“A farm's no worse than living in a city,” said Mutt Mulligan. “A city dog ain't a real dog; he's either an outcast under suspicion of the police, or a mama's pet with ribbons tied around his neck.” “You can't tell me,” says Jack. “I know. A country town with plenty of boys in it, and a creek or river near by, is the only place for a dog. Well, as I was saying, I felt sorry for Percival, and we made friends. Pretty soon a man that knew him came by in a buggy, going to town. He was a doctor, and he stopped and asked Percival if he wasn't pretty far from home. Percival told him he'd left home for good and for all; but he sniffled when he said it, and the doctor put him into his buggy and drove him to town. I drilled along behind. It had been dark quite a while when we got home, and Percival's folks were scared half to death. His mother had some extra hysterics when she saw his hair. “'Where on earth did you get that ornery-looking yellow mongrel?' says Percival's father when he caught sight of me. “'That's my dog,' says Percival. 'I'm going to keep him.' “'I won't have him around,' says his mother. “But Percival spunked up and said he'd keep me, and he'd get his hair shingled tight to his head, or else the next time he ran away he'd make a go of it. He got a licking for that remark, but they were so glad to get him back they let him keep me. And from that time on Percival began to get some independence about him. He ain't Percival now; he's Squint.” It's true that a dog can help a lot in a boy's education. And I'm proud of what I've done for Freckles. I will always remember 'one awful time I had with him, though. I didn't think he'd ever pull through it. All of a sudden he got melancholy--out of sorts and dreamy. I couldn't figure out what was the matter with him at first. But I watched him close, and finally I found out he was in love. He was feeling the disgrace of being in love pretty hard, too; but he was trying not to show it. The worst part of it was, he was in love with his school-teacher. She was a Miss Jones, and an old woman--twenty-two or twenty-three years old, she was. Squint and Freckles had a fight over it when Squint found out. Squint came over to our place one night after supper and whistled Freckles out. He? says: “Say, Freckles, I seen you put an apple on Miss Jones's desk this morning.” “You're a liar,” says Freckles, “and you dastn't back it.” “I dast,” says Squint. “Dastn't,” says Freckles. “Dast,” says Squint. “Back it then,” says Freckles. “Well, then, you're another,” says Squint. Which backed it. Then Freckles, he put a piece of wood on to his shoulder, and said: “You don't dast to knock that chip off.” “I dast,” says Squint. “You dastn't,” says Freckles. Squint made a little push at it. Freckles dodged, and it fell off. “There,” says Squint, “I knocked it off.” “You didn't; it fell off.” “Did.” “Didn't neither.” “Did teether. Just put it on again, and see if I don't dast to knock it off.”