e of good
cheer and comfort. The house stood within an enclosure, and a short
distance from the road along which I was moving with wearied feet.
Turning aside, and passing through an ill-hung gate, I approached
the dwelling. Slowly the gate swung on its wooden hinges, and the
rattle of its latch, in closing, did not disturb the air until I had
nearly reached the little porch in front of the house, in which a
slender girl, who had noticed my entrance, stood awaiting my
arrival.

A deep, quick bark answered, almost like an echo, the sound of the
shutting gate, and, sudden as an apparition, the form of an immense
dog loomed in the doorway. I was now near enough to see the savage
aspect of the animal, and the gathering motion of his body, as he
prepared to bound forward upon me. His wolfish growl was really
fearful. At the instant when he was about to spring, a light hand
was laid upon his shaggy neck, and a low word spoken.

"Don't be afraid. He won't hurt you," said a voice, that to me
sounded very sweet and musical.

I now came forward, but in some doubt as to the young girl's power
over the beast, on whose rough neck her almost childish hand still
lay. The dog did not seem by any means reconciled to my approach,
and growled wickedly his dissatisfaction.

"Go in, Tiger," said the girl, not in a voice of authority yet in
her gentle tones was the consciousness that she would be obeyed;
and, as she spoke, she lightly bore upon the animal with her hand,
and he turned away, and disappeared within the dwelling.

"Who's that?" A rough voice asked the question; and now a
heavy-looking man took the dog's place in the door.

"Who are you? What's wanted?" There was something very harsh and
forbidding in the way the man spoke. The girl now laid her hand upon
his arm, and leaned, with a gentle pressure, against him.

"How far is it to G----?" I asked, not deeming it best to say, in
the beginning, that I sought a resting-place for the night.

"To G----!" growled the man, but not so harshly as at first. "It's
good six miles from here."

"A long distance; and I'm a stranger, and on foot," said I. "If you
can make room for me until morning, I will be very thankful."

I saw the girl's hand move quickly up his arm, until it rested on
his shoulder, and now she leaned to him still closer.

"Come in. We'll try what can be done for you."

There was a change in the man's voice that made me wonder.

I entered a large room, in wh