"Yes, children; and the sooner, the more hope for his recovery. By-the-way, Maria, if you have a covered basket, a piece of carpet, and Pepper's basin ready, we'll get him off at once."
The boys were wild with excitement. Pepper would not be shot after all; he was going to be cured.
After stroking his glossy sides, to which he responded by a feeble wag of his tail, they took off his silver collar and bells, lifted him tenderly into the basket, called the family to bid him good-by, and departed with their uncle.
"It's a mercy he has gone. Suppose he had bitten Smoke?" remarked Miss Maria, closing the hall door.
"I shall miss him, for all that," sighed Miss Phebe.
Soon Pepper, curled up in the basket on Uncle Fritz's knee in the elevated car, was rushing toward his destination. Where that was he little cared, he was so truly miserable.
A black-and-tan of "high degree," his dainty paws had never trodden rougher ways than the velvet carpets of his mistress's mansion, or the smooth lawns of his master's garden. He slept on silken cushions, took his airings in Miss Maria's carriage, and had his food served in porcelain. Not even Smoke, the petted Maltese, dared to put her nose within a foot of his basin. Alas! how much of this was to be changed!
A few minutes' ride and a short walk brought the boys and Mr. Hayes to the gate of a low, curious, but gayly painted cottage; on either side of the entrance were piled cages of birds and animals.
On the top of the porch Dick saw, with an uncomfortable sinking at his heart, a stuffed dog that looked much the worse for continual exposure to the weather. Below hung a framed picture of odd-looking dogs, labelled "Famous," while a sign hanging near announced that Dr. Blank, Importer, Doctor, and Taxidermist, was prepared to sell, board, cure, and stuff all kinds of birds and domestic animals.
Dick was greatly re-assured when, peeping through the palings, he saw several little dogs comfortably basking in the sunshine before the door, but was fairly delighted at the frolicking company that greeted them on entering the cottage. As he afterward said, he could not tell which jumped the highest, wagged their tails the hardest, barked the loudest, or cut the funniest capers, the Yorkshire terriers, the Skyes, or the English pugs.