wife forsakes him, when
his love betrays him, his dog stays true. When he's poor and his
friends pass him by on the other side of the street, looking the other
way, his dog fares with him, ready to starve with him for very love of
him. 'T is a man and his dog, I'm thinking, against the whole world.

"This little lad here was only a yellow mongrel, there was no fine
blood in him; he couldn't bring in the birds nor swim after the ducks
men kill to amuse themselves. He was worth no high price to
anybody--nobody wanted him but me. When I took him away from the boys
who were hurting him, and set his poor broken leg as best I could, he
knew me for his master and claimed me then.

"He's walked with me through four States and never whined. He's gone
without food for days at a time, and never complained. He's been cold
and hungry, and we've slept together, more than once, on the ground in
the snow, with only one blanket between us. He's kept me from freezing
to death with his warm body, he's suffered from thirst the same as I,
and never so much as whimpered. We've been comrades and we've fared
together, as only man and dog may fare.

"When every man's face was set against you, did you never have a dog to
trust you? When there was never a man nor a woman you could call your
friend, did a dog never come to you and lick your hand? When you've
been bent with grief you couldn't stand up under, did a dog never come
to you and put his cold nose on your face? Did a dog never reach out a
friendly paw to tell you that you were not alone--that it was you two
together?

"When you've come home alone late at night, tired to death with the
world and its ways, was there never a dog to greet you with his bark of
welcome? Did a dog never sit where you told him to sit, and guard your
property till you came back, though it might be hours? When you could
trust no man to guard your treasures, could you never trust a dog?
Man, man, the world has fair been cruel if you've never known the love
of a dog!

"I've heard these things of you, but I thought folks were prattling, as
folks will, but dogs never do. I thought they were lying about
you--that such things couldn't be true. They said you were cutting up
dogs to learn more of people, and I'm thinking, if we're so much alike
as that, 't is murder to kill a dog."

"You killed him," said Anthony Dexter, speaking for the first time. "I
didn't."

"Yes," answered the Piper, "I killed