“Oh, of course not,” replied Anderson.

“I shouldn’t think you would, especially Charlotte.  Say, I think Charlotte is a real pretty girl, if she is my sister.  Say, why can’t I pat him?”

“You had better not.  He bit a boy about your size once.”

“Hm!  I ain’t afraid he’ll bite me.  Don’t you think she is?  I don’t think you are very polite not to say right off.”

“Very pretty, indeed,” replied Anderson, laughing.  Then he spoke to the dog, a large mongrel with a masterly air, and an evident strain of good blood under his white and yellow hide.

“How much did you pay for that dog?” inquired Eddy.

“I didn’t pay anything,” replied Anderson.  “Somebody left him in the street in front of my office when he was a puppy, or he strayed there.  I never knew which.”

“So you took him in?”

“Yes.”

“Do you always keep him shut up here?”

“A great part of the time.  Sometimes he stays in my store nights.  He is a very good watch-dog.”

“You keep him shut up because he bit a boy?”

“Most of the time.  He is a little uncertain in his temper, I am afraid.”

“Didn’t he bite any one but that one boy?”

“No, not that I know of.  But he has sprang at a good many people and frightened them, and I have either to keep him tied or shoot him.”

“He didn’t kill the boy?”

Anderson laughed.  “Oh no!  He was not very badly bitten.”

“Well, I know one thing,” said Eddy, with conviction.  “I would not like a nice dog like that shut up all his life because he had bitten me.”

Before Anderson knew what he was about to do, Eddy had made a spring, leaping up sideways in the air like a kitten, and was close to the dog.  And the dog, upon whom there was no reliance to be placed, except in the case of Anderson himself, hardly stopping for a premonitory growl, had seized upon the boy’s little arm.  Having a strain of pure bulldog in him, it was considerable trouble to make him let go, and Anderson had to use a good deal of force at his collar and a thick stick.

Eddy, meanwhile, made not a whimper, but kept his whitening lips close shut.  Luckily he had on a thick jacket, although the day was so warm, and when Anderson drew away at last from the furious, straining animal, and examined the injured member, he found only a slight wound.  The marks of the dog’s teeth were plainly visible, and there were several breaks of the surface and a little blood, but it was certainly not alarming, and the animal’s usual temper made it improbable that any ultra consequences need be feared.

Eddy was trembling and very pale, but he still made not a whimper, as Anderson examined his arm.

“Well, my son,” said Anderson, who was as white as the boy, “I think there is not much harm done.  But it is lucky you had on such a thick sleeve.  I can tell you that.”

“That was because we have not paid the Chinaman, and he wouldn’t send home my blouses this week.  It was so warm I wanted to wear a blouse, but they were all at the Chinaman’s.”  Eddy’s teeth chattered as he spoke, his childish lips quivered, and tears were in his eyes.  He continued to tremble violently, but he did not for a moment give way.  He even shook off the protecting arm which Anderson placed around his little shoulders.