Part 19 (1/2)

Thus was it the temperamental Lady's wont to punish real or fancied injuries from the Place's other animals,--and from humans as well, except only the Mistress and the Master She charged first, and did her thinking afterward Apparently, her brain, just then, could hold no i mate had picked her up by the neck-scruff and had thrown her, head over heels, into a ditch And such treatment called for instant penalty

Under her fifty-pound iave way Down he went in an aard heap; while Lady snarled viciously and snapped for his uard the throat; but he ht; ht back Which was old Lad's way,--with Lady

Dislocated shoulder or not, he would have flown at any ressor fight for dear life

But his mate was sacred And he ly at his ears and paws; until her brief flurry of wrath should be past

A shout from the veranda,--whither the racket had drawn the Master from his study,--put a sudden stop to Lady's brainstorm Obedience was the first and foremost rule drilled into the Little People of the Place

And, froht to come,--and to come at a run,--at call frorace, desisted froalloped down the drive to the house Lad, rising with difficulty, followed; as fast as a three-legged gait would per explanations

A sharp word of reproof sent Lady skulking into a corner; anger forgotten in humiliation at the public rebuke The Master paid no heed to her Running up the drive, hecollie in his arave first aid to the serious dislocation; then phoned for the nearest good vet

As he left the study, to telephone, he encountered Lady, very woebegone and cringing, at the door When he returned, he beheld the re hera propitiatory tail in plea for forgiveness fro she had bitten and from the Master whose Law she had broken by her attack on the car

Always, after her brief rages, Lady was prettily and genuinely repentant and eager to ies more than half-way;--absurdly blissful at her dainty attentions

In the days that followed, Lady at first spent the bulk of her tientle and affectionate with hi to make up to him for the enforced idleness of strained sinews and dislocated joint In her friendliness and attention, Lad was very, very happy

The vet had bandaged his shoulder and had anointed it with pungently s and even painful to the thoroughbred's supersensitive nostrils Moreover, the vet had left orders that Lad be made to keep quiet until the hurt should heal; and that he risk no setback by undue exertion of any sort It eet to lie in the Master's study,--one white forepaw or the great shapely head laid lovingly on theboot; and with an occasional pat or a friendly word from his deity, as the latter pounded away on a clicky typewriter whose jarring noise Lad had long ago taught himself to tolerate

Sweeter it was to be ht hands adjust his bandages; and to hear her tell hi Lady

Perhaps sweetest of all, in those early days of convalescence, was the a solicitude of Lady herself; and her queerly maternal tenderness toward him

But, as the summer days dreaht him nearer and nearer to recovery, Lady waxed restive under the long strain of indolence and of good te rah the forest, back of the Place; in rabbit quests; in swims in the ice, cool lake at the foot of the lawn; in rorass and in a dozen of the active pursuits wherein country-bred collies love to squander the outdoor days

Less and less did Lady content herself with dull attendance on the convalescent More and more often did she set forth without him on those cross-country runs that had meant so much to them both Lad would watch her vanish up the drive,--their fiery little son, Wolf, cantering gleefully at her side Then, his dark eyes full of sorrow, he would gaze at the Master and, with a sigh, would lie back on his rug--and wait

There was soly wretched,--in look and in sigh,--that the Master was touched by the big dog's loneliness and vexed at the flighty Lady's defection Stooping down, at one such time, he ran his hand over the beautiful silky head that rested against his knee; and said in laet under your skin, Laddie! She isn't worth it One of your honest paws is worth more than her whole fly-away body--Not that anyone ever was loved because he or she orthy!--You're up against the penalty that is bound to get everybody with a soul, who is fool enough to love so over for the ?”

At once the ave place to puppy-like exultance

While, naturally, he did not understand one word in ten of the Master's frequent prosy homilies to him, or of the Mistress's more melodious speech, yet, from puppyhood, he had been talked to by both of thehbred collie, such constant conversation had borne a co him to understand nized, as readily as would any five-year-old child, this invitation to goAnd it banished the , for the first ti into the car-tonneau, unaided His hurt was all-but well

Enthroning himself in the precise center of the rear seat, he prepared to enjoy every inch of the ride

Noor how tedious were these jaunts, Lad never went to sleep or ceased to survey with eager attention the hable, half-pathetic, in his air of strained interest

Only when the Mistress and the Master both chanced to leave the car at the same time, at enial and absorbed inspection of everything in sight Left alone in the uard Head on paws he would lie, intently scanning anyone who lint of curved white fang beneath sharply upcurled lip, warning away such persons as ventured too close

Marketing done, today, the trio from the Place started hoateway, they heard the blaring honk of a motor horn behind them