e dog
that bounded by her side looked a little more like the first Bouncer.

Mrs. Hedden sat with her brother in the lonely cottage, talking on the
old, old theme; the memory of that terrible night had never left her
heart.

"No, no, Robert," she said at length, in reply to some appeal from her
brother, "we must not go. I know it would be better for us to sell out
and go to Philadelphia. But it cannot be; we must never leave this
spot."

"Surely, Betsy," urged her brother, "you cannot be so wild as to
suppose--"

"No!" she interrupted, "I never dare even hope for that now. I know my
lost darlings are not in this world, and yet--and yet why not hope? why
not think that perhaps--"

A shadow fell upon the threshold. What wonder that the mother sprang
forward with a cry of joy! What wonder that Farmer Hedden, looking from
the field, came bounding toward the house! Po-no-kah was
there--Po-no-kah and little Kitty!

Laughing,--crying,--clasping her dear Kitty frantically to her heart,
then gazing at her at arms' length, Mrs. Hedden raised her eyes to the
Indian, and gasped faintly--

"Rudolph? the boy--is he--"

She could say no more.

"Yes--boy all good," answered Po-no-kah, eagerly, "white man say break
heart see two--he here."

Just then Farmer Hedden, Tom Hennessy, and Rudolph rushed in.

Oh, what a meeting that was! And Bessie, too, was there before they knew
it. Such laughter--such tears--such shouts of rejoicing had never been
known in the Hedden cottage before!

Soon the barking of a dog was heard. Rudolph sprang from his father's
arms:

"Oh, it's Bouncer!" he cried; "let me see him. Here, Bouncer!"

Bouncer indeed came leaping in at the call, but it was not _the_
Bouncer, though it was a great, shaggy fellow, worthy of the name.

Rudolph started back; the dog, too, eyed him with a suspicious look.

"That isn't Bouncer! Where is he, mother?" exclaimed the poor boy,
looking up with a bewildered glance.

Po-no-kah slunk aside.

"Do tell me where Bouncer is," he repeated,

"We are all here but him. Here, Bouncer! Bouncer!" and he ran to the
door.

Bessie wound her arms about his neck.

"Rudolph, darling," she sobbed, "don't cry. Bouncer was killed on _that_
day. He saved my life, Rudolph--"

"Bouncer dead!" screamed the boy.

Just then the new dog, seeing Bessie and her brother so close together,
felt that he had a right there, too. With many a frantic leap and bound
he endeavored to draw