him on
those cross-country runs that had meant so much to them both. Lad would
watch her vanish up the drive,--their fiery little son, Wolf, cantering
gleefully at her side. Then, his dark eyes full of sorrow, he would
gaze at the Master and, with a sigh, would lie back on his rug--and
wait.

There was something so human,--so uncomplainingly wretched,--in look
and in sigh,--that the Master was touched by the big dog's loneliness
and vexed at the flighty Lady's defection. Stooping down, at one such
time, he ran his hand over the beautiful silky head that rested against
his knee; and said in lame attempt at comfort:--

"Don't let it get under your skin, Laddie! She isn't worth it. One of
your honest paws is worth more than her whole fly-away body.--Not that
anyone ever was loved because he or she was worthy!--You're up against
the penalty that is bound to get everybody with a soul, who is fool
enough to love something or somebody without one . . . . We're going
over for the mail,--the Mistress and I. Want to come along?"

At once the melancholy in Lad's deep eyes gave place to puppy-like
exultance.

While, naturally, he did not understand one word in ten of the Master's
frequent prosy homilies to him, or of the Mistress's more melodious
speech, yet, from puppyhood, he had been talked to by both of them.
And, as ever with a highbred collie, such constant conversation had
borne ample fruit;--not only in giving the dog a startling
comprehension of voice-meanings, but also in teaching him to understand
many simple words and phrases.

For example, he recognized, as readily as would any five-year-old
child, this invitation to go motoring. And it banished the memory of
Lady's fickleness.

This morning, for the first time since his accident, Lad was able to
spring into the car-tonneau, unaided. His hurt was all-but well.
Enthroning himself in the precise center of the rear seat, he prepared
to enjoy every inch of the ride.

No matter how long or how tedious were these jaunts, Lad never went to
sleep or ceased to survey with eager attention the myriad details of
the trip. There was something half-laughable, half-pathetic, in his air
of strained interest.

Only when the Mistress and the Master both chanced to leave the car at
the same time, at market or bank or postoffice, would Lad cease from
this genial and absorbed inspection of everything in sight. Left alone
in the machine, he always realized at once that he was on