"Will he bite, Martha?" she asked, shrinking to one side. She had an aversion to anything physically imperfect, no matter how lovable it might be to others. This tattered example struck her as particularly objectionable. 

 "No, darlin'—nothin' 'cept his food," and Martha laughed. 

 "What a horrid little beast!" Lucy said half aloud to herself, clinging all the closer to the nurse. "This isn't the dog sister Jane wrote me about, is it? She said you loved him dearly—you don't, do you?" 

 "Yes, that's the same dog. You don't like him, do you, darlin'?" 

 "No, I think he's awful," retorted Lucy in a positive tone. 

 "It's all I had to pet since you went away," Martha answered apologetically. 

 "Well, now I'm home, give him away, please. Go away, you dreadful dog!" she cried, stamping her foot as Meg, now reassured, tried to jump upon her. 

 The dog fell back, and crouching close to Martha's side raised his eyes appealingly, his ear and tail dragging. 

 Jane now joined them. She had stopped to pick some blossoms for the house. 

 "Why, Lucy, what's poor Meg done?" she asked, as she stooped over and stroked the crestfallen beast's head. "Poor old doggie—we all love you, don't we?" 

 "Well, just please love him all to yourselves, then," retorted Lucy with a toss of her head. "I wouldn't touch him with a pair of tongs. I never saw anything so ugly. Get away, you little brute!" 

 "Oh, Lucy, dear, don't talk so," replied the older sister in a pitying tone. "He was half starved when Martha found him and brought him home—and look at his poor back—" 

 "No, thank you; I don't want to look at his poor back, nor his poor tail, nor anything else poor about him. And you will send him away, won't you, like a dear good old Martha?" she added, patting Martha's shoulder in a coaxing way. Then encircling Jane's waist with her arm, the two sisters sauntered slowly back to the house. 

 Martha followed behind with Meg. 

 Somehow, and for the first time where Lucy was concerned, she felt a tightening of her heart-strings, all the more painful because it had followed 

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