Bruce

ed power to study and because he preferred midnight beer to midnight oil. George Washington, in student days, could never grasp the simp

as well as mentally. Being giants, t

is a gawky and foolish and ill-knit mass of legs and fur; deficient in sense and in symmetry. Yet at six years,

ensation of the Mistress's earnest arguments against the selling or giving away of a ce

t The Place. There was no competition for that office. She an

so championed against strong opposition, it had been decided to keep and raise him. But daily this decision seem

e pup of his age; but, big as he was, his legs and feet and head were huge, out of all proportion to the rest of him. The head did not bother him. Being hampered by

s forever getting into needless trouble. He was a stormcenter. No one but a

alled him Bruce-fifty times a day-in the weary hope of teaching him his name. But every one else on The Place gave

eeking propensities, Charlie Chaplin's screen explo

it no less than nine times in a single week. Once or twice he had nearly drowned there before some member of the fa

ce watched the placing of this platform with much grave interest. The moment it was completed, he trotted down it on a tour of investigation. At its lower edge he slipped and rolled int

ual catching of his toe-pads in the meshes of the wire. Thus ensnared

ke Bruce would wade till the water reached his shoulders. Then with a squeal of venturesome joy, he would la

ge that he was about to drown. Whereat some passing boatman would pick him up and hold him for ransom, or else some one from

r for letting his dog risk death, in this way, from drowning. M

as nothing edible in reach. And as his ideas of edible food embraced everything that was

afely eat and what they may not. Bruce was the exception. He would pounce upon and devour a luscious bit of lau

rch, box and all; on his recovery, he began upon a s

e to meet and fawn upon tramps or peddlers who sought to invade The Place. He could scarce learn his own name. He could hardly be taught to obey the simplest command.

eefully running down and beheading The Place's biggest Orpington

ultry. There is but one practically sure cure for

roat, and made the puppy wear it, as a heavy and increas

en. Stupid as he was, he learned this lesson with absolute thoroughness,-as will almost any chicken-ki

vy enough, but it showed a tendency to curl-almost to kink-instead of waving crisply, as a collie's ought. The hea

e Mistress was wont to draw on historic precedent for other instances of slow development,

et tall, at the shoulder, even now-much bigger than most full-grown collies. Champion Howgill Rival is spoken of as a 'big' d

are going to have the spring dogshow at Hampton. It's a little hole-in-a-corner show, of course. But Symonds is to be the all-around judge, except for the toy breeds. And Symonds knows collies, from the ground up. I am going to t

stress, "if Symonds sa

hus instead," threatened the Master. "Either of t

ds smokes," mused the Mi

Master. "What's tha

swer, "if a box of very wonderful cigars, se

we'll let Symonds buy his own cigars, for the present. The dog-show game is almost the only one I know of where a judge is practically always on the square. People doubt his judgment, sometimes, but there is practically ne

yet," answered the Mis

. This collie division contained no specimens to startle the dog-world. Most of the exhibits were pets. And

erestedly along the aisles between the raised rows of stall-like benches where the dogs were tied;

of the primal and firm-rooted human emotions. Not only the actual exhibitor and their countless frien

there is his heart and his all-absorbing interest. Yet it is a matter of record that grass is growing high, on the race-tracks, in such states as have been able to enforce th

en a social event. Nevertheless, the average dogshow is thronged with spectators. (Try to cross Madison Square Garden, on Washington's Birthday afternoon, while the Westmi

, of course. Because many of them have been bred solely with a view to show-points. And their owners and handlers have done nothing to awaken in their exhibits the half

de in these priceless collies of his. Once I watched him, at the Garden Show, displaying them to some Wall Street friends. Three times he made errors in naming his dogs. Once, when he leaned too close to the st

ion, and which have been brought up as members of their masters' households. Thus, if small shows seldom bring forth a world-beating dog, they at least are full of clever and humanized exhibits and of men and

ws-or are supposed to. To many

us back by prosy degrees to Br

judged. And the puppy class, as usual,

and a bad coat. The second was an exquisite six-months puppy, rich of coat, prematurely perfect of head,

oward the enclosure, "Bruce can't get worse than a third-prize yellow ribbon. We

red the enclosure, the judge's half-shut eyes rested on Bruce-at first idly, then in real amazement.

ut of the ring. This is a class for collies, not f

ted the Master. "I have his certified

throw-back to the dinosaur or the Great Auk. And I won't judge him

allotted bench. Bruce trotted cheerily along with a maddening air of having done something to be proud of. Deaf to the Mistress's sympathy and to he

ar as The Place is concerned," he decreed, stalking b

ive consolatory pat upon the disqualified Bruc

arply against the bench-edge as she went-knocking the

saw the bit of paper flutter floorward. This good sou

hat is perhaps one reason why the Mil

man touched the M

stranger, "the big pup with the 'For Sale' s

f the show. Guiltily, yet gratefully, the Master led the would-be p

eturned to where she and the

, from New York. He likes the pup. Says Bruce looks as if he was strong and had lots of endurance. I wonder if he wants him for a sle

ply,-and without daring to look into her troubled eyes,-he discovered an acquaintance on the far

a worried gaze on

as not any good. But I'm sorry. For I'm fond of him. I'm sorry he is going to live in New York, t

not caught the name when the Master had spoken it in

Halding would be barred from every dog-show and stuck in jail. It's an old trick of his, to buy up thoroughbreds, cheap, at shows. The bigger and the stronger they are,

the Mistress, puzzled by

'research work,'" the superintendent went on. "H

termined small figure made a tumbled wake through the crowd as she sped toward Bruce's bench.

of these cars a large and loose-jointed man was lifting a large and loose-jointed dog. The do

ress, fiercely, as she d

the head and scrambled into the machine with him, reaching with his one disengaged hand for the

Now, flinging on the runabout's seat a

here is the money

ned the Doctor. "Stand cl

," was the hot reply. "You'll giv

py frustrated his aim and forced him to devote both hands to the subduing of Bruce. The dog was maki

g helpless dogs to a table and torturing them to death in the unholy name of science. But if there isn't a corner waiting for them, below, it's only beca

is slight German accent becoming more noticeable as he continued: "A wom

remainder say they are in doubt. They can't point to a single definite case where it has been of use. Alienists say it's a dis

he snif

hurr

for humanity! If you vivisectors would be content to practice on one another-or on condemned murderers,-instead of

same time he tucked the wriggling dog under his right arm, holdi

Halding's foot and a release of th

" he ordered.

on the running-board. Back she toppled. Only by luck did she land on

indignant dismay, and reached desperately into th

Bruce for an instant, to fend off her hand-or perhaps to thrust her away from the peril of the fast-moving mud-guards. At the Mistress's cry-and at the brief letup of pressure caused by the Doctor's

ad come from the clownlike puppy's throat,-and Bruce flung h

led heap, but not before the curving white eyeteeth had slashed the side of the man

im, Bruce none the less gathered himself together with lightni

mark-for several thing

long with his fist, in an instinctive kick. The kick did not reac

ment that the flash of white teeth at his throat made Halding snatch his own left

t full speed into the wall of a house

st was

isted metal. The local ambulance carried away one of these limp bodies. The Place's car rushed the smash-up's other senseless victim to the office of the nearest veterinar

ss-cuts marring the fluffiness of his fur, was skillfully pa

is gallantly puny effort at defending the Mistress, partly because of his pi

ek or two the vet' pronounced Bruce as well as ever. The dog, through habit, still held the mended foreleg off the

forelegs off the ground at the same time when he was walking, he was forced to make use of the once-broken leg. Finding, to his amaze, that he could walk

ause" of his client's accident. The suit never came to trial. It was dropped, indeed, with much haste. Not from any change of heart on the plaintiff's behalf; but because, at

came upon his laboratory. No fewer than five dogs, in varying stages of hideous torture, were found strapped to tables or hangi

of lameness. And then, for the first time, a steady change that had been so slow as to escape any one's notice da

d vanished. In his place, by a very normal process of natur

was now a head worthy of Landseer's own pencil. The bonily awkward body had leng

tawny coat, wavy and unbelievably heavy, stippled at the ends with glossy black. There w

y of the Ugly Duckl

ess. "He's-he's BEAUTIF

where she sat. Lightly he laid one little white p

you doubt it. They're alive with intelligence. It's-it's a miracle! H

t, all the time, had lain latent. The same illness-and the long-enforced personal touch with humans-had done an equal

he changes an awkward and dirt-colored cygnet into a glorious swan or a leggily gawky colt into a superb Derby-winner

s motorcar the dog had found a soul-and the re

ose to the Mistress's side, when the puppy class was called-a class that includes all dogs under twelve months old. Six minutes

ed." And as Bruce paced majestically out of the ring at last, he was the possessor of fi

oval as he handed the Winner's rosette to the Mistress. "Fine dog in

y, one of the foremost collie judges in America has gone on

't say so! A judge who would speak so, of th

ing lovingly at her handful of blue ribbons. "I thin