les are likely to be jostled
out of the tonneau. I found a satchel, last week, at the curve, up
there, you remember; and a hat, the week before. What are you going to
do about this thing?"

"Oh," said the Mistress, with a sigh of renunciation, "I suppose we'll
have to advertise it; and watch the 'Lost and Found' columns, too.
But--wouldn't it be glorious if nobody should see our advertisement
or--or ever advertise for it? It's so lovely! I hate to think it may
belong to somebody who can't appreciate it as I do."

Now, Laddie had lived on the Place for many more years than he could
remember. And he had spent the bulk of that time in studying the faces
and the voices and the moods of these two people whom he worshiped.
Moreover, he had an intelligence that is not given to most dogs,--even
to collies--and a queer psychic twist to his brain that had puzzled his
owners as much as it had delighted them:

Watching the Mistress, now, with his classic head on one side and his
deep-set dark eyes fixed on her eager face, he saw that his roadway
gift had made her very happy. Also, that her caressing hand on his head
showed pride in what he had done. And this, as ever, thrilled the old
dog, to the very soul.

He wagged his plumed tail, in gladness, and thrust his nose into her
palm and began to "talk" in gleeful treble. To none but the Mistress
and the Master would Lad deign to "talk." And, none listening to him
could doubt he was trying to copy the human voice and human meanings.

"Dear old Laddie!" praised the Mistress, running her fingers through
his lion-like ruff. "GOOD Laddie! Thank you, ever so much! Nobody but a
very, VERY wonderful collie named Lad could have had the perfect taste
to pick out such a parasol. And now we're going to have a whole handful
of animal crackers, for reward."

The crooningly sweet voice, the petting, the gift of animal crackers of
which he was childishly fond--all these delighted Lad beyond measure.
And they confirmed him in the belief that he had done something most
laudable.

What he had done was to pick up a stray object, away from home, and
bring it to the Mistress. He knew that. And that was all he knew. But,
having won high praise for the deed, he resolved then and there to
repeat it.

Which proves that old dogs can be taught new tricks. And which started
all the trouble.

That afternoon, the Mistress and the Master went for a five-mile ramble
through the woods and over the mountai