ed dress and get him ready. "Tell her,"
I said, as I lifted him into the wagon, "that I'll come over after him
some time this afternoon; it isn't far, and if I start early enough he
can easily walk home with me before night."

"Dat's right; we's got dat all fixed," Joe responded cheerfully. He
started the team again, while Ralph, his good humor restored, threw me
kisses as the wagon rattled away.

I had mentioned it to no one, but I was secretly a good deal worried
over the non-appearance of Guard. In the present absorbed interest in
other matters, I think none of the family, save myself, had taken note
of the fact that the dog had not been seen since his noisy scramble up
the hillside in pursuit of some animal, the evening before.

Only hunters, or those who dwell in remote and lonely places, can
realize how fully one's canine followers may become, in certain
surroundings, at once comrades and friends. I missed the dog's shaggy
black head and attentive eyes as I hurried through with the morning's
milking. He was wont to sit beside me during that operation, and watch
proceedings with absorbed and judicial interest. I missed him again
as I heard a fluttering and squawking that might mean mischief, near
the poultry yard. Above all, in the absence of the other members of
the family, I missed his companionship. So, as I hastened with the
morning's tasks, I resolved to take the opportunity afforded by
Ralph's absence, and go in search of him. Disquieting recollections
of the wildcat that he and I had dared, and of the wildcat that had
dared Mrs. Lloyd, came to my mind. It seemed to me by no means
improbable that Guard had treed one of these creatures and was
holding it until help came or until the cat should become tired of
imprisonment and make a rush for liberty; a rush that, if it came to
close quarters, would be pretty certain to result disastrously for
Guard. So thinking, I took father's light rifle--which was always kept
loaded--down from its place on the kitchen wall, buckled a belt of
cartridges around my waist, and, locking the door behind me, started
on my quest.

Guard's vanishing bark, on the previous evening, had led up the
hillside, behind the house. So, up the hillside I went, scanning the
ground eagerly for tracks, or for any sign that might indicate which
direction to take. The ground was thickly strewn with pine needles and
the search for tracks was fruitless; an elephant's track would not
have shown o