n came out of the grey
house and walked quickly across the grass. When he reached the hedge
separating the field from the road he tossed his two arms in the air,
swung them down, and jumped over the hedge into the roadway. He was a
short, dark youth, and so swift and sudden were his movements that
he seemed to look on every side at the one moment although he bore
furiously to his own direction.

The Philosopher addressed him mildly.

"That was a good jump," said he.

The young man spun around from where he stood, and was by the
Philosopher's side in an instant.

"It would be a good jump for other men," said he, "but it is only a
little jump for me. You are very dusty, sir; you must have travelled a
long distance to-day."

"A long distance," replied the Philosopher. "Sit down here, my friend,
and keep me company for a little time."

"I do not like sitting down," said the young man, "but I always consent
to a request, and I always accept friendship." And, so saying, he threw
himself down on the grass.

"Do you work in that big house?" said the Philosopher.

"I do," he replied. "I train the hounds for a fat, jovial man, full of
laughter and insolence."

"I think you do not like your master."

"Believe, sir, that I do not like any master; but this man I hate. I
have been a week in his service, and he has not once looked on me as on
a friend. This very day, in the kennel, he passed me as though I were
a tree or a stone. I almost leaped to catch him by the throat and say:
'Dog, do you not salute your fellow-man?' But I looked after him and let
him go, for it would be an unpleasant thing to strangle a fat person."

"If you are displeased with your master should you not look for another
occupation?" said the Philosopher.

"I was thinking of that, and I was thinking whether I ought to kill him
or marry his daughter. She would have passed me by as her father did,
but I would not let a woman do that to me: no man would."

"What did you do to her?" said the Philosopher.

The young man chuckled "I did not look at her the first time, and when
she came near me the second time I looked another way, and on the third
day she spoke to me, and while she stood I looked over her shoulder
distantly. She said she hoped I would be happy in my new home, and she
made her voice sound pleasant while she said it; but I thanked her and
turned away carelessly."

"Is the girl beautiful?" said the Philosopher.

"I do not know," he r