7 
speaking his own little tender words to him, 
the watchful mother explained, aside, the 
reason of the refusal. 
“You know, Edwy, a dog gets so terribly 
homesick if left in the care of servants. 
Just see how Bruno is waiting to leap to his 
master’s side, and fly down the road the mo- 
ment the horse’s hoofs ring on the highway. 
. . . When you are older. . . 
How Edwy hated the words, “when you 
are older !” It always meant that you could- 
n’t have something when you wanted it. But 
as he was a well-bred child, he always kept 
quiet in company. He had sometimes con- 
fided to Willard, his brother, but that didn’t 
help much. 
“Could I have a kitten then? I do want 
some kind of a thing that isn’t either dumb 
or dead.” A certain chum of Edwy’s — not 
the usual kind of a chum — but one in his 
own and Willard’s estimation well worthy of 
the name, had noticed the fact that the child 
i 
