From the dining-room window Tim had taken stock of the next door garden, and of Kitty and of Bob Glanville with their lemon-and-white fox-terrier, Snip, in close attendance upon them; and seeing that Bob was about his age and that Kitty looked a merry, nice little girl, he had thought how pleasant it would be for him to know them. Accordingly he had procured a short ladder, which he had found hanging against the tool-house wall, and had taken up a position where he could overlook the next door garden. He had seen Kitty call her brother's attention to him, and had observed them whispering together, and he deemed it almost unsociable for them not to speak.
By-and-by Snip trotted up the garden path nearest the partition wall, and suddenly paused, sniffing the air in a suspicious manner. Then he looked up and caught sight of the stranger; but instead of barking at him, he seated himself on his haunches and contemplated him with a world of perplexity in his brown eyes, into which there gradually crept the loveliest possible canine smile.
"Good doggie," Tim murmured. "You're a jolly, friendly little chap." And Snip wagged his tail and wriggled with excitement, every nerve in his body on the twitch, for he liked the voice which addressed him, and he liked the countenance of the next door boy, which did not seem ugly to him at all.
"Look at Snip," said Kitty in an undertone. "The boy's speaking to him, and he's quite pleased."
"Little sniveller!" exclaimed Bob. He immediately called to the dog to come away; whereupon Tim made a grimace at him and descended the ladder in haste.
"What an impertinent boy!" cried Kitty. "But I don't think it was nice of you to call Snip away like that; he was doing no harm, and it seemed rather rude, I thought. I know you didn't mean it to be so," she added hastily, noticing that her brother's colour had risen.
"The fellow had no right there at all," Bob replied. "If any one was rude, he was. He is evidently full of cheek. Did you see what a face he made at me?"
"Yes, and didn't he look ugly?" cried Kitty, smiling at the remembrance of the distorted countenance which had disappeared so suddenly on the other side of the wall. "I wonder if he is a relation of Mr. Shuttleworth's, and if he will stay long?"
"You'd like to know all about him, wouldn't you, Kitty?" her brother said, laughing. "You wouldn't be a girl if you weren't curious."
"Boys are curious, too, only they never will own it," Kitty retorted.