BRUNO 25 



and Bruno, stomach to earth, was crawling about 

 us, uttering yelps and whines that voiced a joy 

 so great it could not be told from mortal agony. 



Regardless of the fact that we were on the 

 most public thoroughfare of the town, I fell on 

 my knees to hug him, and could not keep back 

 tears of mingled joy and pain. His poor thin 

 sides! His gasps of rapture! Oh, Boonie, 

 Boonie ! 



The first excitement over, we looked about 

 us for Mr. Nimrod. He was nowhere to be 

 seen. Bruno had evidently escaped, and was 

 running away to look for us when he had 

 chanced to strike our trail and so had found us. 



We were glad he was alone. We both felt 

 that if he had been torn from us at that su- 

 preme moment he would have died; he was 

 so faint with fasting and grief, and then the 

 overwhelming joy at finding those he had 

 thought to be forever lost to him ! He squeezed 

 himself in between us, and kept step as we went 

 homeward in the gathering twilight. 



As soon as we reached home, we hurried him 

 to the kitchen to enjoy the sight of the poor 

 fellow at his trencher. How we fed him ! I 

 ransacked the pantry for the things he liked best, 

 till his sides began to swell visibly. He paused 



