irritated me slightly, because it seemed to imply that he thought
Alexander Abraham Bennett would be one too many for me. But I did not
show Mr. Allan that he annoyed me. It is always a great mistake to let a
man see that he can vex you.

The next afternoon I harnessed my sorrel pony to the buggy and drove
down to Alexander Abraham Bennett's. As usual, I took William Adolphus
with me for company. William Adolphus is my favourite among my six cats.
He is black, with a white dicky and beautiful white paws. He sat up on
the seat beside me and looked far more like a gentleman than many a man
I've seen in a similar position.

Alexander Abraham's place was about three miles along the White
Sands road. I knew the house as soon as I came to it by its neglected
appearance. It needed paint badly; the blinds were crooked and torn;
weeds grew up to the very door. Plainly, there was no woman about THAT
place. Still, it was a nice house, and the barns were splendid. My
father always said that when a man's barns were bigger than his house it
was a sign that his income exceeded his expenditure. So it was all right
that they should be bigger; but it was all wrong that they should be
trimmer and better painted. Still, thought I, what else could you expect
of a woman hater?

"But Alexander Abraham evidently knows how to run a farm, even it he is
a woman hater," I remarked to William Adolphus as I got out and tied the
pony to the railing.

I had driven up to the house from the back way and now I was opposite a
side door opening on the veranda. I thought I might as well go to it, so
I tucked William Adolphus under my arm and marched up the path. Just
as I was half-way up, a dog swooped around the front corner and made
straight for me. He was the ugliest dog I had ever seen; and he didn't
even bark--just came silently and speedily on, with a business-like eye.

I never stop to argue matters with a dog that doesn't bark. I know
when discretion is the better part of valour. Firmly clasping William
Adolphus, I ran--not to the door, because the dog was between me and it,
but to a big, low-branching cherry tree at the back corner of the house.
I reached it in time and no more. First thrusting William Adolphus on
to a limb above my head, I scrambled up into that blessed tree without
stopping to think how it might look to Alexander Abraham if he happened
to be watching.

My time for reflection came when I found myself perched half way up the