Helen fell wide-eyed upon the adventurer and his prize.




III


The dog went directly to the fire; there, sitting in the very middle
of the golden cockatoos on the Turkey rug, he began to lick himself.
He did this by sitting very square on three legs and spreading out
the fourth stiff and erect, as though it had been not a leg at all
but something of wood or iron. The melted snow poured off him,
making a fine little pool about the golden cockatoos. He must have
been a strange-looking animal at any time, being built quite square
like a toy dog, with a great deal of hair, very short legs, and a
thick stubborn neck; his eyes were brown, and now could be seen very
clearly because the hair that usually covered them was plastered
about his face by the snow. In his normal day his eyes gleamed
behind his hair like sunlight in a thick wood. He wore a little
pointed beard that could only be considered an affectation; in one
word, if you imagine a ridiculously small sheep-dog with no legs, a
French beard and a stump of a tail, you have him. And if you want to
know more than that I can only refer you to the description of his
great-great-great-grandson "Jacob," described in the Chronicles of
the Beaminster Family.

The children meanwhile gazed, and for a long time no one said a
word. Then Helen said: "Father WILL be angry."