Chapter 20 - Page 2

even to an exploration of his mouth in an
attempt to discover what his tongue is like at the other end.
The comings and goings of David are unnoticed by perambulators,
which lie in wait for the advent of Porthos. The strong and
wicked fear Porthos but no little creature fears him, not the
hedgehogs he conveys from place to place in his mouth, nor the
sparrows that steal his straw from under him.

"In proof of which gentleness I adduce his adventure with the
rabbit. Having gone for a time to reside in a rabbit country
Porthos was elated to discover at last something small that ran
from him, and developing at once into an ecstatic sportsman he
did pound hotly in pursuit, though always over-shooting the mark
by a hundred yards or so and wondering very much what had become
of the rabbit. There was a steep path, from the top of which the
rabbit suddenly came into view, and the practice of Porthos was
to advance up it on tiptoe, turning near the summit to give me a
knowing look and then bounding forward. The rabbit here did
something tricky with a hole in the ground, but Porthos tore
onwards in full faith that the game was being played fairly, and
always returned panting and puzzling but glorious.

"I sometimes shuddered to think of his perplexity should he catch
the rabbit, which however was extremely unlikely; nevertheless he
did catch it, I know not how, but presume it to have been another
than the one of which he was in chase. I found him with it, his
brows furrowed in the deepest thought. The rabbit, terrified but
uninjured, cowered beneath him. Porthos gave me a happy look and
again dropped into a weighty frame of mind. 'What is the next
thing one does?' was obviously the puzzle with him, and the
position was scarcely less awkward for the rabbit, which several
times made a move to end this intolerable suspense. Whereupon
Porthos immediately gave it a warning tap with his foot, and
again fell to pondering. The strain on me was very great.

"At last they seemed to hit upon a compromise. Porthos looked
over his shoulder very self-consciously, and the rabbit at first
slowly and then in a flash withdrew. Porthos pretended to make a
search for it, but you cannot think how relieved he looked. He
even tried to brazen out his disgrace before me and waved his
tail appealingly. But he could not look me in the face, and when
he saw that this was what I insisted on he collapsed at my feet
and moaned. There were real tears in his eyes, and I was
touched, and swore to him that he had done everything a dog could
do, and though he knew I was lying he became happy again. For so
long as I am pleased with him, ma'am, nothing else greatly
matters to Porthos. I told this story to David,