I stayed out with Jim for a while, and he asked me if I knew why
Ned had thrown a strap for us, instead of a bone or something
hard.

Of course I did not know, so Jim told me it was on his account. He
was a bird dog, and was never allowed to carry anything hard in
his mouth, because it would make him hard-mouthed, and he
would be apt to bite the birds when he was bringing them back to
any person who was shooting with him. He said that he had been
so carefully trained that he could even carry three eggs at a time in
his mouth.

I said to him, "Jim, how is it that you never go out shooting? I have
always heard that you were a dog for that, and yet you never leave
home."

He hung his head a little, and said he did not wish to go, and then,
for he was an honest dog, he gave me the true reason.

CHAPTER VIII A RUINED DOG

"I WAS a sporting dog," he said, bitterly, "for the first three years
of my life. I belonged to a man who keeps a livery stable here in
Fairport, and he used to hire me out shooting parties.

"I was a favorite with all the gentlemen. I was crazy with delight
when I saw the guns brought out, and would jump up and bite at
them. I loved to chase birds and rabbits, and even now when the
pigeons come near me, I tremble all over and have to turn away
lest I should seize them. I used often to be in the woods from