68 BRUNO 



dently deciding to see to it later. His sitting 

 with us till bedtime, keeping in mind his 

 mental appointment, and then going forth with- 

 out a word from any one to keep it, seemed to 

 us to be a truly wonderful thing, and so it 

 seems to me yet. 



From the first, we had made a constant com- 

 panion of Bruno, talking to him always as if 

 he could speak our language ; and we have 

 since thought that this must have been a sort 

 of education for him, drawing out and develop- 

 ing his own natural gifts of thought and reason. 

 He often surprised us by joining in the conver- 

 sation. He would be lying dozing, and we 

 talking in our usual tones. If we mentioned 

 Robbie or Charlie, the two children who were 

 his friends in his puppy days before he was our 

 dog, or spoke of Leo, or of going somewhere, 

 he would spring up all alert, running to the 

 door or window, and then to us, whining and 

 giving short barks of inquiry or impatience. 



Always, after that first time we had tried to 

 give him away, he was subject to terrible night- 

 mares. In his sleep he would whimper and 

 sigh in a manner strangely like human sobbing. 

 We thought at such times that he was going 

 through those trying days again, in his dreams. 



