Part 10 (1/2)

Now, to every dweller in the country, there is one all-present peril; na worriedly in the back of a rural householder's brain A vagrant breath of sht, is more potent to banish sleep and to start such a rounds than would be any and every other alarht, the faint reek was enough to bring the Master's mind back to earth and the Master's body to its feet

Sniffing, he went out to find the cause of the smell The chin of smoke, he explored farther; and presently located the odor's origin in a small brush-fire at so pruned vine-suckers and leaves onto the blaze The wind set away fro to worry over Ashamed of his own fussiness, the Master went back to his work

As he passed the open study , on his way indoors, a motion inside made him stop He was just in time to see Lady trot into the roole

His shout deflected the young dog's leap, and kept heron the bird As it was, the ile and the papier-mache stump to the floor; with h the ; arriving on the study floor al out into the hall; crestfallen and scared The Master collared her and brought her back to the scene of her rantly she had sinned in assailing the bird; after his injunction of ”Let it alone!” There could be no doubt, fro wrong Worse, she had taken sneaky advantage of his absence in order to spring at the eagle And disgust warred with the Master's nor himself to speak, he told Lady what she had done and what a rotten thing it had been As he talked to the utterly crestfallen pup, he was ransacking a drawer of his desk in search of a dogwhip he had put there long ago and had never had occasion to use

Presently, he found it Pointing to the overthrown trophy, he brought the lash down across the shrinking collie's loins He did not strike hard But he struck half a dozen tie that it was the only course to take

Never before in her eight foolishof a blow While the whip-slashes were too light to doher well-mattressed back, yet the humiliation of them seared deep into her sensitive nature No sound did she utter But she cowered flat to the floor; and tre was over, in a few seconds Again the Master explained to her what it had been inflicted for Then, calling her to follow, he led the way out of doors and toward the stables Sto, close at his heels

The Master passed the stables and walked toward the brush fire, where the two o within a hundred feet of the fire Turning, after he had left the stables behind him, he made for the tool-house

Lady sahither he was bound She ceased to follow Wheeling about, she trotted stealthily back toward the stables Reaching the tool-house door, the Master opened it and whistled to the unhappy young collie

Lady was nowhere in sight At a second summons, she appeared froround, and with les of protest Twice, she stopped; and looked appealingly at the ainst the prettily pathetic appeal in her eyes and actions; and called her to hister was gone,--the ed by its fall,--but he kneas needful to ily on Lady the fact of her punishment This for her own sake asis worthless until it learns that each and every indoor object must be respected and held sacred from mutilation

Wherefore, he wasthis present lesson sink deep into her brain Disregarding her manifest aversion for the tool-house, he motioned her into it and shut the door behind her

”You'll stay there, till lanced in at the forlorn little wisp of fur and misery ”You'll be coive you all the air you want I don't dare leave thisopen, for fear you ht be able to jump out You've had your supper And there's a pan of fresh water in there You'll be no worse off there than you were all winter

A night in jail ; and not a mutt”

As he was on the way back to his study, in the sunset, the car ca the Mistress Lad was seated in sole collie loved ated to the back seat But when the Mistress went out alone, his was the tre in front, beside her

”I had to lick Lady,” reported the Master, shamefacedly, as he helped his wife frole in my study You remember how I scolded her for that, last week, don't you? Well, that's all the good it did And I had to whip her I hated to I'lad you weren't here to look unhappy about it Then I shut her up for the night in the tool-house She--”

He broke off, to look at Lad

As the collie had jumped down from the car and had started toward the house, he had struck Lady's trail; and he had followed it It had led hi Lady was locked inside and unhappy, he had co in front of thethe faces of his two deities with troubled eagerness Evidently, he considered that Lady had been locked in byfor her release As these humans did not seem to catch the idea his eyes and expression conveyed, he trotted a few steps toward the tool-house and then paused to look invitingly back at the up to the Master, he caught the latter's coat-heed on it as he backed toward the tool-house

”No, old friend,” said the Master, petting the silken head so appealingly upraised to hi at But I can't let her out To Not till then Coly and istful backward looks, Lad followed the Mistress and the Master to the house and into the dining room and to his wonted place on the floor at the Master's left side But, ht the collie's eyes fixed on hirant the plea which fairly claaze

After dinner, when the Mistress and the Master set off on their usual evening walk, Lad was not on hand to accompany them As a rule, he was all around theay rushes, as they started on these walks But not until the Master called hiht, did he appear And then he came up dolorously from the tool-house

Lad did not understand, at all, rong He knew only that Lady had been shut up in a place she detested and that she was horribly unhappy and that the Master would not let her out It perplexed hily wretched Not only did hemate, but her unhappiness made him heartsick

Vainly, he tried to plead with the Master for her release, as the walk began; and again at its end

There were such a lot of things in the world that even the cleverest collie could not s were sad