eem possible, and most things highly desirable.
Link wanted to sing. And after two additional drinks he gratified this
taste by lifting his voice in a hiccup-punctuated ditty addressed to
one Jenny, whom the singer exhorted to wait till the clouds rolled by.

He was following this appeal by a rural lyric which recited in somewhat
wearisome tonal monotony the adventures of a Little Black Bull that
came Over the Mountain, when he observed that Chum was no longer lying
at his feet. Indeed, the dog was in a far corner of the room, pressed
close to the closed outer door, and with crest and ruff a-droop.

Puzzled by his pet's defection, Link imperiously commanded Chum to
return to his former place. The collie, in most unwilling obedience,
turned about and came slowly toward the drinker.

Every line of Chum's splendid body told of reluctance to approach his
master. The deep-set, dark eyes were eloquent of a frightened disgust.
He looked at Ferris as at some loathely stranger. The glad light of
loyalty, which always had transfigured his visage when Link called to
him, was woefully lacking. Drunk as he was Ferris could not help
noticing the change. And he marveled at it.

"Whasser matter?" he demanded truculently. "What ails yer? C'm here,
I'm tellin' you!"

He stretched out his hand in rough caress to the slowly approaching
collie. Chum shrank back from the touch as a child from a dose of
castor oil. There was no fear now in his aspect. Only disgust and a
poignant unhappiness.

And, all suddenly, Link Ferris understood.

He himself did not know how the knowledge came to him. A canine
psychologist might perhaps have told him that there is always an occult
telepathy between the mind of a thoroughbred dog and its master, a
power which gives them a glimpse into each other's processes of
thought. But there was no such psychologist there to explain the thing.
Nor did Link need it explained. It was enough for him that he knew.

He knew, as by revelation, that his adoring dog now shunned him because
Link was drunk.

From the first, Chum's look of utter worship and his eagerly happy
obedience had been a joy to Link. The subtly complete change in his
worshiper's demeanor jarred sharply on the man's raw nerves. He felt
vaguely unclean--shamed.

The contempt of such of his pious human neighbors as had passed him in
the road during his sprees had affected Link not at all. Nor now could
he understand the queer feeling of humiliat