The Fairport hotel was built right in the centre of the town, and the shops and houses crowded quite close about it.  It was a high, brick building, and it was called the Fairport House.  As I was running along the sidewalk, I heard some one speak to me, and looking up I saw Charlie Montague.  I had heard the Morrises say that his parents were staying at the hotel for a few weeks, while their house was being repaired.  He had his Irish setter, Brisk, with him, and a handsome dog he was, as he stood waving his silky tail in the sunlight.  Charlie patted me, and then he and his dog went into the hotel.  I turned into the stable yard.  It was a small, choked-up place, and as I picked my way under the cabs and wagons standing in the yard, I wondered why the hotel people didn’t buy some of the old houses near by, and tear them down, and make a stable yard worthy of such a nice hotel.  The hotel horses were just getting rubbed down after their day’s work, and others were coming in.  The men were talking and laughing, and there was no sign of strange animals, so I went around to the back of the yard.  Here they were, in an empty cow stable, under a hay loft.  There were two little ponies tied up in a stall, two goats beyond them, and dogs and monkeys in strong traveling cages.  I stood in the doorway and stared at them.  I was sorry for the dogs to be shut up on such a lovely evening, but I suppose their master was afraid of their getting lost, or being stolen, if he let them loose.

They all seemed very friendly.  The ponies turned around and looked at me with their gentle eyes, and then went on munching their hay.  I wondered very much where the gander was, and went a little farther into the stable.  Something white raised itself up out of the brownest pony’s crib, and there was the gander close up beside the open mouth of his friend.  The monkeys make a jabbering noise, and held on to the bars of their cage with their little black hands, while they looked out at me.  The dogs sniffed the air, and wagged their tails, and tried to put their muzzles through the bars of their cage.  I liked the dogs best, and I wanted to see the one they called Bob, so I went up quite close to them.  There were two little white dogs, something like Billy, two mongrel spaniels, an Irish terrier, and a brown dog asleep in the corner, that I knew must be Bob.  He did look a little like me, but he was not quite so ugly, for he had his ears and his tail.

While I was peering through the bars at him, a man came in the stable.  He noticed me the first thing, but instead of driving me out, he spoke kindly to me, in a language that I did not understand.  So I knew that he was the Italian.  How glad the animals were to see him!  The gander fluttered out of his nest, the ponies pulled at their halters, the dogs whined and tried to reach his hands to lick them, and the monkeys chattered with delight.  He laughed and talked back to them in queer, soft-sounding words.  Then he took out of a bag on his arm, bones for the dogs, nuts and cakes for the monkeys, nice, juicy carrots for the ponies, some green stuff for the goats, and corn for the gander.