e a
much-valued luxury in the shape of milk, so that the missionary came
to regard the animal as an indispensable requirement in his household.

The goat acquired a troublesome habit of wandering off in the woods,
with an inclination not to return for several days. From this cause
the bell became useful as a signal to indicate the animal's
whereabouts. It rarely wandered beyond hearing, and caused no more
trouble than would have resulted from a cow under the same
circumstances. For the last few weeks it had been the duty, or rather
privilege, of Charley to bring his playmate home, and the child had
become so expert that the father had little hesitation in permitting
him to go out for it. The parent had misgivings, however, in allowing
him to leave the house, so near dark, to go beyond his sight if not
beyond his hearing; and for some time he had strenuously refused to
permit the boy to go upon his errand; but the little fellow plead so
earnestly, and the father's ever-present apprehensions having
gradually dulled by their want of realization, he had given his
reluctant consent, until it came to be considered the special province
of the boy to bring in the goat every evening just before nightfall.

The afternoon wore away, and still the missionary sat with folded
hands, gazing absently off in the direction of the wood. The boy at
length aroused him by running up and asking:

"Father, it is getting late. Isn't it time to bring Dolly home?"

"Yes, my son; do you hear the bell?"

"Listen!"

The pleasant _tink-a-link_ came with faint distinctness over the still
summer air.

"It isn't far away, my son; so run as fast as you can and don't play
or loiter on the way."

The child ran rapidly across the Clearing in the direction of the
sound, shot into the wood, and, a moment later, had disappeared from
his father's sight.

The father still sat in his seat, and was looking absently toward the
forest, when a startled expression flashed over his face and he sprung
to his feet. What thus alarmed him? _It was the sound of the
goat-bell._

All of my readers who have heard the sound of an ordinary cow-bell
suspended to the neck of an animal, have observed that the natural
sound is an _irregular one_--that is, there is no system or regularity
about the sound made by an animal in cropping the grass or herbage.
There is the clapper's tink-a-link, tink-a-link--an interval of
silence--then the occasional tink, tink, tink, to be