His mother wasn't good.

He tells me that she had a bad name among all the dogs in her neighborhood.

She was a thief and a runaway." Though he provoked me so often, yet I could not help laughing at some of his stories, they were so funny.
We were lying out in the sun, on the platform at the back of the house, one day, and he had been more than usually provoking, so I got up to leave him.

He put himself in my way, however, and said, coaxingly, "Don't be cross, old fellow.

I'll tell you some stories to amuse you, old boy.