them look as though they were not really thorough- 

 bred, and because he was such a miserable little rat 

 that he was not worth saving anyhow ; but in the end 

 he was allowed to live. I believe no one fancied the 

 job of taking one of Jess's puppies away from her ; 

 moreover, as any dog was better than none, I had offered 

 to take him rather than let him be drowned. Ted 

 had old friends to whom he had already promised 

 the pick of the puppies, so when I came along it 

 was too late, and all he could promise me was that 

 if there should be one over I might have it. 



As they grew older and were able to crawl about 

 they were taken off the waggons when we outspanned 

 and put on the ground. Jess got to understand this 

 at once, and she used to watch us quite quietly as 

 we took them in our hands to put them down or 

 lift them back again. When they were two or three 

 weeks old a man came to the waggons who talked a 

 great deal about dogs, and appeared to know what 

 had to be done. He said that the puppies' tails 

 ought to be docked, and that a bull-terrier would be 

 no class at all with a long tail, but you should on no 

 account clip his ears. I thought he was speaking of 

 fox-terriers, and that with bull-terriers the position 

 was the other way round, at that time ; but as he 

 said it was 'the thing' in England, and nobody 

 contradicted him, I shut up. We found out after- 

 wards that he had made a mistake ; but it was too 

 late then, and Jess's puppies started life as bull- terriers 

 up to date, with long ears and short tails. 



I felt sure from the beginning that all 



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