36 "LOW LIFE."
so hard up or so near that we'll miss his bite. We've had no
cat since poor Kitty was took in the rabbit warren. He may
earn something for his living if he can be got to go out and
do a turn at ratting for a neighbour at a time. Anyway, he
can always watch your dinner till you're ready, when you carry
it with you to your place of work; and he is good to the child.
I feel as if dear little Freddy will get well again, and that the
dog may bring luck to the house, though he came to it at an
unlucky time."
 Of course, and very properly, Mr. Miles laughed and
scouted at Prince's bringing luck; and it was not in conse-
quence of any such vain womanish superstition, but because
families like Mr. Miles' are tolerably sure on the whole, and
in spite of troubles, to rise in the social scale-just as families
like poor Jack's are as certain to decline, that the occupants of
the cottage did begin to prosper from the hour that Prince
crossed their threshold.
 Prince himself knew when he was in good quarters, and
showed the knowledge satisfactorily, by continuing to be on
his best behaviour, till he commenced to forget his worst, and
to be good as if goodness were a second nature to him. He
thawed manifestly in his surliness to more than the children,
whose trusty play-fellow he was. He showed himself faithful,
obedient, attentive, as far as his understanding went, and
decently civil and discreet.
 I wish I could state that Prince became in all respects
a superior dog, or at least that he lost his overweening
opinion of himself, and became capable of reverencing, at a
humble distance, really great dogs-instead of cracking vulgar
jokes at their expense, and seeking to drag them down to his