Wait a minute!" Dick ran back to the dog and stooped down to open a cloth, when the faithful guard began to snarl at him and show his teeth.
"Why, you ungrateful beggar!" cried Dick; "I was going to give you a bit of the chicken.

Lie down, sir!" But Snig would not lie down.

He only barked the more furiously.
"Do you want me to kick you ?" cried Dick.
Snig evidently did, for not only did he bark, but he began to make charges at the visitor's legs so fiercely that Dick deemed it prudent to stand still for a few moments.
"Now, then," he said, as the dog seemed to grow more calm; "just see if you can't understand plain English!" The dog looked up at him and uttered a low whine, accompanying it by a wag of the tail.
"That's better!" cried Dick.

"I'm going to pull you off a leg of that chicken for yourself.

Do you understand ?" Snig gave a short, friendly bark.
"Ah, now you're a sensible dog," said Dick, stooping down to pick up the cloth in which the chicken was wrapped; but Snig made such a furious onslaught upon him that the boy started back, half in alarm, half in anger, and turned away.
"Won't he let you touch it, Mester Dick ?" chuckled Hickathrift.
"No; and he may go without," said Dick.