Perhaps she'd be right, too.
She generally is." A week later, Lad received a summons that made his heart sink.

For he knew precisely what it foretold.

He was called to the bathroom; where awaited him a tub half full of warm water.
Now, baths were no novelty to Lad.

But when a bath tub contained certain ingredients from boxes on the dog-closet shelf,--ingredients that fluff the coat and burnish it and make all its hairs stand out like a Circassian Beauty's, that meant but one thing.
It meant a dog-show was at hand.
And Lad loathed dog-shows, as he loathed tramps and castor oil and motorcycles.
After a single experience, he had never been taken to one of those canine ordeals known as "three-or-more-day shows." But the Mistress and the Master rejoiced at his triumphs at such local one-day shows as were within pleasant driving distance of the Place.

These exhibitions entailed no great strain or danger.