ung persons deserted
the scene of their labors, and were soon building a fine dam across the
brook in the pasture. There they remained until the sound of the bell on
the carriage house, rung to summon to dinner the men at work in the
distant fields, warned them that it was twelve o'clock and almost time
to go in themselves.

* * * * *

Edith and Neal plodded slowly homeward. It was very warm, for though it
was not sunny in the woods, the trees shut off the air. They turned in
from the lane and walked up the avenue, Robin's hoofs falling regularly
on the gravel with a hot, thumping sound.

"Jiminy, this is a scorcher!" said Neal, wiping his forehead. "Here
comes Bob. He doesn't seem to mind the weather. No, it isn't Bob,
either. What dog is it? Great Scott, Edith, it _is_ Bob! What has
happened to him?"

He dropped the reins, and Robin trudged off alone to his stall.

"Why, Neal, I never saw such a sight!" cried Edith.

Bob, bounding merrily over the grass, overjoyed at seeing his master
return, was quite unconscious of the effect he produced. On one side he
was the same beautiful, glossy-coated creature he had ever been; on the
other, through stray, uneven bunches of hair gleamed touches of whitish
skin. His ears, which had measured a proud eighteen inches from tip to
tip, flapped on either side in ungraceful scantness; and his tail, from
which so short a time before had waved a beautiful raven plume, now
wagged in uncompromising stubbyness.

"Bob, Bob, what has happened to you? You look as if you had been in a
fire!"

Edith, with an awful foreboding in her heart, hurried towards the house.
Yes, her fears were realized! Two pairs of scissors and a mass of black
hair told the tale. She sank down on the steps and covered her face.

"The children have done it," she murmured. "Oh, Neal, we ought never to
have left them!"

Neal stood there perfectly silent. He had grown very white, and his eyes
looked dangerously dark.

"Oh, those children!" he said at last, between firmly set teeth. "You
had better keep them out of my way for a time, Edith. I'd just like to
murder them, the way I feel now."

"Oh, Neal, I am so sorry! I can't tell you how dreadfully I feel. But we
oughtn't to have both gone. You see, I didn't know you were coming too."

"And I didn't know I was expected to act as child's nurse," said Neal,
angrily. "The dog is done for, as far as shows are concerned. His coat
w