"When was he found?" asked Nellie.
"Last night. But Moses Lee—that's the gipsy who found him—kept him tied up at Hatwell Green till this morning, when the caravan had to pass Halcyon Villa on their way through the town—the gipsies are moving to-day. I was standing at the front door when I saw the Lees' caravan stop at the gate. The blinds of the house were all down then, but a minute later a servant pulled up those in the dining-room, and after that came and opened the front door, and Peter Perry was close behind her. The instant he showed himself Bounce uttered a yell, broke away from Moses Lee, and simply went off his head—oh, it was a sight! First Bounce jumped around Peter like a mad thing, barking with joy, then, when he had quieted down, Peter took him up in his arms and kissed and hugged him, and—yes, really almost cried over him!"
"Poor boy!" exclaimed Mrs. Burford, whilst tears of sympathy shone in Nellie's blue eyes. "Where was the dog found?" she inquired.
"In a rabbit burrow, Mother," Tom replied.
He flushed scarlet as he spoke, and hung his head. For a minute he hesitated, then, in a few halting sentences, he explained how he had seen and left Bounce in the woods, and told of his interview with the gipsy on the preceding day.
"I think it would have been only kind if you had taken the dog back to his master," Mrs. Burford remarked, with a note of reproof in her voice.
"Yes, Mother," Tom answered; "I wished afterwards I had. You can't think what a weight off my mind it is to know he's all right."
"How came the dog to be found?" asked Mrs. Burford; "you have not told us that."
"No, but I will," Tom said eagerly. "Really it's quite wonderful he's living! Moses Lee put in all the afternoon yesterday looking for him, and couldn't find him; but, late in the evening, after his wife and Zingra had returned, he went into the woods again. This time he came upon the hole in the old hedge I'd told him of, where Bounce had been digging, and he got down on his knees and looked in. He saw the hole led into a regular rabbit run, and that the hedge was like a honeycomb with rabbit holes. Then he got up and went to the other side of the hedge, and there he saw another hole where Bounce had evidently been digging, too, and above the hole earth had given way— fallen and partly blocked the entrance. Well, what did he do as soon as he saw that, but go and fetch a spade, and begin to dig away at the hedge, and—"
"And he found Bounce there!" broke in Nellie excitedly.