AFTER that day no one spoke of " The Rat " or " The 

 Odd Puppy," or used any of the numberless nicknames 

 that they had given him, such as " The Specimen," 

 " The Object," " No. 6," " Bully Beef " (because he 

 got his head stuck in a half-pound tin one day), " The 

 Scrap " ; and even " The Duke of Wellington " ceased 

 to be a gibe. They still laughed at his ridiculous 

 dignity ; and they loved to tease him to see him stiffen 

 with rage and hear his choky little growls ; but they 

 liked his independence and admired his tremendous 

 pluck. So they respected his name when he got one. 



And his name was " Jock." 



No one bothered about the other puppies' names : 

 they were known as " Billy's pup," " Jimmy's pup," 

 " Old Joe's Darling," " Yellow Jack," and " Bandy- 

 Legged Sue " ; but they seemed to think that this little 

 chap had earned his name, fighting his way without any- 

 body's help and with everything against him ; so they 

 gave up all the nicknames and spoke of him as " Jock." 



Jock got such a good advertisement by his fight with 

 the table-lee that /r~V every one took notice of 



< 



71 



