bout it, on the hot nights when
I couldn't sleep? But, when the time comes--when it
comes--you'll--you'll do it, yourself, won't you?"

"Yes," promised the Master, miserably. "No one else shall. I'd rather
cut off one of my own hands, though. I'VE been doing a bit of thinking,
too--at night. It's nobody's job but mine. Laddie would rather have it
that way, I know. And, by a bullet. He's a gallant old soldier. And
that is the way for him to go. Now, for the Lord's sake, let's talk
about something else! A man or woman is a fool to care that way about
any mere dog. I--"

"But Lad isn't a 'mere' dog," contradicted the Mistress, stooping to
pet the collie's classic head as it lay across her foot. "He's--he's
Laddie."

The sound of his name pierced the sleep mists and brought the dog to
wakefulness. He raised his head inquiringly toward the Mistress, and
his plumed tail began to thump the floor. The Mistress patted him
again; and spoke a word or two. Lad prepared to drowse once more. Then,
to his dulled ears came the padding of little bare feet on the grass.
And he glanced up again, this time in eager interest.

Across the lawn from the orchard came trotting a child; carrying a
basket of peaches toward the kitchen. The youngster wore but a single
garment, a shapeless calico dress that fell scarcely to her knees. She
was Sonya, the seven-year-old daughter of one of the Place's extra
workmen, a Slav named Ruloff who lived in the mile-distant village,
across the lake.

Ruloff, following the custom of his peasant ancestors, put his whole
family to work, from the time its members were old enough to toddle.
And he urged them against the vice of laziness by means of an
ever-ready fist, or a still readier toe or a harness strap--whichever
of the trio of energy producers chanced to be handiest. In coming over
to the Place, for a month's labor, during the harvest season, he
brought along every day his youngest and most fragile offspring, Sonya.
Under her father's directions and under his more drastic modes of
encouragement, the little girl was of much help to him in his doily
toil.

Twice, the Master had caught him punishing her for undue slowness in
carrying out some duty too heavy for her frail strength. On both times
he had stopped the brutal treatment. On the second, he had told Ruloff
he would not only discharge him, but assist his departure from the
Place with a taste of boot-toe medicine, if ever the Slav should lay a
h