"All right," be decreed. "Let him stay. He'll be an amusing pet
for you, anyhow. And his eye has the true thoroughbred
expression,--'the look of eagles.' He may amount to something
after all. Let him stay. We'll take a chance on burglars."
So it was that Lad came to the Place. So it was that he demanded
and received due welcome which was ever Lad's way. The Master had
been right about the pup's proving "an amusing pet," for the
Mistress. From that first hour, Lad was never willingly out of
her sight. He had adopted her. The Master, too,--in only a little
lesser wholeheartedness,--he adopted. Toward the rest of the
world, from the first, he was friendly but more or less
indifferent.
Almost at once, his owners noted an odd trait in the dog's
nature. He would of course get into any or all of the thousand
mischief-scrapes which are the heritage of puppies. But, a single
reproof was enough to cure him forever of the particular form of
mischief which had just been chidden. He was one of those rare
dogs that learn the Law by instinct; and that remember for all
time a command or a prohibition once given them.
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