Part 11 (2/2)

”It'll be another six ain, Laddie dear,” observed the Mistress, next day, as she renewed the slass-cut body ”Dr Hopper says so But he says the rest of you will be as well as ever, inside of a fortnight And he says Lady will be well, before you will But, honestly, you'll never look as beautiful, again, to me, as you do this very minute He--he said you look like a scarecrow But you don't You look like a--like a--a-What gorgeously splendid thing DOES he look like, dear?” she appealed to her husband

”He looks,” replied the Master, after deep thought, ”he looks like LAD

And that's about the highest praise I kno to give hiive to anyone”

CHAPTER V The Stoay

There were but three collies on the Place, in those days Lad; his dainty gold-and-white mate, Lady; and their fluffy and fiery wisp of a son, little Wolf

When Wolf was a spoiled and obstreperous puppy of three months or so, Lady was stricken with distemper and was taken to a veterinary hospital There, for soh the scourging h the chorea and pneumonia which are so prone to follow in diste up and otherwise torturing helpless dogs in the unholy name of vivisection But Science has not yet troubled itself to discover one certain cure or preventive for the distemper which yearly robs thousands of houards Apparently it is pleasanter for scientists to watch a screa writhe under the knife in a research laboratory than to trouble about finding a way to abolish distee

This is a digression fro,--you who care about dogs

Altogether, Lady ay from the Place for fifteen weeks

And, in her absence, the unhappy Lad took upon hi little Wolf fro a decent canine citizen It was no sinecure, this educating of the hot-teht to it an elephantine patience and an uncannily wise brain And, by the tiun to show the results of his sire's stern teachings

Indeed, Lady's absence was the best thing that could have befallen Wolf For, otherwise, his training must needs have devolved upon the Mistress and the Master And no entle thoroughness as did Lad Few dogs, except pointers or setters or collies, will deign to educate their puppies to the duties of life and of field and of house But Lad had done the work in a way that left little to be asked for

When Lady caotten the fact that young Wolf was her once-adored son Of her earlier capricious devotion to him, no trace remained She sniffed in stand-offish inquiry at hier And the scatterbrain pup remembered her no better than she reence between a three-month puppy and one six months old

Yet,--perhaps because they were both excitable and ,--and because each was a novelty to the other--mother and son quickly formed a new friendshi+p Froster turned eagerly to chuer And Lady, for sieniality and fun in roile Lad

In brief, Lady and little Wolf became inseparable coreat collie did not resent this exclusion; nor did he try to regain his fast-slipping hold on Wolf's affections Yet, in fashi+on that was ht to win back Lady's waning affection A bit cluambol with her, as did Wolf He tried to interest her, as of yore, in following his lead in break-neck forest gallops after rabbits or in gloriously exhilarating swims in the fire-blue lake at the foot of the lawn To the pityingly on-looking Mistress and Master, he seeairls

But it was no use

True, in the cross-country runs or the swirling charges after rabbits, neither Lady nor Wolf could keep up with Lad's flying stride And a long shich scarce breathed Lad, would exhaust either or both of theed And, as in huic story

As well expect a couple of flyaway children to give up a ga in order to listen to the sole Lady and Wolf widen their selfish comradeshi+p to include in it the steadier and older and infinitely wiser Lad

Perforce, Lad was thrown more and more on the society of the Mistress and the Master And, in their friendshi+p, he was happy;--until he would chance to see hisin wild ecstasy with a stick or ball, and would frisk bulkily over to join them In a bare second or two, the derossly unwelcome interloper he was

Whereat, after a wistfully lance from one to the other of the exclusive pair, Lad would trot slowly back to his huh, he would curl up at the Mistress's feet