Part 31 (2/2)

Sonya pattered up the rise and around to the corner of the house

There, feeling her father's eye on her, as he followed; she tried to hasten her staggering steps As a result, she stuainst the concrete walk Her bare feet went fro in fifty directions She had cut her knee, painfully, against the concrete edge This, and the knowledge that Ruloff would most assuredly punish her clu the cascaded peaches she lay, crying her eyes out Up the hill toward her scra abuse better fitted for the ears of a balky mule than for those of a hurt child

”Get up!” he bawled ”Get up, you worthless little cow! If you've spoiled any of those peaches or broke my basket, I'll cut the flesh off your bones”

Sonya redoubled her wailing For, she recognized a bumpy substance beneath her as the crushed basket And these baskets belonged to Ruloff; not to the Place

For the accidental breaking of far less hile things, at home, she and her brothers and sisters had often been thrashed h heaven And her father's running feet sounded like the tramp of Doom

There is perhaps no other terror so awful as that of an ill treated child at the approach of punisher froht it out or run away fro place for a child from a brute parent The punishment is as inevitable and as fearsome as from the hand of God

No; there is no other terror so awful And, one likes to think, there is no other punishment in the next world so severe as that meted out to the torturers of little children For this hope's basis there is the sole Friend of children;--a threat which, apparently, was unfaly prostrate Sonya bore the man As he came toward her, he ripped off the leathern belt he wore And he brandished it by the hole-punch end; the brass buckle singing ominously about his head

Then, out froiant tawny shape

With the fierce speed of his youngest days, Lad cleared the porch and reached the crying child In the sa Ruloff; and the wise old brain read the situation at a glance

Stopping only to lick the tear-streaked little face, Lad bounded in front of Sonya and faced the father The collie's feeble old body was tense; his eyes blazed with indignant fury His hackles bristled The yellowed and useless teeth glinted froe, Lad was a terrible and terrifying figure as he stood guard over the helpless waif

Ruloff hesitated an instant, taken aback by the apparition Sonya ceased shrieking Lad was here to protect her Over her frightened soul caly, and pressed close to the furry giant who had colared defiantly up at Ruloff

Perhaps it was this glare; perhaps it was the knowledge that Lad was very old and the sight of his worn-down teeth; perhaps it was the need ofhis hold of fear over the rebellious child At all events, Ruloff swung aloft the belt oncehi

The kick did not land For, even as Sonya cried out in new terror, Lad launched himself at the Slav

All unprepared for the clash, and being an utter coward at heart--if he had a heart--the father reeled back, under the i his balance, he turound, Lad was upon hi uselessly at the swarthy throat

But, yelling with fright, Ruloff fended hi his feet under hi for the shelter of the nearest tree

Up the low-stretching branches thein his cli the tree in a vain atte,like athat had treed hihted child

Sonya rushed up to Lad, flinging her ar to kiss him At her embrace, the collie's tension relaxed He turned his back on the jabbering Ruloff, and looked pantingly up into the child's excited face

Then, whi a little under his breath, he licked her cheek; andhis plu routed the enemy and done what he could to comfort the rescued, Laddie moved heavily over to the veranda

For so it hard to breathe And his heart was doing aainst his ribs He was very tired--very drowsy

He wanted to finish his interrupted nap But it was a long way into the house And a spot on the veranda, under the wide ha more and more slowly

At the ha down frory zest for torturing, see toward Sonya or the dog, he made his way, in a wide detour, toward the barn and lunch

Sonya ran up on the veranda after Lad As he laid himself heavily down, under the ha his head in her lap, stroking its silken fur and beginning to sing to hi little voice of hers

Laddie loved this And he loved the soft caress of her hand It soothed him to sleep