Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott Page B

replied
     to this with a cipher. “But, suppose you divided your sugar with me, how many lumps would you give me?” Lyda took up the figure
     five and politely presented it to her master.’”
    “Wasn’t she smart? Sanch can’t do that,” exclaimed Ben, forced to own that the French doggie beat his cherished pet.
    “He is not too old to learn. Shall I go on?” asked Miss Celia, seeing that the boys liked it, though Betty was absorbed with
     the doll, and Bab deep in a puzzle.
    “Oh, yes! What else did they do?”
    “’They played a game of dominoes together, sitting in chairs opposite each other, and touched the dominoes that were wanted;
     but the man placed them and kept telling how the game went. Lyda was beaten, and hid under the sofa, evidently feeling very
     badly about it. Blanche was then surrounded with playing cards, while her master held another pack and told us to choose a
     card; then he asked her what one had been chosen, and she always took up the right one in her teeth. I was asked to go into
     another room, put a light on the floor with cards round it, and leave the doors nearly shut. Then the man begged someone to
     whisper in the dog’s ear what card she was to bring, and she went at once and fetched it, thus showing that she understood
     their names. Lyda did many trick with the numbers, so curiousthat no dog could possibly understand them; yet what the secret sign was I could not discover, but suppose it must have been
     in the tones of the master’s voice, for he certainly made none with either head or hands.’
    “It took an hour a day for eighteen months to educate a dog enough to appear in public, and (as you say, Ben) the night was
     the best time to give the lessons. Soon after this visit, the master died; and these wonderful dogs were sold because their
     mistress did not know how to exhibit them.”
    “Wouldn’t I have liked to see ’em and find out how they were taught! Sanch, you’ll have to study up lively, for I’m not going
     to have you beaten by French dogs,” said Ben, shaking his finger so sternly that Sancho groveled at his feet and put both
     paws over his eyes in the most abject manner.
    “Is there a picture of those smart little poodles?” asked Ben, eyeing the book, which Miss Celia left open before her.
    “Not of them, but of other interesting creatures; also anecdotes about horses, which will please you, I know,” and she turned
     the pages for him, neither guessing how much good Mr. Hamerton’s charming “Chapters on Animals” were to do the boy when he
     needed comfort for a sorrow which was very near.

A Heavy Trouble
C HAPTER 10
    T hank you, ma’am, that’s a tip-top book, ‘specially the pictures. But I can’t bear to see these poor fellows”; and Ben brooded
     over the fine etching of the dead and dying horses on a battlefield, one past all further pain, the other helpless, but lifting
     his head from his dead master to neigh afarewell to the comrades who go galloping away in a cloud of dust.
    “They ought to stop for him, some of ’em,” muttered Ben, hastily turning back to the cheerful picture of the three happy horses
     in the field, standing knee-deep among the grass as they prepare to drink at the wide stream.
    “Ain’t that black one a beauty? Seems as if I could see his mane blow in the wind, and hear him whinny to that small feller
     trotting down to see if he can’t get over and be sociable. How I’d like to take a rousin’ run round that meadow on the whole
     lot of ’em!” and Ben swayed about in his chair as if he was already doing it in imagination.
    “You may take a turn round my field on Lita any day. She would like it, and Thorny’s saddle will be here next week,” said
     Miss Celia, pleased to see that the boy appreciated the fine pictures, and felt such hearty sympathy with the noble animals
     whom she dearly loved herself.
    “Needn’t wait for that. I’d rather ride bareback. Oh, I say, is this the book you