did not speak
as Pierrot called aloud and the mule started briskly down the trail
leading to Martigny. The doctor walked beside the mule, and then Jan
understood that they were leaving the Hospice.

He stopped and gazed back wistfully. The monk on the step gave no sign,
uttered no word to call him back. Sadly Jan turned and moved along the
trail behind the mule. The doctor and the captain, and even Pierrot,
looked at the dog, but none of them spoke to him.

For some little distance Jan trudged heavily, then he stopped suddenly
and twisted for a last look at his home. He saw the high-peaked roof and
the snow-clad mountains looming above it, then he turned again to follow
the travellers. They were now some distance ahead of him and a jagged
cliff hid them from his eyes. Jan did not move.

Through a gap he saw the captain, the doctor, and the guide. They halted
this time. They were waiting there for him.

The dog started quickly toward them, but something made him look again
where Brother Antoine stood on the steps. Jan hesitated, then he sat
down facing the trail toward Martigny. In a few minutes he saw the
little procession start on its way. He knew he could catch up with them
easily if he ran fast, but still he sat without moving, his eyes
fastened on that gap between the mountains.

He lifted his head and sent out the cry of his forefathers, so that the
echoes rang again and again. The answering voices died away, there was
no sound save the swish of melting snow that slipped down the steep
places, and then Prince Jan, St. Bernard, turned and trotted up the
trail to the home of his ancestors.

Brother Antoine waited on the top step. As the dog reached him, the monk
stooped and patted him, whispering softly, "It is not easy, Prince Jan,
when the paths that Love and Duty travel lie far apart."

And so Prince Jan came back to the work of his ancestors, and as the
months passed by he saved many lives and was very happy. The young dogs
listened in respectful wonder when he told of the strange places and
things that he had found in the Land of No Snow. They learned from him
the lessons of obedience, loyalty, and kindliness.

"If you do the very best you know how, it will always work out right in
the end," Jan ended each talk.

But sometimes at night as he slept among the other dogs, he saw the
captain walking about a room. Cheepsie was perched on the old man's
shoulder, while Hippity-Hop skipped beside them, and th