y
man thought they would taste better than the oat-straw, so he walked
over to get some. A little black dog with bright brown eyes dashed out
of the farm-house and ran madly toward the shaggy man, who had already
picked up three apples and put them in one of the big wide pockets of
his shaggy coat. The little dog barked, and made a dive for the shaggy
man's leg; but he grabbed the dog by the neck and put it in his big
pocket along with the apples. He took more apples, afterward, for many
were on the ground; and each one that he tossed into his pocket hit the
little dog somewhere upon the head or back, and made him growl. The
little dog's name was Toto, and he was sorry he had been put in the
shaggy man's pocket.

[Illustration]

Pretty soon Dorothy came out of the house with her sunbonnet, and she
called out:

"Come on, Shaggy Man, if you want me to show you the road to
Butterfield." She climbed the fence into the ten-acre lot and he
followed her, walking slowly and stumbling over the little hillocks in
the pasture as if he was thinking of something else and did not notice
them.

"My, but you're clumsy!" said the little girl. "Are your feet tired?"

"No, miss; it's my whiskers; they tire very easily this warm weather,"
said he. "I wish it would snow; don't you?"

"'Course not, Shaggy Man," replied Dorothy, giving him a severe look.
"If it snowed in August it would spoil the corn and the oats and the
wheat; and then Uncle Henry wouldn't have any crops; and that would make
him poor; and----"

"Never mind," said the shaggy man. "It won't snow, I guess. Is this the
lane?"

"Yes," replied Dorothy, climbing another fence; "I'll go as far as the
highway with you."

"Thankee, miss; you're very kind for your size, I'm sure," said he
gratefully.

"It isn't everyone who knows the road to Butterfield," Dorothy remarked
as she tripped along the lane; "but I've driven there many a time with
Uncle Henry, and so I b'lieve I could find it blindfolded."

"Don't do that, miss," said the shaggy man, earnestly; "you might make a
mistake."

"I won't," she answered, laughing. "Here's the highway. Now, it's the
second--no, the third turn to the left--or else it's the fourth. Let's
see. The first one is by the elm tree; and the second is by the gopher
holes; and then----"

"Then what?" he inquired, putting his hands in his coat pockets. Toto
grabbed a finger and bit it; the shaggy man took his hand out of that
pocket quickly