“Yes,” says the gentleman, as he hurries us to the ring.  “I’m afraid it’s only a form for your dog, but the Judge wants all the winners, puppy class even.”

We had got to the gate, and the gentleman there was writing down my number.

“Who won the open?” asks Miss Dorothy.

“Oh, who would?” laughs the gentleman.  “The old champion, of course.  He’s won for three years now.  There he is.  Isn’t he wonderful?” says he, and he points to a dog that’s standing proud and haughty on the platform in the middle of the ring.

I never see so beautiful a dog, so fine and clean and noble, so white like he had rolled hisself in flour, holding his nose up and his eyes shut, same as though no one was worth looking at.  Aside of him, we other dogs, even though we had a blue ribbon apiece, seemed like lumps of mud.  He was a royal gentleman, a king, he was.  His Master didn’t have to hold his head with no leash.  He held it hisself, standing as still as an iron dog on a lawn, like he knew all the people was looking at him.  And so they was, and no one around the ring pointed at no other dog but him.

“Oh, what a picture,” cried Miss Dorothy; “he’s like a marble figure by a great artist—­one who loved dogs.  Who is he?” says she, looking in her book.  “I don’t keep up with terriers.”

“Oh, you know him,” says the gentleman.  “He is the Champion of champions, Regent Royal.”

The Master’s face went red.

“And this is Regent Royal’s son,” cries he, and he pulls me quick into the ring, and plants me on the platform next my father.

I trembled so that I near fall.  My legs twisted like a leash.  But my father he never looked at me.  He only smiled, the same sleepy smile, and he still keep his eyes half-shut, like as no one, no, not even his son, was worth his lookin’ at.

The Judge, he didn’t let me stay beside my father, but, one by one, he placed the other dogs next to him and measured and felt and pulled at them.  And each one he put down, but he never put my father down.  And then he comes over and picks up me and sets me back on the platform, shoulder to shoulder with the Champion Regent Royal, and goes down on his knees, and looks into our eyes.

The gentleman with my father, he laughs, and says to the Judge, “Thinking of keeping us here all day.  John?” but the Judge, he doesn’t hear him, and goes behind us and runs his hand down my side, and holds back my ears, and takes my jaws between his fingers.  The crowd around the ring is very deep now, and nobody says nothing.  The gentleman at the score-table, he is leaning forward, with his elbows on his knees, and his eyes very wide, and the gentleman at the gate is whispering quick to Miss Dorothy, who has turned white.  I stood as stiff as stone.  I didn’t even breathe.  But out of the corner of my eye I could see my father licking his pink chops, and yawning just a little, like he was bored.