When Mr. Preston came home to tea, and saw what the dog had done, he was very angry with poor Tiger, and told Oscar he must sell him or give him away, for he would not have such a mischievous animal about the house another day.  A day or two after, Mrs. Preston replaced the articles belonging to her mother that had been injured, and the excitement about the dog soon died away.  Oscar did not try to get rid of his pet; but he was careful not to let him stay in the house much of the time especially when his father was at home.

“Oscar,” said his grandmother a day or two after as he came into the kitchen with Tiger, “I thought your father told you he would n’t have that dog around here any more.”

“O, he did n’t mean so,” replied Oscar; “he was mad when he said that, but he ’s got over it now.  Besides, I don’t let Tige stay in the house much.”

“A good dale ye cares for what yer father says,” remarked Bridget, who was never backward about putting in a word, when Oscar’s delinquencies were the subject of conversation.

“You shut up, Bridget,—­nobody spoke to you,” replied Oscar.

“Shet up, did ye say?  Faith, if ye don’t git shet up yerself where ye won’t git out in a hurry, afore ye ’re many years older, it ’ll be because ye don’t git yer desarts.  Ye ’re a bad b’y, that ye are, an’—­”

“There, there, Biddy,” interrupted Mrs. Lee, “I would n’t say anything more—­it only aggravates him, and does no good.  But, Oscar,” she added, “I ’m sorry you don’t pay more attention to what your father says.  It’s a bad habit to get into.  I knew a disobedient boy, once, who came to the gallows; and I ’ve known several others who made very bad men.”

“But you don’t call me disobedient, do you, grandma’am?” inquired Oscar.

“I don’t know what else to call it,” she replied, “if your father tells you to do a thing, and you take no notice of it.”

“But father does n’t want me to give Tige away—­I don’t believe he ’s thought of it again since that night.”

“Then, if I were you,” replied his grandmother, “I would ask his consent to keep the dog.  If he did n’t mean what he said, that night, you will be safe enough in asking him.”

But this was a kind of reasoning that Oscar could not appreciate.  If he could carry his point just as well without his father’s formal consent, he thought it was useless to ask any such favor.  As long as he could keep his dog, it was all the same to him whether his father withdrew his command, or silently acquiesced in his disobedience of it.

But grandmother Lee’s visit was drawing to a close, and early one bright, cool morning, in the latter part of December, the coach called, to take her to the railroad depot; and after a few kisses, and words of affectionate advice, and lingering good-byes, she departed on her homeward journey.  Of those she left behind, next to her own daughter, the saddest of the group was little Ella, who, for many days, missed the pleasant face of her good old grandmother.