of the distant
waters; but just before the new dawn these sounds gave way to a hum that
played a muffled music in the trees. The men's footsteps never sounded at
all, till they were close at hand; and then the mill slowly stopped as
though tired, and silence reigned supreme in the cold. Dogs and men slept
firmly for a little: Nature was at work putting a new face upon the
world.

And after all that there followed the joyousness of a cloudless morning,
as the stars faded out, and the pale sun lit up a world that was now pure
white. Snow lay everywhere to the depth of three inches--not more--for it
had spread itself evenly in the stillness, and covered the ground, and
the roofs, and the barges that had come with the grain, making everything
look strange, even to the waters that were licking the banks, and that
somehow or other had turned the colour of green bottle-glass.

Then, by-and-by, came the Over-Lord, and called this name and that; and
the last that he called was "Murphy."

Here were games indeed! Here was something new to play with; to be
skipped and rolled and gambolled in to heart's content; to be even bitten
at, and swallowed till forbidden. Why, this new material that the younger
ones had never seen before called even the limpest to forget his
limpness, as though new blood flowed in his veins and he were endowed
with a new life!

They were soon out of the yard, and away down the lane. And then the
Over-Lord turned into the fields and struck a right-of-way that led in
direction of a hamlet two miles distant. Here many of the meadows were
thirty acres and over in extent, flat as any floor, with great elm trees
in their hedgerows. They were untenanted now by sheep or cattle, for
these had been driven off the night before to higher ground, by men who
kept an eye upon the weather. The virgin surface of the snow lay
glittering gold and silver in the early morning sun, with here and there,
as a contrast, the long shadows of the limbs of a great oak or elm, cast
as though some one had traced its pattern for fun with a brushful of the
purest cobalt.

There were only five dogs out that morning. Three were now fastened to a
leash; one other was very old, and he and Murphy were allowed what
latitude they liked. So presently it chanced that Murphy found himself
some way from the rest, and suddenly called upon to show what he could
do. As he went, he came upon a slight rise in the snow, as though
something lay beneat