mitted that Baldy could hardly be considered genial. "He's
like some people whose natures are immobile--inexpressive. It's going to
take a little while to find out if it's because there is nothing to
express, or because he is undemonstrative, and has to show by his
conduct rather than by his manners what there is to him."

It was true that Baldy was unmistakably ill at ease in his new quarters,
and did not feel at home; for he was accustomed neither to the luxuries
nor to the restrictions that surrounded him. His early experiences had
been distinctly plebeian and uninteresting, but they had been quite free
of control.

Born at one of the mining claims in the hills, of worthy hard-working
parents, he had, with the various other members of the family, been
raised to haul freight from town to the mine. But his attachment for Ben
Edwards had intervened, and before he was really old enough to be
thoroughly broken to harness, he had taken up his residence at Golconda.

Here his desultory training continued, but a lesson in sled pulling was
almost invariably turned into a romp, so that he had only acquired the
rudiments of an education when he came under "Scotty's" supervision.

His complete ignorance in matters of deportment, and possibly, too, his
retiring disposition, made him feel an intruder in the exclusive coterie
about him; and certainly there was a pronounced lack of cordiality on
the part of most of the dogs toward him. This was especially true of
Tom, Dick, and Harry, the famous Tolman brothers, who were the Veterans
of Alaska Dog Racing, and so had a standing in the Kennel that none
dared question. That is, none save Dubby, who recognized no standard
other than his own; and that standard took no cognizance of Racers as
Racers. They were all just dogs--good or bad--to Dubby.

The fact that Tom, Dick, and Harry had been in every one of those unique
dashes across the snow-swept wastes of Seward Peninsula, from Bering Sea
to the Arctic Ocean and return, and had never been "out of the money,"
did not count greatly in his rigid code. The same distance covered
slowly by freighters in pursuance of their task of earning their daily
living would seem to him far more worthy of respect and emulation. And
so, when the Tolman brothers, who were apt to be quarrelsome with those
"not in their class," showed a coldness toward Baldy that threatened to
break into open hostility at the slightest excuse, Dubby promptly ranged
himse