n the west,
and Father and Tam will be coming back wet and hungry from the
hills, and no broth hot."

They packed the remainder of their supper carefully away in the
basket and left it in the corner of the cave behind the wood-pile,
put out every spark of the fire, and picked their way carefully
down the wet chasm to the ground.

"Hark," said Jock, as they started home. Faraway in the distance
there was the frantic barking of a dog. They stopped and
listened.

"It's Tam," said Jean, with conviction, "and he's after
something. It's either the rabbit or else he's found a weasel
hole," and instantly all the children were off at a bound,
tearing through the woods in the direction of the sound. They had
been having such a good time they had not once thought of Angus
Niel, but as they reached the edge of the forest, there he was,
standing behind a tree with his gun pointing toward the little
gray house! They stopped short in their wild race and instantly
hid themselves among the trees. They could see Tam barking and
pawing the ground with the greatest excitement in the open field
which lay between the forest and the garden-patch.

"Tam's after the rabbit as sure as sure," Jock whispered to Alan,
who had crept with him underneath a spreading pine. "That's the
very place where he went after him before. If that old thief
kills Tam, I'll--I'll--" Jock could think of no fit punishment
for such a crime, and in his rage and excitement would have run
right out into the open, after the dog if Alan had not held him
by his jacket. "Let go--let go!" said Jock, struggling to get
away. "I tell you, if he shoots that dog."

Just then a brown flash appeared from the garden wall, and Tam
was after it at a bound, barking like mad. "It's the rabbit, and
he's got him--he's got him!" murmured Jock, bouncing up and down
with excitement with Alan still clinging to his coat. "Good old
dog! good old Tam!" He was watching the dog so intently that he
did not see Angus take careful aim, but the moment Tam reached
the rabbit, seized it in his teeth, and shook it, a shot rang
out; and the dog, with a howl of pain, dropped the rabbit and ran
yelping toward the house on three legs, holding the fourth one in
the air.

Angus immediately ran out from his hiding-place, leaped the
brook, and, dashing up the slope toward the house, picked up the
dead rabbit and ran with it back into the woods. The children
watched him as he fled, and, the moment he was