GRAN’MA_ GRACIE.

dener, because they grew so heavy that they tore the nails out of the walls, and
had to be fastened up again— old John giving Gran’ma the shreds to hold
while he went up the ladder with his hammer, and a nail in his mouth.

That garden was Gran’ma’s world, it was so big; and on fine mornings she
could be seen seriously wandering about with Dinnywinkle, her little sister, up
this way, down that, under the apple-trees, along the gooseberry and currant
alleys, teaching her and Grant that it was not proper to go on the beds: when
there were plenty of paths, and somehow Dinnywinkle, who was always
bubbling over with fun, did as the serious little thing told her in the most obe-
dient of ways, and helped her to scold Grant, who was much harder to teach.

For Grant, whose papa was a setter, and mamma a very lady-like retriever,
always had ideas in his head that there were wild

 
   
     

beasts hiding in the big garden, and as soon as his
collar was unfastened, and he was taken down the
grounds for a run, he seemed to run
mad. His ears went up, his tail began

  
 

@.

to wave, and he dashed about: franti-

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hor’

cally to hunt for those imaginary wild
beasts. He barked till he was hoarse

at

3

  

sometimes, when after a good deal of
rushing about he made a discovery, and
would then look up triumphantly at
Gran’ma, and point at his find with his
nose, till she came up to see what he
had discovered. One time it would be
a snail, at another a dead mouse killed
by the cat, and not eaten because it was
ashrew. Upon one occasion, when
the children ran up, it was to find the He
dog half wild as he barked to them to come and see what he was holding
down under his paw, — this proving to be an unfortunate frog which uttered
a dismal squeal from time to time till Gran’ma set it at liberty, so that it could
make long hops into a bed of ivy, where it lived happily long afterwards, to
sit there on soft wet nights under a big leaf like an umbrella, and softly whistle -
the frog song which ends every now and then in a croak.

Grant was always obedient when he was caught, and then he would walk

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