XXVI 



WR nearly had a garden tragedy yesterday afternoon. 

 The sounds of a little dog in great distress broke the peace 

 of the drowsy day. Loki's Ma-Ma dashed out of the 

 house thinking it was Loki caught in a trap ! Certainly 

 the little dog whichever it was was in desperate straits. 

 " That's the voice of my Betty/' cried Juvenal, galloping 

 to the rescue in his shirt-sleeves. " My treasure, my little 

 girl ! Fm coming ! " 



It was well indeed that he did hurry, for Betty had fallen 

 into the deep water-butt in the Rose Garden / and if she had 

 not had the sense to scream for help, and to hold on to the 

 rim of the barrel with all her little claws, she would have 

 been a drowned Betty, and nobody the wiser, perhaps, for 

 days and days. 



We think it would have broken Juvenal's heart. 

 Both Arabella and Loki were standing staring stiffly instead 

 of doing what was expected of dogs of such intellect : 

 which was running to fetch human help. 

 On a former occasion however, when Kitty- Wee had a fit, 

 poor little darling, Loki acted up to our opinion of him. We 

 had gone for a walk on the moor, and the Persian Princess, 

 still half in her kittenhood, had accompanied us, with that 

 touching display of pleasure at being in our company which 

 makes the Fur Children so endearing. She had to roll on 

 the grass in front of us, sharpen her claws on every tree, 

 and rub her pretty head against our skirts in the endeavour 

 to show her feelings. We suppose these feelings were too 

 much for her. We had halted in the greenhouse when 

 Loki dashed in upon us, whimpering in a frightful state of 



n 193 



