t Link's feet, on the
little white porch, in the summer dusk; or to lie in drowsy content in
front of the glowing kitchen stove on icy nights when the gale
screeched through the naked boughs of the dooryard trees and the snow
scratched hungrily at the window panes.

Now, the dog's sensitive brain was aware of a subtle alteration. He did
not object very much to the occasional visits at the house of other
farmers and townsfolk during the erstwhile quiet evenings, although he
had been happier in the years of peaceful seclusion.

But he grieved at his master's increasingly frequent absences from
home. Nowadays, once or twice a week, Link was wont to dress himself in
his best as soon as the day's work was done, and fare forth to Hampton
for the evening.

Sometimes he let Chum go with him in these outings. Oftener of late he
had said, as he started out:

"Not to-night, Chummie. Stay here."

Obediently the big dog would lay himself down with a sigh on the porch
edge; his head between his white little forepaws; his sorrowful brown
eyes following the progress of his master down the lane to the highroad.

But he grieved, as only a sensitive highbred dog can grieve--a dog who
asks nothing better of life than permission to live and to die at the
side of the man he has chosen as his god; to follow that god out into
rain or chill; to starve with him, if need be; to suffer at his
hands--in short, to do or to be anything except to be separated from
him.

Link Ferris had gotten into the habit of leaving Chum alone at home,
oftener and oftener of late, as his own evening absences from the farm
grew more and more frequent.

He left Chum at home because She did not like dogs.

"She" was Dorcas Chatham, the daughter of Hampton's postmaster and
general storekeeper.

Old Man Chatham in former days would have welcomed Cal Whitson, the
official village souse, to his home as readily as he would have
admitted the ne'er-do-well Link Ferris to that sanctuary. But of late
he had noted the growing improvement in Link's fortunes, as evidenced
by his larger store trade, his invariable cash payments and the
frequent money orders which went in his name to the Paterson savings
bank.

Wherefore, when Dorcas met Link at a church sociable and again on a
straw ride and asked him to come and see her some time, her sire made
no objection. Indeed he welcomed the bashful caller with something like
an approach to cordiality.

Dorcas was a calm-e