bought from the famous Glenmuir Collie Kennels, on
the Hudson, an unusually fine young collie--a dog for which
connoisseurs predicted a great future in the show ring. He
purchased it as a gift for his daughter, Miss Marion Gault."

He inclined his head slightly toward the girl; then proceeded: