Dan made him a bed by putting some straw in a corner, and covering it with a horse blanket, and, cutting some wide leather straps from the old chaise boot, they fastened him in such a manner that he could not move to his own injury. Rover whined terribly during the operation, but when it was finished, and the leg bound up in cold water, he became quiet, licked Dan's fingers when he took off the muzzle, and wagged his tail, no doubt sensible that he was handled gently, and that no harm was intended.
Dan got his mother to make a pillow-case. He stuffed it with chaff, and placed the wounded leg on it to keep it up (as it was shorter than the other), and make Rover as comfortable as possible. They then patted him, told him to lie still, and leaving the stable, got their lessons together in Dan's house.
When Dan got up the next morning, he found, sitting on the door-step, a little dog. His eyes were so bright they sparkled; and his back was black, also his ears and head; there was a ring of white around his neck, and his breast, legs, and feet were white. The black was jet black, and the white as white as white could be; his tail was black, and curled up so crisp over his back that it seemed as though it would lift him up behind; looking, with his erect, sharp-pointed ears, and fine, glossy coat, as though he came right out of a bandbox.
Dan recognized him in a moment, and running to Rich, told him "that Carlo—Ned Baker's dog, who lived in the next house to Clinton Blanchard, Rover's former master—was sitting on the door-step, and he didn't believe but he had come to see Rover, for they had been great friends, always playing together, and there were never two dogs agreed as well as they."
When they went to the door, Carlo was scratching and whining at the stable door, and Rover whining within. They let him into the harness-room, when Carlo jumped on his friend's bed, licked his face, licked the stump of his leg, and smelt him all over. Rover licked Carlo's face in return, wagged his tail, and seemed delighted.
The new comer then rolled himself into a ball, and lay down at Rover's nose, shutting first one eye, and then the other, as though he would say, "I have come to spend the day, and I mean to."
"That is capital," said Rich. "He has come on a visit of consolation. The patient will recover a great deal faster for having him here."
The two dogs took their breakfast together, and great was the surprise of Horace and Frank when they called, on their way to school, to know how Rover did, and found Carlo nursing him.
Another boy afterwards told them, "that when he first got up in the morning, he saw Carlo running along the road, with his nose to the ground." It was evident that, missing his companion, he had scented the track, and followed on till he found him.