s if it
would kill me to think of him lyin' ovah there all cold and stiff, with
the blood on his lovely white and yellow curls, and know that he'll nevah,
nevah again jump up to lick my hands, and put his paws on my shouldahs.
He'll nevah come to meet me any moah, waggin' his tail and lookin' up into
my face with his deah lovin' eyes. Oh, Miss Allison! I can't stand it!
It's just breakin' my heart!" Burying her face in Miss Allison's lap, she
sobbed and cried until her tears were all spent.

It was a subdued little party that rode back to the Valley, a few hours
later. Not only sympathy for Lloyd kept them quiet, but each one mourned
the loss of the gentle, lovable playfellow who had come to such an
untimely end after this week of happy camp life with them.

* * * * *

Under the locusts that evening, just as the sun was going down, came the
tread of many marching feet. It was the tramp, tramp of the soldiers who
were bringing home the Little Colonel's Hero, All the men who had been
most interested in his performances the day before, had volunteered to
follow Colonel Wayne, and the long line made an imposing showing, as it
stretched up the avenue after him.

Lloyd watched the approach from her seat on the porch beside her father.
All the camping party were waiting with her, except the four boys who rode
at the head of the procession, Ranald and Malcolm first, then Rob and
Keith. Lloyd hid her eyes as Lad and Tarbaby came into view behind them.

"Look," said her father gently, pointing to the flag-draped burden they
drew. "How much better it was for Hero to have been shot by a soldier and
brought home with military honours, than to have met the fate of an
ordinary dog--been poisoned, or mangled, by a train, as might have
happened, or even died of a painful, feeble old age. The Major would have
chosen this? so would Hero, if he could have understood."

There was more comfort in that thought than in anything that had been said
to her before, and Lloyd wiped her eyes, and sat up to watch the ceremony
that followed, with a feeling of pride that made her almost cheerful.

On they came to the beat of the muffled drum, halting under a great
locust-tree that stood by itself on the lawn, in sight of the library
windows, like a giant sentinel. There the boys dismounted to lower Hero
into the grave that Walker and Alec had just finished digging. Then the
coloured men, spreading the sod quickly ba