Part 7 (1/2)

A pat and a rub around the ears fro from the wo effortlessly over the ground in true wolf fashi+on

In build and coat and brush he was a huge tiiven to his wolfhood by his color andunmistakably advertised itself No as ever colored like hiy of browns Back and shoulders were a warm brown that paled on the sides and underneath to a yellow that was dingy because of the brown that lingered in it The white of the throat and paws and the spots over the eyes was dirty because of the persistent and ineradicable brohile the eyes theolden and brown

Thevery much; perhaps this was because it had been such a task to win his love It had been no easy matter when he first drifted in e Footsore and famished, he had killed a rabbit under their very noses and under their very s, and then crawled away and slept by the spring at the foot of the blackberry bushes When Walt Irvine went down to inspect the intruder, he was snarled at for his pains, and Madge likeas snarled at when she went down to present, as a peace-offering, a large pan of bread andall their advances, refusing to let thes and bristling hair Nevertheless he re the food they gave him after they set it down at a safe distance and retreated His wretched physical condition explained why he lingered; and when he had recuperated, after several days' sojourn, he disappeared

And this would have been the end of him, so far as Irvine and his ere concerned, had not Irvine at that particular time been called away into the northern part of the state Riding along on the train, near to the line between California and Oregon, he chanced to look out of theand saw his unsociable guest sliding along the wagon road, brown and wolfish, tired yet tireless, dust-covered and soiled with two hundred miles of travel

Now Irvine was a ot off the train at the next station, bought a piece of rant on the outskirts of the town The return trip was e car, and so Wolf cae Here he was tied up for a week and made love to by theRemote and alien as a traveller from another planet, he snarled down their soft-spoken love-words He never barked In all the time they had him he was never known to bark

To win him became a problem Irvine liked problems He had a metal plate made, on which was stamped: RETURN TO WALT IRVINE, GLEN ELLEN, SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA This was riveted to a collar and strapped about the dog's neck Then he was turned loose, and proram from Mendocino County In twenty hours he hadwhen captured

He cao Express, was tied up three days, and was loosed on the fourth and lost This tiht and returned Always, as soon as he received his liberty, he fled away, and always he fled north He was possessed of an obsession that drove hi instinct, Irvine called it, after he had expended the selling price of a sonnet in getting the anion

Another tith of California, all of Oregon, and ton, before he was picked up and returned ”Collect” A re was the speed hich he travelled Fed up and rested, as soon as he was loosed he devoted all his energy to getting over the ground On the first day's run he was known to cover as high as a hundred and fifty e a hundred ry and savage, and always departed fresh and vigorous, cleaving his way northward in response to so that no one could understand

But at last, after a futile year of flight, he accepted the inevitable and elected to ree where first he had killed the rabbit and slept by the spring Even after that, a long ti hireat victory, for they alone were allowed to put hands on hie ever succeeded in reeted such approach; if any one had the hardihood to cos appeared, and the growl becanant that it awed the stoutest of thes that knew ordinary dog- snarling, but had never seen wolf-snarling before

He ithout antecedents His history began with Walt and Madge He had coet of the owner frohbor and the one who supplied the Her brother was burrowing for frozen pay-streaks in that far country, and so she constituted herself an authority on the subject

But they did not dispute her There were the tips of Wolf's ears, obviously so severely frozen at soain Besides, he looked like the photographs of the Alaskan dogs they saw published in azines and newspapers They often speculated over his past, and tried to conjure up (from what they had read and heard) what his northland life had been

That the northland still drew hi softly; and when the north wind blew and the bite of frost was in the air, a great restlessness would come upon him and he would lift awolf-howl Yet he never barked No provocation was great enough to draw fro the ti he was Each claimed him, and each proclaimed loudly any expression of affection made by him But the man had the better of it at first, chiefly because he was a man It was patent that Wolf had had no experience oe's skirts were soh to set him a-bristle with suspicion, and on a windy day she could not approach hie who fed him; also it was she who ruled the kitchen, and it was by her favor, and her favor alone, that he was permitted to cos that she bade fair to overcoar it a practice to have Wolf lie at his feet while he wrote, and, between petting and talking, losing much time from his work Walt won in the end, and his victory was e averred that they would have had another quarter of athrough their redwoods, had Wait properly devoted his energies to song-transmutation and left Wolf alone to exercise a natural taste and an unbiassed judgment

”It's about time I heard from those triolets”, Walt said, after a silence of fivesteadily down the trail ”There'll be a check at the post-office, I know, and we'll transallon of maple syrup, and a new pair of overshoes for you”

”And into beautiful e added ”To-morrow's the first of the month, you know”

Walt scowled unconsciously; then his face brightened, and he clapped his hand to his breast pocket

”Never mind I have here a nice beautiful ne, the best milker in California”

”When did you write it?” she deerly Then, reproachfully, ”And you never showed it to me”

”I saved it to read to you on the way to the post-office, in a spot re, with a wave of his hand, a dry log on which to sit

A tiny stream flowed out of a dense fern-brake, slipped down a mossy-lipped stone, and ran across the path at their feet Fro of h sunshi+ne and shadow, fluttered great yellow butterflies

Up fro softly fro of heavy feet, punctuated now and again by the clattering of a displaced stone As Walt finished and looked to his wife for approval, a man came into view around the turn of the trail He was bare-headed and sweaty With a handkerchief in one hand he mopped his face, while in the other hand he carried a new hat and a wilted starched collar which he had removed from his neck He was a well-builtout of the painfully new and ready-reeted him Walt believed in country democracy, and never missed an opportunity to practise it

The uess I ain't used etically ”I'm more accustomed to zero weather”

”You don't find any of that in this country,” Walt laughed

”Should say not,” the man answered ”An' I ain't here a-lookin' for it neither I'm tryin' to find my sister Mebbe you knohere she lives Her name's Johnson, Mrs Williae cried, her eyes bright with interest, ”about e've heard so much?”

”Yes'm, that's me,” he answered ht I'd s'prise her”

”You are on the right track then

Only you've co up the canyon a quarter of a mile ”You see that blasted redwood? Take the little trail turning off to the right It's the short cut to her house You can't miss it”

”Yes'o, but see at her with an open admiration of which he was quite unconscious, and which was drowning, along with hi sea of embarrassment in which he floundered

”We'd like to hear you tell about the Klondike,” Madge said ”Mayn't we come over some day while you are at your sister's? Or, better yet, won't you come over and have dinner with us?”

”Yes'ht hiot to be pullin' north again I go out on to-night's train You see, I've got a e had said that it was too bad, he o But he could not take his eyes froot his embarrassment in his admiration, and it was her turn to flush and feel uncomfortable

It was at this juncture, when Walt had just decided it was ti to relieve the strain, that Wolf, who had been away nosing through the brush, trotted wolf-like into view

Skiff Miller's abstraction disappeared The pretty woman before him passed out of his field of vision He had eyes only for the dog, and a great wonder came into his face

”Well, I'll be damned!” he enunciated slowly and solee standing At the sound of his voice, Wolf's ears had flattened down, then his h He trotted slowly up to the stranger and first sue

Skiff Miller patted the dog's head, and slowly and solemnly repeated, ”Well, I'll be damned!”

”Excuse me, ma'am,” he said the next moment ”I was just s'prised some, that was all”

”We're surprised, too,” she answered lightly ”We never saw Wolf er before”