In spite of the fact that I was the one to attend to Bruno's wants--that he always came to me when hungry or thirsty, and that I never disciplined him as Julius sometimes did,--still he showed in many ways that Julius's place in his heart was far above mine. So I was relieved that there had been no good-byes. We were both entirely engrossed for the next few days by getting moved and settled. In spite of busy hands, I had many times felt a tugging at the heart-strings for the absent Bruno. I said nothing about it, though; and Julius afterwards confessed that he too had felt longings, but had suppressed them for fear of upsetting me, just as I had concealed my feelings on his account. On the afternoon of the fourth day Julius could stand it no longer; he must have some news of Bruno. So he looked up Mr. Nimrod. Before he could ask any questions, Mr. Nimrod began,-- "What did you feed that dog, anyway?" "Why, the same things we ate," answered Julius, in surprise; "whatever there was on the table." "Well, he won't eat anything for us. We've tried everything we could think of. What does he like best?" "Well," said Julius, "he likes biscuit and toast and fried mush,--all sorts of crisp and crackly things; and bones,--little ones that he can bite,--and meats of course." "We've tried everything except the toast and mush. We'll try him on those. I'll go right home now and see about it." When Julius came home and repeated this conversation to me, it produced what may without exaggeration be called a state of mind. I was half wild. All the emotions I had been struggling to conceal since Bruno's departure now held sway. Julius was deeply moved too. We could only comfort each other by recalling all the trouble we had had with Bruno, from the anxious night of his first "tear," to that last morning when he had returned wounded and bloody. We assured each other that he would soon consent to be happy in such a good home, and that it would be wrong for us to indulge our feelings to his ultimate hurt. We dwelt especially on the fact that if he should again go sheep-chasing and be shot at, he stood at least a chance of being fatally wounded. Thus we talked ourselves into a reasonable frame of mind. CHAPTER IV I knew, without anything being said about it, that Julius would lose no time the next day in finding out if Bruno had consented to eat his supper. When he started down town a whole hour earlier than usual, I knew, as well as if he had said so, that it was in order to have time to hunt up Mr. Nimrod before office hours. "It's no use," began Mr. Nimrod, as soon as Julius appeared; "wouldn't touch a thing. Never saw such a dog. I believe he's trying to starve himself." "Don't you think," ventured Julius, "it would be well to bring him out to our house for a little visit, to cheer him up?"