liday his men had
taken. He then arranged with Dick and John to work on for a week or two
longer--if "nothing happened;" and after attending to some commissions
for the family, he and Kate set out for home.

But nothing they had done that day was of so much importance as their
meeting with Miles tuned out to be.

CHAPTER XI.

ROB.

Blinks was not the only dog on the Loudon place. There was another one,
a much larger fellow, named Rob.

Rob was a big puppy, in the first place, and then he grew up to be a
tall, long-legged dog, who was not only very fond of Harry and Kate, but
of almost everybody else. In time he filled out and became rather more
shapely, but he was always an ungainly dog--"too big for his size," as
Harry put it.

It was supposed that Rob was partly bloodhound, but how much of him was
bloodhound it would have been very difficult so say. Kate thought it was
only his ears. They resembled the ears of a picture of a beautiful
African bloodhound that she had in a book. At all events Rob showed no
signs of any fighting ancestry. He was as gentle as a calf. Even Blinks
was a better watch-dog. But then, Rob was only a year old, and he might
improve in time.

But, in spite of his general inutility, Rob was a capital companion on a
country ramble.

And so it happened, one bright day toward the close of April, that he
and Harry and Kate went out together into the woods, beyond Aunt
Matilda's cabin. Kate's objects in taking the walk were wild flowers and
general spring investigations into the condition of the woods; but Harry
had an eye to business, although to hear him talk you would have
supposed that he thought as much about ferns and flowers as Kate did.

Harry had an idea that it might possibly be a good thing to hire negroes
that year to pick sumac for him. He was not certain that he could make
it pay, but it was on his mind to such a degree that he took a great
interest in the sumac-bushes, and hunted about the edges of the woods,
where the bushes were generally found, to see what was the prospect for
a large crop of leaves that year.

They were in the woods, about a mile from Aunt Matilda's cabin, and not
very far from a road, when they separated for a short time. Harry went
on ahead, continuing his investigations, while Kate remained in a little
open glade, where she found some flowers that she determined to dig up
by the roots and transplant into her garden at home.

While she was at