Miss Jule, scenting something, suggested that they go out and present the pups with the collars that Mr. Hugh had bought for them but had seemingly forgotten. This pulled him together again, and he handed Anne a parcel containing six dainty chamois-lined collars. Three were red for the girls, and three blue for the boys, and each was ornamented with a pair of small round nickel bells. “How lovely of you!” said Anne, going up to give him a frank kiss of thanks, a hand on each shoulder. “They’ll keep the dogs from straying away and getting lost. I always put bells on my hounds’ first collars,” he said, quite at his ease again. “By the way,” he added, stooping, “what are those letters printed on the dish the pups are feeding from?” “‘Drink, Puppy, Drink.’ They come made that way; and I think the pups understand, for they do it all day long,” and this time Mr. Hugh joined in the laugh. [Illustration] That evening when Anne went to put away the dog pictures, much to her vexation she could not find the one of Miss Letty feeding the kennel dogs, and she so wanted to give it to Mr. Hugh. CHAPTER XIII BEN UNCAS’S LAST HUNT One Saturday Anne discovered that Waddles was very low in his mind. It was after a week when she had been busy at school, and had devoted her afternoons and evenings to taking and developing more or less successful dog pictures, to make the albums in aid of Mrs. Carr’s “fund,” so that she had paid less attention than usual to the house fourfoots. At first Anne thought that Waddles felt neglected, and was a bit sulky; but as petting did not mend matters, she looked about for some other cause. It could not be that the sixlets bothered him, for they now lived in separate quarters, and had a garden to themselves; and Mr. Hugh had secured Tiger Lily, Dinah, and Bobwhite to add to the beagle pack he was forming, when they should be old enough, much to the relief of Anne’s parents; for the prospect of six puppies cutting their second teeth upon any and everything they could seize was certainly rather appalling. Fortunately, neither Anne nor Tommy objected to halving the pups with Mr. Hugh, for they could visit them at any time, and though his dogs were obliged to obey, and to be very tidy and good, they were allowed to spend their evenings lying in rows by the enormous fireplace in the hall, and always sat in a group about his chair when he dined or breakfasted alone.