r us, and soon we were drenched to
the skin. The dogs from time to time could shake themselves, but I was
unable to employ this natural means, and I had to tramp along under my
water-soaked, heavy garments, which chilled me.

"Do you catch cold easily?" asked my new master.

"I don't know. I don't remember ever having a cold."

"That's good. So there is something in you. But I don't want to have it
worse for you than we are obliged. There is a village a little farther
on and we'll sleep there."

There was no inn in this village and no one wanted to take into their
homes an old beggar who dragged along with him a child and three dogs,
soaked to the skin.

"No lodgings here," they said.

And they shut the door in our faces. We went from one house to another,
but all refused to admit us. Must we tramp those four miles on to Ussel
without resting a bit? The night had fallen and the rain had chilled us
through and through. Oh, for Mother Barberin's house!

Finally a peasant, more charitable than his neighbors, agreed to let us
go into his barn. But he made the condition that we could sleep there,
but must have no light.

"Give me your matches," he said to Vitalis. "I'll give you them back
to-morrow, when you go."

At least we had a roof to cover us from the storm.

In the sack which Vitalis had slung over his back he took out a hunch of
bread and broke it into four pieces. Then I saw for the first time how
he maintained obedience and discipline in his company. Whilst we had
gone from door to door seeking shelter, Zerbino had gone into a house
and he had run out again almost at once, carrying in his jaws a crust.
Vitalis had only said:

"Alright, Zerbino ... to-night."

I had thought no more of this theft, when I saw Vitalis cut the roll;
Zerbino looked very dejected. Vitalis and I were sitting on a box with
Pretty-Heart between us. The three dogs stood in a row before us, Capi
and Dulcie with their eyes fixed on their master. Zerbino stood with
drooping ears and tail between his legs.

"The thief must leave the ranks and go into a corner," said Vitalis in a
tone of command; "he'll go to sleep without his supper."

Zerbino left his place, and in a zigzag went over to the corner that
Vitalis indicated with his finger. He crouched down under a heap of hay
out of sight, but we heard him breathe plaintively, with a little whine.

Vitalis then handed me a piece of bread, and while eating his own he
broke little