Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/28

22 about his head and face, and from there gradually dwindled away until, at his tail, he was only covered with a few sparse locks, through  which his darker gray skin was plainly visible. His baskets, collars, and other belongings were rapidly outgrown, and the new ones substituted  for them soon shared the same fate. And, as if to keep pace with his body, his temper and will grew at the same time ; for the disposition  of the dog was an uncertain quantity. Though no one ever spent twenty-four hours in the  house with him without yielding to his fascinations, strangers and chance callers, one and  all, detested him. In spite of words and blows. Fuzz would run out and bark whenever the bell rang. And on some occasions he varied the monotony by firmly seizing the new-comer by the clothing, greatly to the resentment of the chosen few whom he favored with  this attention. Tying him up or shutting him in a room by himself proved of no avail, for, in  the one case, he invariably bit the string in two;  and, in the other, his small paws scratched the  door with such zeal that varnish and paint vanished before his attacks, while his voice was