As he was speaking, a strange man in a checked suit came around the corner of the house.

Jewel’s eyes grew larger and she straightened up.

“Oh, grandpa, look!” she said softly, and then jumped off the seat to see better.  All the little company gazed with interest, for, accompanying the man, was the most superb specimen of a collie dog that they had ever seen.  “It’s a golden dog, grandpa,” added Jewel.

The collie had evidently just been washed and brushed.  His coat was, indeed, of a gleaming yellow.  His paws were white, the tip of his tail was white, and his breast was snowy as the thick, soft foam of the breakers.  A narrow strip of white descended between his eyes,—­golden, intelligent eyes, with generations of trustworthiness in them.  A silver collar nestled in the long hair about his neck, and altogether he looked like a prince among dogs.

Jewel clasped her hands beneath her chin and gazed at him with all her eyes.  He was too splendid to be flown at in her usual manner with animals.

“What a beauty!” ejaculated Harry.

“It is a golden dog,” said Jewel’s mother, looking almost as enthusiastic as the child.

“What have you there?” asked Mr. Evringham of the man.  “Something pretty fine, it appears to me.”

“Yes, sir, there’s none finer,” replied the man, glancing at the animal.  “I called to see you on that little matter I wrote you of.”

“Yes, yes; well, that will wait.  We’re interested in that fine collie of yours.  We know something about golden dogs here, eh, Jewel?”

“But this dog couldn’t dance, grandpa,” said the child soberly, drawing nearer to the creature.

“I should think not,” remarked the man, smiling.  “What would he be doing dancing?  I’ve seen lions jump the rope in shows; but it never looked fitting, to me.”

“No,” said Jewel, “this dog ought not to dance;” and as the collie’s golden eyes met hers, she drew nearer still in fascination, and he touched her outstretched hand curiously, with his cold nose.

“Oh, well, but we like accomplished dogs,” said Mr. Evringham coldly.

“Who says this dog ain’t accomplished?” returned the man, in an injured tone.  “Just stand back there a bit, young lady.”

Jewel retreated and her grandfather put his hand over her shoulder.  The man spoke to the dog, and at once the handsome creature sat up, tall and dignified, on his hind legs.

The man only kept him there a few seconds; and then he put him through a variety of other performances.  The golden dog shook hands when he was told, rolled over, jumped over a stick, and at last sat up again, and when the man took a bit of sugar from his pocket and balanced it on the creature’s nose, he tossed it in the air, and, catching it neatly, swallowed it in a trice.

Jewel was giving subdued squeals of delight, and everybody was laughing with pleasure; for the decorative creature appeared to enjoy his own tricks.