ong pause he continued:

"Or do I remain at home to harvest the golden seal, mullein, and
ginseng, not to mention an occasional hour with the black bass or tramps
for partridge and cotton-tails?"

The dog recognized each word of that. Before the voice ceased, his sleek
sides were quivering, his nostrils twitching, his tail lashing, and at
the pause he leaped up and thrust his nose against the face of the man.
The Harvester leaned back laughing in deep, full-chested tones; then he
patted the dog's head with one hand and renewed his grip with the other.

"Good old Bel!" he cried exultantly. "Six years you have decided for me,
and right----every time! We are of the woods, Bel, born and reared
here as our fathers before us. What would we of the camp fire, the long
trail, the earthy search, we harvesters of herbs the famous chemists
require, what would we do in a city? And when the sap is rising, the
bass splashing, and the wild geese honking in the night! We never could
endure it, Bel.

"When we delivered that hemlock at the hospital to-day, did you hear
that young doctor talking about his 'lid'? Well up there is ours, old
fellow! Just sky and clouds overhead for us, forest wind in our faces,
wild perfume in our nostrils, muck on our feet, that's the life for us.
Our blood was tainted to begin with, and we've lived here so long it
is now a passion in our hearts. If ever you sentence us to life in the
city, you'll finish both of us, that's what you'll do! But you won't,
will you? You realize what God made us for and what He made for us,
don't you, Bel?"

As he lovingly patted the dog's head the man talked and the animal
trembled with delight. Then the voice of the Harvester changed and
dropped to tones of gravest import.

"Now how about that other matter, Bel? You always decide that too. The
time has come again. Steady now! This is far more important than the
other. Just to be wiped out, Bel, pouf! That isn't anything and it
concerns no one save ourselves. But to bring misery into our lives
and live with it daily, that would be a condition to rend the soul. So
careful, Bel! Cautious now!"

The voice of the man dropped to a whisper as he asked the question.

"What about the girl business?"

Trembling with eagerness to do the thing that would bring more
caressing, bewildered by unfamiliar words and tones, the dog hesitated.

"Do I go on as I have ever since mother left me, rustling for grub,
living in untrammelled