lled up and engulfed the wilderness hilltop.

Lad was alone. They had gone off and left him. They had with never a
word of goodby or a friendly command to watch camp until their return.
This was not the dog's first sojourn in camp. And his memory was
flawless. Always, he recalled, the arrival and the loading of the truck
and the striking of tents had meant that the stay was over and that at
the party was going home.

Home! The charm and novelty of the wilderness all at once faded. Lad
was desperately lonely and desperately unhappy. And his feelings were
cruelly hurt; at the strange treatment accorded him.

Yet, it did not occur to him to seek freedom and to follow his gods to
the home he loved. He had been tied here, presumably by their order;
certainly with their knowledge. And it behooved him to wait until they
should come to release him. He knew they would come back, soon or late.
They were his gods, his chums, his playmates. They would no more desert
him than he would have deserted them. It was all right, somehow. Only,
the waiting was tedious!

With a tired little sigh, the collie curled up in a miserable heap on
the stony ground, the shortness of his tether making even this effort
at repose anything but comfortable. And he waited.

A dog, that is happy and well, settles himself for a prolonged wait, by
stretching out on his side;--oftenest the left side; and by dropping
off into slumber. Seldom, unless he be cold or ill, does a big dog curl
up into a ball, to rest. Nor is he thoroughly comfortable in such a
posture.

Lad was not comfortable. He was not resting. He was wretched. Nor did
he try to snooze. Curled in a compact heap, his sorrowful eyes abrim
with sorrow, he lay scanning the bumpy mountainside and straining his
ears, for sign of the car's return. His breathing was not as splendidly
easy as usual. For, increasingly, that earlier twinge of acrid
smoke-reek was tickling his throat. The haze, that had hovered over the
farther hilltops and valleys, was thickening; and it was creeping
nearer. The breath of morning breeze was stiffening into a steady wind;
a wind that blew strong from the west and carried on it the smell of
forest fire.

Lad did not enjoy the ever-stronger smoke scent. But he gave only
half-heed to it. His main attention was centered on that winding
wagon-track whence the car and the truck had vanished into the
lowlands. And, through the solemnly spent hours he lay forlornly
watching