, thought that one of the other puppies had come up be- 

 ri hind to interfere with him. He was too proud to turn 

 round and appear to be nervous : with head erect 

 jhe glared hard straight in front of him, and, with all 

 the little breath that he had left after his big feed, he 

 growled ferociously in comical little gasps. He stood 

 like that, not moving an inch, with the front foot 

 still ready to take that step forward ; and then, as 

 nothing more happened, the hair on his back gradually 

 went flat again ; the fierceness died out of his face ; and 

 the growling stopped. 



After a minute's pause, he again very slowly and 

 carefully began to step forward ; of course exactly 

 the same thing happened again, except that this 

 time he shook all over with rage, and the growling 

 was fiercer and more choky. One could not imagine 

 anything so small being in so great a rage. He took 

 longer to cool down, too, and much longer before 

 he made the third attempt to start. But the third 

 time it was all over in a second. He seemed to think 

 that this was more than any dog could stand, and that 

 he must put a stop to it. The instant his hip touched 

 the leg, he whipped round with a ferocious snarl 

 his little white teeth bared and gleaming and bumped 

 his nose against the table-leg. 



I cannot say whether it was because of the shout 

 of laughter from us, or because he really understood 

 what had happened, that he looked so foolish, but he 

 just gave one crestfallen look at me and with a feeble 

 wag of his tail waddled off as fast as he could. 



Then Ted nodded over at me, and said : " I believe 

 you have got the champion after all ! " 



And I was too proud to speak. 



