Dog show

"Oh, he shows them," was Harry's somewhat vague explanation.

"He takes prizes with them at dog shows.

Some of them are champions.

He breeds them, too, and he sells the puppies he doesn't want to keep.

Consequently, their visits there were more frequent than Mrs. Whipple thought was quite proper.

You'll wear out your welcome, she warned, but somehow they didn't seem to.

It was during these winter days that they heard a good deal of talk about dog shows, both from Mr. and Mrs. Hartshorn and from Tom Poultice.

Tom, indeed, was as much interested in the show dogs as if they had been his own, and he was never tired of talking of their achievements on the bench and their possible future triumphs.

"'Have one of mine.

I get them from a customer.' market gardener says there's nothing like em imported from havana i can well believe that i said sadly i knew them of old say foglestone surely you don't mean to say you don't like em he protested my dear tilby when a cigar is strong it's like the truth it prevails but thanks all the same oh all right but thunder a new dog my lord you like him eh um what about the mastiff he continued without mercy tilby i commenced you surely must have heard of the dog exchange he repeated the last words in a dazed fashion yes the dog exchange i continued firmly surely you of all persons a dog expert a close student of canine psychology tilby blushed i'll come off it old man he said noisily well anyway it is an institution run by a dear old lady with kind heart and a silver-white hair i mean a kind heart oh you know what i mean which takes care of dogs temporarily sick when you put your dog in you go to the exchange department with your ticket you get a ticket eh surely a ticket please give bearer a terrier or whatever species you fancy in exchange for fido number so and so you pick out your dog and so your family is consoled till your own dog is better see and then you exchange again fine idea but you had a mastiff last time the supply of bulldogs had run out i assured him solemnly he gazed at me in prolonged silence then he smacked me painfully on the knee i say he trumpeted i've got it i never saw a bulldog like that you're going to show that dog at the dog show opens wednesday i know the secretary personal friend so drink up and we'll go see him right away before i could register a protest i was swept out in the swirl of tilby's personality and we were dashing madly up the street i was dragged into an elevator into an office and I heard myself being introduced to Mr. Pinkleton, secretary of the Kennel Club, as Pert Fogleston, the funny rider.

Mr. Pinkleton laughed uneasily and said, Pleased, uh, to meet you, uh.

From the tone of his voice I knew he had never heard of me.