over, and to right themselves after being turned over by their mother's playful paws. We were squatting on the floor very busy with them, when Mary Ellen entered, round-eyed with fear.
"'Tis herself is in the dining-room," she gasped.
"Not Mrs. Handsomebody?"
"Sorra a thing else. Put them pups in their basket and come out and shut the dure. Ye'd better go into the yard and be at some quate game. Oh, Lord—" and she hurried back to her mistress.
This time we were safe, but there was tomorrow ahead, with certain discovery.
Mr. Watlin, propped in the open doorway, brought his ingenious mind to bear upon the problem.
"Now if Mrs. 'Andsomebody could be put under an obligation to that little dog, she'd probably tike it right into 'er 'eart and 'ome. If that little dog, f'rinstance, should save Mrs. 'Andsomebody from drowning—does she ever go in bathing?"
"Likely, at her age, in December!" sneered Mary Ellen. "Try again."
"We might hold her under water in the bath-tub till Giftie would fish her out," suggested Angel.
It was a colourful spectacle to visualize, and we dallied with it a space before abandoning it as im-
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