world that flows with warm milk and much petting, he betrays a
tendency to use any odd article of wearing apparel as a teething-ring.
He has completely ruined one of my bedroom slippers and done
Mexican-drawn-work on the ends of the two living-room window-curtains.
But what is much more ominous, Minty yesterday got hold of
Dinky-Dunk's Stetson and made one side of its rim look as though it
had been put through a meat-chopper. So my lord and master has been
making inquiries about Minty and Minty's right of possession. And the
order has gone forth that hereafter no canines are to sleep in this
house. It impresses me as a trifle unreasonable, all things
considered, and Elmer, with a rather unsteady underlip, has asked me
if Minty must be taken away from him. But I have no intention of
countermanding Duncan's order. The crust over the volcano is quite
thin enough, as it is. And whatever happens, I am resolved to be a
meek and dutiful wife. But I've had a talk with Whinnie and he's going
to fix up a comfortable box behind the stove in the bunk-house, and
there the exiled Minty will soon learn to repose in peace. It's
marvelous, though, how that little three-legged animal loves my
Dinkie, loves my Elmer, I should say. He licks my laddie's shoes and
yelps with joy at the smell of his pillow ... Poor little
abundant-hearted mite, overflowing with love! But life, I suppose,
will see to it that he is brought to reason. We must learn not to be
too happy on this earth. And we must learn that love isn't always
given all it asks for.

_Thursday the Seventeenth_

The crust over the volcano has shown itself to be even thinner than I
imagined. The lava-shell gave way, under our very feet, and I've had a
glimpse of the molten fury that can flow about us without our knowing
it. And like so many of life's tragic moments, it began out of
something that is almost ridiculous in its triviality.

Night before last, when Struthers was rather late in setting her
bread, she heard Minty scratching and whimpering at the back door, and
without giving much thought to what she was doing, let him into the
house. Minty, of course, went scampering up to Dinkie's bed, where he
slept secretly and joyously until morning. And all might have been
well, even at this, had not Minty's return to his kingdom gone to his
head. To find some fitting way of expressing his joy must have taxed
that brindle pup's ingenuity, for, before any of us were up, he