Basil took the book obediently. But after the first sentence he asked again:“Daddy,it says here: a man is known by thepany he keeps. Is that true? Because if a good man keepspany with a bad man, is the good man bad because he keepspany with the bad man, or is the bad man good because he keepspany with the good man, or do they each change, and if the...”
“Basil,” said his father, “you may go out in the rain.”
After a beautiful purebred puppy wandered onto our back porch and made himself at home, my husbandposed an ad for the“Lost and found” column of the local newspaper. It read：“A puppy, male, approximately nine months old, no collar, very friendly, found on Rockbridge Road.”
“I feared all the detail might encourage an unscrupulous person to chaim the dog. As I methodically explained why each clue revealed too much, my husband dutifully crossed out the words. Finally, in frustration, h