ant her no harm. He even
tried shyly to make friends with the tall and grave-eyed guest. Dorcas
saw all that. Yet she shrank from him with instinctive fear--in spite
of it.

As a child she had been bitten--and bitten badly--by a nondescript
mongrel that had been chased into the Chatham backyard by a crowd of
stone-throwing boys, and which she had sought to oust with a stick from
its hiding place under the steps. Since then Dorcas had had an
unconquerable fear and dislike of dogs. The feeling was unconquerable
because she had made no effort to conquer it. She had henceforth judged
all dogs by the one whose teeth marks had left a lifelong scar on her
white forearm.

She had the good breeding not to let Ferris see her distaste for his
pet that he was just then exhibiting so proudly to the guests. Her
shrinking was imperceptible, even to a lover's solicitous eye. But Chum
noted it. And with a collie's odd sixth sense he knew this intruder did
not like him.

Not that her aversion troubled Chum at all; but it puzzled him. People
as a rule were effusively eager to make friends with Chum. And--being
ultraconservative, like the best type of collie--he found their
handling and other attentions annoying. He had taken a liking to
Dorcas, at sight. But since she did not return this liking Chum was
well content to keep away from her.

He was the more content, because five-year-old Olive had flung herself,
with loud squeals of rapture, bodily on the dog; and had clasped her
fat little arms adoringly round his massive furry throat in an ecstasy
of delight.

Chum had never before been brought into such close contact with a
child. And Link watched with some slight perturbation the baby's
onslaught. But in a moment Ferris's mind was at rest.

At first touch of the baby's fingers the collie had become once and for
all Olive's slave. He fairly reveled in the discomfortingly tight
caress. The tug of the little hands in his sensitive neck fur was bliss
to him. Wiggling all over with happiness he sought to lick the chubby
face pressed so tight against his ruff. From that instant Chum had a
divided allegiance. His human god was Ferris. But this fluffy
pink-and-white youngster was a mighty close second in his list of
deities.

Dorcas looked on, trembling with fear; as her little sister romped with
the adoring dog. And she heaved a sigh of relief when at last they were
clear of the farm without mishap to the baby. For Olive had been d