Harry was cut short in his argument, and submitted more unresistingly than usual. “I cannot have the dog about the place for another night,” went on Mrs. Bloomfield, in a high authoritative key. “Hoppus,” naming the gardener, “will take her away quietly, and put an end to her without any unnecessary pain. It must be done, Harry; there is no help for it, and you must bear it like a man. You know I have often told you, when you would insist on keeping pets, that you must be prepared for their coming to grief, and causing you to suffer in your turn.” “I don’t mind my own sufferings,” muttered Harry indignantly; “but I’ll tell you what, mother, if Flo is to be killed, I—I’ll kill her myself,” he said, with quivering lips and a husky voice, but making a manful fight to keep down his feelings. “I have a right to be let do it. Nobody will care so much that she shall not suffer as I will. And Flo will do anything for me. She will even jump over the quarry when I tell her, and not believe her senses that it can hurt her, because it is I who bid her do it,” he ended, unable to restrain a sob. Mrs. Bloomfield hesitated, while she was conscious of some troublesome moisture in her eyes. It was true what Harry urged, that he had a right—and she was the last woman to deny a right, if he claimed it—to save Flora from pain, and make her death as inconceivable to her to the last moment as was possible. But could she condemn her boy to such a task? She would consult his father. The curate, like his wife, shrank from making Harry his dog’s executioner. Harry stood firm. The matter was argued, and the fulfilment of the sentence delayed, till at last it was commuted to a sound whipping, and _that_ Harry consented to relegate to the hands of the gardener. So faithfully did Hoppus discharge his mission, and so susceptible was Flora, from these early days, to reason—whether it was conveyed in kind careful instruction or wholesome chastisement—that from that hour she respected the poultry yard, and always looked another way when she had to pass a nest, or when a chicken crossed her path. So magnanimous did she become in her age, that she has been known to allow a daring young cock, or stolid middle-aged hen, to advance and peck at the bone beside which she lay reposing.