oby returned. "Wants for us to kep the dog, do
'e? There be a sight too many on 'em about; and for what he do want to
kep such a lot o' such curs, nobody can't think. A-bringin' a' the dirt
into our housen too. Err ... I'll warm yer!" he added, making as though
he would fling something at the dog.

Murphy looked puzzled, and crept into a corner.

"Don't carry on like that, Seth; don't do it, man. The dog's a poor,
nervous little thing with we, and don't mean to do no hurt."

But it was of no avail. Seth Moby looked upon Murphy as an interloper,
and when he could do anything to frighten him he did, and by any brutal
means in his power. Even the mill-hands remarked to one another that
their mate, Moby, was a changed man. "'Twas like that wi' some," they
said. "Trouble sowered 'em, like, and made 'em seem as though they 'ould
throw the Almighty o' one side. And once folk got on a downward grade,
same as that, it wasn't often as they was found on the mending hand--no,
it wasn't for sure."

On one occasion, after the first week was over, Murphy escaped, and
appeared at the mill with a foot or more of rope trailing from his
collar, for latterly he had been kept tied up. Seth chanced at that
moment to be leaving work, and brought the dog up short by the head, by
putting his foot upon the rope end almost before the dog knew that he was
there. He half hanged him taking him back, and flung him into the house
with an oath that frightened his child, and made her run to the back
kitchen that she might not hear what followed; while the dog crept on his
stomach to the corner, his tail between his legs: he always moved in this
way now, though it is said he never whimpered.

"Oh, Seth, if you goes on like this," said Mrs. Moby reproachfully,
"there'll be murder, and then trouble to follow: the Master is not one to
put up with cruelty to any dog. Bless the man--you're gettin' like a mad
thing. Leave the dog alone, I tell yer." Seth had taken off his boots,
and flung them at the dog before going up to bed: Mrs. Moby had been
engaged trying to disconcert his aim.

That night another foot was heard on the stairs; there was whispering in
the kitchen; and for several succeeding weeks, and unknown to others, the
dog slept happily with the child, though not without serious risks of
trouble being thereby made for both.

At the end of that time the Over-Lord called. He had been away. He had
heard on his return that all was not well with th