And, mother, one of them looks like Bruce!"

"I suppose they would want to be housedogs," says Mrs. Lossing,
a little dubiously, but looking fondly at Harry's handsome face;
"you know, somehow, all our dogs, no matter how properly
they start in a kennel, end by being so hurt if we keep them
there that they come into the house. And they are so large,
it is like having a pet lion about."

"These dogs, mother, shall never put a paw in the house."

"Well, I hope just as I get fond of them they will not have
the distemper and die!" said Mrs. Lossing; which speech Harry
rightly took for the white flag of surrender.

That evening he went to find Hurst and clinch the bargain.
As it happened, Hurst was away, driving an especially important
political personage to an especially important political council.
The day following was a Sunday; but, by this time,
Harry was so bent upon obtaining the dogs that he had it
in mind to go to Hurst's house for them in the afternoon.
When Harry wants anything, from Saint Bernards to purity
in politics, he wants it with an irresistible impetus!
If he did wrong, his error was linked to its own punishment.
But this is anticipating, if not presuming; I prefer to leave
Harry Lossing's experience to paint its own moral without pushing.
The event that happened next was Harry's pulling out his check-book
and beginning to write a check, remarking, with a slight drooping
of his eyelids, "Best catch the deacon's generosity on the fly,
or it may make a home run!"