r
had struck it fair, and had tossed it into the ditch as though the dog
had been a heap of rags.

There--huddled and lifeless--sprawled the beautiful collie. The car put
on an extra spurt of speed and disappeared round the next turn.

Olive was on her feet before Dorcas's flying steps could reach her.
Unhurt but vastly indignant, the baby opened her mouth to make way for
a series of howls. Then, her eye falling on the inert dog, she ran over
to Chum and began to cry out to him to come to life again.

"No use of that, kid!" interposed Link, kneeling beside the collie he
loved and smoothing the soiled and rumpled fur. "It's easier to drop
out of life than what it is to come back to it again. Well," he went on
harshly, turning to the weeping Dorcas, "the question has answered
itself, you see. No need now to tell me to get rid of him. He's saved
me the bother. Like he was always saving me bother. That being Chum's
way."

Something in his throat impeded his fierce speech. And he bent over
the dog again, his rough hands smoothing the pitifully still body with
loving tenderness. Dorcas, weeping hysterically, fell on her knees
beside Chum and put her arms about the huddled shape. She seemed to be
trying to say something, her lips close to one of the furry little ears.

"No use!" broke in Ferris, his voice as grating as a file's. "He can't
hear you now. No good to tell him you hate dogs; or that you're glad
you've saw the last of him. Even if he was alive, he wouldn't
understand that. He'd never been spoke to that way."

"Don't! Oh, don't!" sobbed the girl. "Oh, I'm so--"

"If you're crying for Chum," went on the grating voice, "there's no
need to. He was only just a dog. He didn't know any better but to get
his life smashed out'n him, so somebody else could go on living. All he
asked was to be with me and work for me and love me. After you said he
couldn't keep on doing that, there ain't any good in your crying for
him. It must be nice--if you'll only stop crying long enough to think
of it--to know he's out of your way. And I'M out of it too!" he went on
in a gust of fury. "S'pose you two just toddle on, now, and leave me to
take him home. I got the right to that, anyhow."

He stooped to pick up the dog; and he winked with much rapidity to hold
back an annoying mist which came between him and Chum. His mouth
corners, too, were twitching in a way that shamed him. He had a babyish
yearning to bury his face in his dead