lick his brown paws till they were quite clean. Benjy liked to kill
all kinds of animals, but Nox saved lives, though he often came near
losing his own.

Near their home was a deep river, where many a dog and cat was
drowned. There was one place on the bank of this river where there was
an old willow-tree, which spread its branches wide and stretched its
long arms till they touched the water. Here Nox used to bring
everything that he found in the river.

I must tell you that Benjy did not like Nox, and with very good
reason. Benjy had had something to do with the death of several
animals belonging to the people in the neighborhood, and he had tied
stones or tin cans around their necks and dropped them into the river.
But Nox used to wander round quite early in the morning, and very
often found in the river and brought out what Benjy had thrown in, and
this is why he did not like the brave dog.

There was another dog in the family, named Mr. Rough. His eyes had
been almost scratched out by cats, his little body bore marks of many
beatings, and he had a hoarse bark which sounded as if he had a bad
cold.

If Benjy cared for any animal, it was for Mr. Rough, although he
treated him worse than he did Nox, because he was small.

One day Benjy felt very mischievous; he even played a cruel trick on
Nox while he was asleep. As he sat near to him he kept lightly
pricking the dog's lips with a fine needle. The dog would half wake
up, shake his head, rub his lips with his paws, and then drop off to