Part 21 (2/2)

It meant all manner of adventure and fun for Lad

Now, on a fishi+ng jaunt, the presence of any kind of dog is a liability; not an asset A thousand dog-fancier fisher any sort of garees worse than worthless

Thus, Lad's usefulness, as a ible;--except in thecamp and as an all-round pal for the two campers

Yet, as on for him at home

Where the Mistress and the Master went, he went, too; whenever such a thing were possible He was their chum And they would have missed him as much as he would have missed them

Which, of course, was an absurd way for two reasonably sane people to regard a

Thus it was that he took his place, by invitation, in the car's tonneau, aan Ten miles farther on, the equipuide named Barret, and his boy; and their professionally reliable old Irish setter

This setter had a quality, not over-corand breed; a trait which linked his career pathetically with that of a livery-plug He would hunt for anybody He went through his day's work, in stubble or undergroith the sad conscientiousness of an elderly bookkeeper

Away froed into an axle-snappingto a wheezy and radiator-boiling halt at the foot of a rock-summit so steep that no vehicle could breast it In a cup, at the summit of this e only a few yards above a little bass-populated spring-lake

The luggage was hauled, gruntily, up the steep; and camp was pitched

Then car and truck departed for civilization And the teeks of wilderness life set in

It was a wonderful time for old Lad The remoteness and wild stillness of it all seemed to take him back, in a way, to the wolf-centuries of his ancestors It had been monstrous pleasant to roaenuine thrill in exploring these all-but s that seldom ventured close to the ordained haunts of ht, beside the s, of the guide and his boy, the stealthy forest noises; the pad-pad-pad of so e of some bear down to the lake to drink The al scents which huister; but which were acutely plain and understandable to the great dog

Best of all, in this outing, Lad's two deities, the Mistress and the Master, were never busy at desk or piano, or too led up with the society of silly outsiders, to be his comrades and playsto him: ”No, no, Laddie Back! Watch camp'” when he essayed to join them as they set forth with rods over their shoulders for a half-day's fishi+ng; or as, aruns, they whistled up the bored but worthy setter for a shooting trip But, for thethese tonderful weeks And he was very happy

Once, during a solitary raht an odd scent; and followed it for a quarter er and ranker At last, a turn around a high boulder brought him face to face with its source And he found hie black bear

The bear was busy looting a bee-tree It was the season when he and his like are stocking up, with all the fate, in preparation for the winter's ”holing-in” Thus, he vieith sluggish non-interest the advent of the dog He had scented Lad for as long a time as Lad had scented him But he had eaten on, unperturbed For he knew his were unacco autumn of food had dulled his teh to roll a rotted log to one side and to scoop up frorubs which had decided to winter beneath the decayed trunk Then, absent-nant bees, he continued his sweet feast

As Lad rounded the boulder and ca halt, the bear raised his honey-s frolowered evilly at the collie froh to go on eating

But Lad would not have it so Into his rejuvenated heart stole a tinge of the ly at a tethered cow Barking with sheer delight in the excite rushed merrily at the bear His teeth were not bared His hackles were not bristling This was no fight; but a jolly gae, he checked hih fear, but froht non-quadrupedal thing Bruin had reared hi there, like a h above Lad's head

His short arms, with their saber-shaped claere outstretched toward Lad, as if in hu or even civil in the tiny red eyes that squinted ferociously down at the collie S advance; and stood doubtful!

The Master, a minute earlier, had turned out of the blankets for his painfully icy , a quarter-'s bark,--and its every shade of h it were huue, the Master knew he had cornered or treed so up his rifle, heat top speed

The bear put an end to theforward, he raked at the crouching collie, with one of his ather the i into his death-embrace

Now, even from humans, except only the Mistress and the Master, Lad detested patting or handling of any kind Whether he thought this maneuver of the bear's an uncouth form of caress or knew it for a menace,--he moved back from it Yet he did so with a leisurely motion, devoid of fear and expressive of a certain lofty contempt Perhaps that is why he moved without his native caution