to that of the drawing-room, which offended Miss Topsy very much, and she did not speak to him for two whole days.

At last one morning Topsy came rushing out to us, and she said she had a wonderful piece of news to tell us—a piece of news she did not like at all herself, and she was sure it would grieve us all.

What could it be? We all of us wanted to know very much; but we did not like to appear too curious, for fear Topsy should teaze us by keeping us waiting, for it must be owned Topsy was a bit of a "teaze," especially when Tip was present.

"Guess!" she said. "Guess six times!" We all of us guessed as many as ten or twelve times, but none of our answers were correct; and, at last, she said, "Well, then, I will tell you."

"I am going to have a new mistress, and so is Bob; and you and Tip are going to have a new master!”

"Impossible!" we all called out at once.

"I won't have a

new master," I said; "Nor will I," said Tip!" And I will not have a new mistress," said Bob! "What can you mean, Topsy? -speak! Are we all going to be turned off and sold, and you too? Impossible! we never will submit to it."

"You will have to do so," said Topsy, "for it is all arranged! Mr. Harry and Miss Kate are going to be our master and mistress, for I heard the servants say so; and they are going to be married soon, and live down here in Chester, or somewhere near !"

We were all struck dumb for some minutes!—at last I gave a Ilong, low whine, and all the others followed suit. "Oh! the inconstancy of humans!" I said. "I now know why Miss Kate

came down here; I thought it was on my account; I thought, too, she wished to see my brother Bob,-and, after all, she was going to desert Tip and me, and give her chief affections to Mr. Harry! It was horrible!" and I gave another long whine!

"Well," said Topsy, "it is quite as bad for Bob and me; Mr. Harry has deserted us for her, and altogether it is a very bad business, and one I thoroughly disapprove.”

Tip's remarks were short and decisive—he should not stand it !—first to be turned out of his house and home, and then to be supplanted by a human !—he should return to Ewell.

“Well,” said Bob, "I don't like it better than any of you; but my advice is, 'make the best of a bad bargain :' Miss Kate doesn't seem bad, as humans go; and Mr. Harry has love enough for us all; so I move that we do not quarrel with our victuals, but stay on." After a little discussion this was carried. Had it been any one else but Mr. Harry, we should never have given our consent!

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE WEDDING.

EARLY the next morning we dogs held a regular consultation over the news of last night. We had had time to think it over, and we none of us approved of it at all. I must say Bob behaved the best about it, and he gave us excellent advice. He often reminded us of our friend Bob the Colley, when he spoke to us words of wisdom. We all of us felt ourselves more or less aggrieved, but we agreed that we would not show any temper in the matter, and that certainly matters might have been

worse.

Miss Kate and Mr. Harry were of no use to us, or to any one after they were engaged, and had it not been for Mr. Harry's sisters we should never have gone for a long run anywhere. Altogether, matters were not improving in our opinion, when we heard one morning that Miss Kate was going to return to Ewell with her maid, and of course Tip and I thought we were going too, and we made all our preparations accordingly. We were very much astonished when Topsy told us that she heard Miss Kate say we were to be left here, and I could not believe the truth of her assertion, and was running round to the frontdoor to see if I could find Miss Kate, and ask what it meant, when I found her just getting into the carriage with her maid, and she drove off without even wishing me good-bye. I was

not going to stand this ; and so after calling Tip, we both of us ran along the road to the station as hard as we could, and astonished her very much by running up to her just as she was going into the station. I remonstrated with her very vigorously, and so did Tip, who said he was utterly opposed to her marriage; but it was no good, she was talking to Mr. Harry until the last minute, and then coolly said, "Go home, dogs! I shall be back soon;" the train whistled, and she was soon out of sight.

"Well!" said Tip, "I never could have believed it of her! her inconstancy is something fearful. I wonder whether Mr. Harry knows about it ?"

"Of course he does," I said, "he has behaved just as badly to Topsy, but it is just the way with humans! I wish they could learn a little constancy from us!"

Tip and I were in no amiable mood when we ran back to Chester, and Mr. Harry seemed the same, so we paid him no attention, but ran home as fast as we could, and told the other dogs how badly we had been treated. Topsy proposed that we should go out for a run on our own account, and we immediately agreed; for we considered that we were, so to speak, our own masters, and that as nobody would apparently miss us, we might as well enjoy ourselves.

Topsy undertook to lead us, and we ran on after her into Chester. I should not have chosen that road; but Topsy was certainly fond of town life; and I think she knew a good many humans in Chester, and she liked the conversation of humans much better than I did. Both Tip and I felt very cross; we had not recovered Miss Kate's departure without us, and we

us.

could not in any way account for her strange conduct towards I am afraid I behaved badly that day in Chester, for I saw nothing in an amiable light, and instead of getting out of the way of the different humans we met, I took a pleasure in being awkward, and running against them. I nearly knocked one old lady down; but it was her own fault for not making way for me when I ran into a little shop after Topsy. I could not think what Topsy was after, and I was so speedily turned out of the shop, that I never should have known, if Topsy had not rejoined me almost directly with a white cat whom she introduced as Snowball. Now Snowball might have been a very handsome cat if he had been clean, but he looked exactly as if he had spent his life in a chimney, and I took the liberty of telling him So. Snowball was very good-tempered, and he did not mind my remark at all; in fact he said he rather liked a turn up and down the chimney in the summer time, when there were no fires, and he had nothing better to do; but a great many of the chimneys were built in such a vulgar, straight, tall way nowadays, he could not manage them at all, and he asked me my opinion of the interior of chimneys.

As I had never been up one in my life, I could not give him much information; but I thought it very sensible of him to ask my opinion on the subject; and I told him that I thought chimney life rather dull and confined, and that I preferred the country-much preferred the country. I repeated this with emphasis, as I was so afraid Snowball might invite me to take a turn in one of his favourite chimneys. Neither Topsy or Tip were attending to us, or I feel sure they would have told Snowball I was talking nonsense; and dear old Bob did not dare to