"It really is very foolish in us to keep him," Mrs. Lee went on. "Probably this is just the beginning of the annoyances he will cause!" "He tramples down the flowers terribly," Barbara complained. Mr. Lee caught the anxious look in Billy's eyes. "Well, well, Mother, perhaps Billy will keep a closer watch on his dog after this!" Billy promised with suspicious readiness. "Mr. Sawyer says Pilot's a valuable dog," he told them. "And we ought not to give a valuable dog away, anyway!" "We'll see," Mrs. Lee concluded. But that evening Pilot sealed his own doom! For, as the children were playing croquet near the veranda, he came running across the lawn and triumphantly dropped at Billy's feet a beautiful gold fish, quite dead! "Oh--oh--oh!" screamed Alice. "It's from Sawyer's pond!" cried Peggy on her knees. "The poor little thing." Keineth lifted it. "It's dead!" "It's their new Japanese gold fish," added Barbara, who, with Mrs. Lee, had come down the steps from the veranda. "You'll have to pay for this, Billy!" "I think this is the last straw," said Mrs. Lee sternly, turning to her husband. "Oh, Mammy, he couldn't help it--they swim round and he thinks they are playing!" Peggy implored. Pilot, standing back, his tail wagging slowly, regarded them with wondering, disappointed eyes. He had felt so very proud of his fish and now his family seemed to look upon him with displeasure. "And I can tell the secret now," cried Alice, "we weren't going to tell--he ate one of Billy's _best_ shoes!" "You just wait!" cried Billy. Peggy turned a terrible face upon Alice. "We'll never, never, never tell anything to the tell-baby again!" she hissed. "Will we, Ken?" "I guess I knew it first," Alice whimpered. "It was my fault--I left them out, Mother! And I'd just as soon wear my old shoes!" Billy turned pleadingly to his mother. "I am sure you would," she smiled, "but nevertheless I must be firm about this dog. He is a nuisance and will be an expense. By the time we have paid the Clarks for their lamb and the Sawyers for their goldfish and bought you a pair of shoes the damages against Pilot will have run up to a nice little sum!" "But, Mother, you can take it out of my allowance!" "That will not guard against other things of this same sort happening. No, my son, I do not like to make you unhappy, but we must get rid of the dog. Please say no more about it. Day after to-morrow we'll send him into the city with the vegetable man." Mrs. Lee turned back to the veranda. When she spoke with that tone in her voice the children never answered. Peggy, linking her arm in Keineth's, turned an angry shoulder upon Alice. Billy blinked his eyes very fast to clear them of the tears that had gathered in spite of himself, threw his arm about the dog's neck and led him away to some hiding place where, secure from intrusion, he could pour out his rebellious heart to his pet.