y. There upon the grass lay one of my lambkins, and
red blood was oozing from its woolly white throat. As I lifted it on my
arm, its little body gave a shudder and then lay so still that I knew it
was dead. Mother Ewe stood near in the shadow and gave a plaintive bleat as
she came to my side.

"Oh," I sobbed as I looked up at Matthew, "it's dead. What did it?"

"A dog," answered Matthew, as he knelt beside me and laid the tiny dead
lamb back on the ground.

"Not Peckerwood Pup!" I exclaimed.

"No, she's too young; some stray," answered Matthew as he look savagely
around into the shadows.

"It's the littlest one, and she licked my hand the last thing before I
left. I can't bear it all, Matthew--this is too much for me," I said, and I
sobbed into my hands as I sank down into a heap against the side of the
bereaved sheep mother, who was still uttering her plaintive moans of
question.

I say now and I shall always maintain that the most wonderful tenderness in
the world is that with which a man who had known a woman all his life, who
has grown with her growth, has shared her laughter and her tears, and knows
her to her last feminine foible or strength, takes her into his arms.
Matthew crouched down upon the grass beside me and gathered me against his
breast, away from the dreadful monster-inhabited shadows, and made me feel
that a new day could dawn upon the world. I think from the way I huddled to
his strength that he knew that I had given up the fight and that his hour
was at hand.

"Do you want me now, Ann?" he asked me; gently as he pressed his cheek
against my hair.

"If you want me, take me and help me find that dog to-morrow," I answered
as I again reached out my hand and put it for the last time on the pathetic
little woolly head. I couldn't hold back the sob.

"Go in the house to bed, dear, for you are completely worn out. I'll bury
the lamb and look for any traces that may help us to find the savage," said
Matthew as he drew me to my feet and with quiet authority led me to the
back door and opened it for me. For a second I let him take me again into
his strong arms, but I wilted there and I simply could not raise my lips to
his. The first time I remember kissing Matthew Berry was at his own tenth
birthday party, and he had dropped a handkerchief behind me that I had
failed to see as all of the budding flower and chivalry of Hayesville stood
in a ring in his mother's drawing-room.

"Dear old Matt," I mu