take?"

"The road to Garennes."

"When was it?"

"After dinner: we saw him go up the little path."

"Something must have happened to him," said Moser, getting up. "The poor
animal is almost blind and there are sand pits all along the road! Go
fetch my sheepskin and the lantern, wife. I must find Farraut, dead or
alive."

Dorothee went out without making any remark either about the hour or the
weather, and soon reappeared with what her husband had asked for.

"You must think a great deal of this dog," said Arnold, surprised at
such zeal.

"It is not I," answered Moser, lighting his pipe; "but he did good
service to Dorothee's father. One day when the old man was on his way
home from market with the price of his oxen in his pocket, four men
tried to murder him for his money, and they would have done it if it had
not been for Farraut; so when the good man died two years ago, he called
me to his bedside and asked me to care for the dog as for one of his
children--those were his words. I promised, and it would be a crime not
to keep one's promise to the dead. Fritz, give me my iron-shod stick. I
wouldn't have anything happen to Farraut for a pint of my blood. The
animal has been in the family for twenty years--he knows us all by our
voices--and he recalls the grandfather. I shall see you again, monsieur,
and good-night until to-morrow."

Moser wrapped himself in his sheepskin and went out. They could hear the
sound of his iron-shod stick die away in the soughing of the wind and
the falling of the rain.

After awhile the farmer's wife offered to conduct Arnold to his quarters
for the night, but Arnold asked permission to await the return of the
master of the house, if his return were not delayed too long. His
interest in the man who had at first seemed to him so vulgar, and in the
humble family whose existence he had thought to be so valueless,
continued to increase.

The vigil was prolonged, however, and Moser did not return. The children
had fallen asleep one after another, and even Jean, who had held out the
longest, had to seek his bed at last. Dorothee, uneasy, went
incessantly from the fireside to the door and from the door to the
fireside. Arnold strove to reassure her, but her mind was excited by
suspense. She accused Moser of never thinking of his health or of his
safety; of always being ready to sacrifice himself for others; of being
unable to see a human being or an animal suffer without risking all t