e Little Colonel_!"

* * * * *

[Illustration: "THE TWO WERE WANDERING ALONG BESIDE THE WATER
TOGETHER"]

When the time came for the Shermans to move on, the Major was their
travelling companion. But at Zug, several weeks later, it was necessary
for him to stop and send for his niece to accompany him to a hospital at
Zuerich. He had been caught in a sudden storm on the mountainside and
struck by a limb of a falling tree. If Hero had not led a party of
rescuers to him from the hotel he would have died before morning, but
they were in time to save him.

Several lonely days followed for the Little Colonel. Either her father
or mother was constantly with the Major, sometimes both.

It greatly worried the old man that he should be the cause of
disarranging their plans and delaying their journey. He urged them to
go on and leave him, but they would not consent. Sometimes the Little
Colonel slipped into the room with a bunch of Alpine roses or a cluster
of edelweiss that she had bought from some peasant. Sometimes she sat
beside him for a few minutes, but most of her time was spent with Hero,
wandering up and down beside the lake, feeding the swans or watching the
little steamboats come and go.

One evening, just at sunset, the Major sent for her. "I go to Zuerich in
the morning," he said, holding out his hand as she came into the room.
"I wanted to say good-bye while I have the time and strength. We expect
to leave very early to-morrow, probably before you are awake."

His couch was drawn up by the window through which the shimmering lake
shone in the sunset like rosy mother-of-pearl. Far up the mountain
sounded the faint tinkling of goat-bells, and the clear, sweet yodelling
of a peasant, on his homeward way. At intervals, the deep tolling of the
bell of St. Oswald floated out across the water.

"When the snow falls," he said, after a long pause, "I shall be far away
from here. They tell me that at the hospital where I am going, I shall
find a cure. But I know." He pointed to an hour-glass on the table
beside him. "See! the sand has nearly run its course. The hour will soon
be done. It is so with me. I have felt it for a long time."

Lloyd looked up, startled. He went on slowly.

"I cannot take Hero with me to the hospital, so I shall leave him behind
with some one who will care for him and love him, perhaps even better
than I have done." He held out his hand to the dog.

"Come, He