her slicker before her place at table, as indicated by the
bare spot of ground, and sat down. Mr. Brown took a bucket and
disappeared in the gully. Evidently he had gone to get fresh water.
Janet now put her feet out farther toward the fire.

When he returned, he made some remarks upon the weather and put on the
coffee; then he turned about and went into the shack. As on the
previous evening, everything came tumbling pell-mell out of the door.
Janet, having nothing else to do, looked up and gave her attention to a
big sixteen-carat star.

Shep, the dog, came and planted himself at the very edge of the bare
spot. Without giving her so much as a glance, he sat there primly and
looked straight off the end of his nose at the sugar bowl in the
middle. Not till this moment had Janet realized what a beautiful,
intelligent-looking collie dog Mr. Brown had. His brown-buff coat, of
just the right shade, seemed slightly veiled with black; his full
out-arching front was pure white.

"Shep," said Janet.

His fine eyebrow rose as he gave her a look--a very short one, however.
When she addressed him again she could see his interest rising a
degree; finally he came and sat down beside her. Encouraged by this
show of friendship, Janet put her hand on him.

When her host had got through with the more violent exercises of
practical courtesy,--which sounded somewhat like trouble in a
barroom,--he came out bearing a jug marked MOLASSES; this he set down
before her, and then, finding the coffee done, he proceeded to serve up
the viands.

"That is n't much of a supper," he remarked, sitting down opposite.

"It tastes very good," said Janet.

It hardly did seem the right thing to set before such a guest. But
Janet, as good as her word, steadily made way with the _frijole_ beans
and did full justice to the hot bread; and soon, inspirited by his
powerful coffee, she continued the story of how she was frightened by
the steer and baffled by the brook, and how she was foolish enough to
think she was going straight forward all the time.

He had a way, whenever she came to a pause, of enticing her to go on.
Sometimes he primed the conversation by repeating the last thing she
had said; again, an apt word or two summed up the whole spirit of the
matter encouragingly; or there would be just a composed waiting for her
to resume.

Not that he had any difficulty in finding something to say. He
evidently liked to hear her talk, and so