him better, but in the meantime he had disappeared
altogether. Instead of that they saw on the other side of the "Old
Hag's Rock" a beautiful little valley, and in it a solitary house
with small windows which was made of wood and covered with shingles,
standing there by the brook. It looked like a fairy-story house set
among the springs coming out from the rocks. The herder Steve had told
the boys several times about witches who lived in solitary huts, and
it seemed to them that one of them might be living there. A large
white dog sunned himself in front of the hut. If Fido had been with
them, he surely would have started a fight with him. As the boys were
looking at the cottage the door opened, but no old woman came out,
only a boy who was a little larger than themselves, in a cape and
belt, sandals, and with a hat on his head. The dog jumped up, wagged
his broad tail, and stretched himself, yawned and barked happily. The
boy stroked him on the head and smiled at him, then both began to walk
up toward the great rock.

The dog spied our comrades first and stopped. They could see he was
not as young as Fido, but that he was wise and did not bark uselessly
at anybody, so they knew that he must be friendly to people. Soon the
boys stood face to face, and the strange boy, whose dress indicated
that he was not from that section, greeted them in a friendly manner.
He asked them what they were doing and where they were from. They told
him that they had accompanied the doctor that far. Ondrejko dared to
ask him if he lived in that little house.

"The hut belongs to us, but I am from Trenchin. I came only a week ago
with my father. A distant uncle of my mother died, and because there
is no nearer relative my mother inherited this hut. Father wants to
sell it, but a nice bit of woods with fine timber belongs to the hut,
which we could use very well in our business. Therefore we shall stay
here for some time, cut the wood and take it along."

"And the dog is yours?"

"Yes, it is our Dunaj. He did not want to stay at home; we had to take
him along, though we had to pay for him on the railroad."

"Surely you didn't have him along in the carriage?" ventured Ondrejko.

"Oh, no; and he did not like where they locked him up, at all. He
almost knocked me down when he regained his freedom. Isn't that so,
Dunaj?" The dog whined and cuddled down at his master's feet.

"We too have a dog which is still young, but he also will be big w