grass
glades, where he would take her charge so completely upon himself as to
leave her nothing to do but clamber up the hill for a fresh culling of
flowers, then follow him, as homeward he drove the cows.

When not occupied thus, he would station himself on the porch at the
door of the sick room, looking up wistfully into every face that passed
him, in the poor, dumb, asking way, which so endears a dog to us when
the shadow of death is on our home. He had never ventured to intrude
himself into the house, but now that he was called, the grateful look
and humble alertness with which he answered the summons testified how
earnestly he had wished to do all along. Setting his feet as carefully
on the floor as were he shod with heavy shoes, that, too, without a
warning whisper in the ear from Ben's mother, he slowly walked up to the
bedside and softly ran his huge head under the little hand, so white and
wan, extended to greet and caress him. Pow-wow licked the hand in the
dear old way, and the familiar sensation helped, not a little, to
reassure the boy of his own identity and make him more present to the
state of things around him. And it was strange how much more natural his
voice and manner became the moment he began speaking to his old
play-fellow; though what he spoke was hardly less fantastic or more
coherent than the greater part of what he had spoken already.

"Pow-wow, is it really you, old pard, and no mistake? And are we all
alive and here at grandpap's house, and no dreaming about it? (Pausing
to pat the old dog's head.) Pow-wow, did Nick of the Woods ever give you
a pair of red moccasins? No, he never did, because he knew you weren't a
fool. (Here closing his eyes and seeming for a moment to forget the
dog.) Pow-wow, were you ever chased by the Manitous? No, you never were,
for you never sneaked away from home with a lie in your mouth, like a
spit-thief dog. (Again closing his eyes for a few moments, to open them
again and add:) The Manitous chase nobody but bad people, and chase them
only to make them good. (Pausing to play with the old dog's ear.) And so
they have chased your old Sprigg, Pow-wow; chased him out of the world!
You shall never see your old friend Sprigg again! Never! Never! Never!"
(Now giving the old dog's ragged ear a certain pluck which had always
been well understood between them.)

At each repetition of his name the only part of his little master's
speech which had any sound of English to