old enough to see much, or understand anything, 

 for his eyes still had that bluish blind look that all 

 very young puppies have, but he was marching along 

 as full of confidence as a general at the head of his 

 army. How he fell out of the waggon no one knew ; jj 

 perhaps the big puppies tumbled him out, or he may 

 have tried to follow Jess, or have climbed over the 

 tail-board to see what was the other side, for he was 

 always going off exploring by himself. His little 

 world was small, it may be only the bedplank of the 

 waggon and the few square yards of the ground on 

 which they were dumped at the outspans but he 

 took it as seriously as any explorer who ever tackled a 

 continent. 



The others were a bit more softened towards the 

 odd puppy when I caught up to the waggons and told 

 them of his valiant struggle to follow ; and the man 

 who had docked the puppies' tails allowed, " I believe 

 the rat's got pluck, whatever else is the matter with 

 him, for he was the only one that didn't howl when 

 I snipped them. The little cuss just gave a grunt 

 and turned round as if he wanted to eat me. I 

 think he'd 'a' been terrible angry if he hadn't been so 

 s'prised. Pity he's such an awful-looking mongrel." 



But no one else said a good word for him : he was 

 really beneath notice, and if ever they had to speak 

 about him they called him "The Rat." There is 

 no doubt about it he was extremely ugly, and instead 

 of improving as he grew older, he became worse ; yet, 

 I could not help liking him and looking after him, 

 sometimes feeling sorry for him, sometimes being 



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