strong-smelling, disagreeable, carbolic soap. He had his own
towels and wash cloths, and after being rubbed and scrubbed, he
was rolled in a blanket and put by the fire to dry. Miss Laura said
that a little dog that has been petted and kept in the house, and has
become tender, should never be washed and allowed to run about
with a wet coat, unless the weather was very warm, for he would
be sure to take cold.

Jim and I were more hardy than Billy, and we took our baths in the
sea. Every few days the boys took us down to the shore and we
went swimming with them.

CHAPTER VII TRAINING A PUPPY

"NED, dear," said Miss Laura one day, "I wish you would train
Billy to follow and retrieve. He is four months old now, and I shall
soon want to take him out in the street."

"Very well, sister," said mischievous Ned, and catching up a stick,
he said, "Come out into the garden, dogs."

Though he was brandishing his stick very fiercely, I was not at all
afraid of him; and as for Billy, he loved Ned.

The Morris garden was really not a garden but a large piece of
ground with the grass worn bare in many places, a few trees
scattered about, and some raspberry and currant bushes along the
fence. A lady who knew that Mr. Morris had not a large salary,
said one day when she was looking out of the dining-room
window, "My dear Mrs. Morris, why don't you have this garden