" Then, turning to
the girl, he said:

"Well, sis, the show's over; the dog's all right, so I guess I'll get
aboard the train. So, so long."

"Please tell me your name, sir, and you, too, sir," turning to the
Eastern man.

"Why, sis, what do you want to know my name for?"

"To pray for you, sir; mother's dead, but I pray every night just the
same, and I ask God to bless Rover--he's all I've got now, you know. Is
that wrong, sir? and to-night and every night I'm goin' to ask God to
bless both o' you for bein' so kind ter Rover and me."

"Oh, that's all right, sis; don't think of it;" the Cowboy's voice was
husky. "Good-by; good-by, Rover, old boy."

He seized the big dog in his arms and turned him over on his back,
holding him down. The dog caught one of the man's hands in his huge
mouth and chewed it gently, while the Cowboy poked him playfully in the
ribs with the other. Then the man jumped up and ran for the car, with
Rover leaping and romping about him, uttering great deep barks of joy.
The Eastern man followed more slowly; a cinder or something had got into
his eye, and he was ostentatiously wiping it out with the corner of his
handkerchief.

That night, in the darkness of her room, the girl knelt by the side of
her rough bed, and whispered softly her little prayer:

"God bless mamma,
God bless papa,
God bless Rover, and bless the two fellers that was good to
me and Rover--I dunno their names, God, but you do."

The sounds of a slight figure getting into bed were followed by "'Scuse
me, Rover, I didn't mean to step on yer foot; goodnight, Rover, dear."
Several heavy blows on the floor answered her, and then for a time there
was silence. The wind moaned faintly in the chimney and a rat squeaked
and scampered across the floor; then a board creaked,--the child slept
on oblivious to it all,--but at each new sound the dark form on the
floor stirred slightly, a shaggy head was raised, and wide-open,
faithful eyes gazed in the direction from whence it came, intent, alert,
and watchful.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcriber's Note:

Two Hebrew characters (dalet on the left and khet on the right) on p.
180 of the original book appear in this ASCII version as {Hebrew: khet
dalet}, as Hebrew is read right-to-left.

Spelling variants and dialect have been left as they appear in the
original (e.g. purp, p.