after Toto. The little
dog pranced briskly along for some distance; when he turned around and
looked at his mistress questioningly.

"Oh, don't 'spect ME to tell you anything; I don't know the way," she
said. "You'll have to find it yourself."

But Toto couldn't. He wagged his tail, and sneezed, and shook his
ears, and trotted back where they had left the shaggy man. From here
he started along another road; then came back and tried another; but
each time he found the way strange and decided it would not take them
to the farm-house. Finally, when Dorothy had begun to tire with
chasing after him, Toto sat down panting beside the shaggy man and gave
up.

Dorothy sat down, too, very thoughtful. The little girl had
encountered some queer adventures since she came to live at the farm;
but this was the queerest of them all. To get lost in fifteen minutes,
so near to her home and in the unromantic State of Kansas, was an
experience that fairly bewildered her.

"Will your folks worry?" asked the shaggy man, his eyes twinkling in a
pleasant way.

"I s'pose so," answered Dorothy with a sigh. "Uncle Henry says there's
ALWAYS something happening to me; but I've always come home safe at the
last. So perhaps he'll take comfort and think I'll come home safe this
time."

"I'm sure you will," said the shaggy man, smilingly nodding at her.
"Good little girls never come to any harm, you know. For my part, I'm
good, too; so nothing ever hurts me."

Dorothy looked at him curiously. His clothes were shaggy, his boots
were shaggy and full of holes, and his hair and whiskers were shaggy.
But his smile was sweet and his eyes were kind.

"Why didn't you want to go to Butterfield?" she asked.

"Because a man lives there who owes me fifteen cents, and if I went to
Butterfield and he saw me he'd want to pay me the money. I don't want
money, my dear."

"Why not?" she inquired.

"Money," declared the shaggy man, "makes people proud and haughty. I
don't want to be proud and haughty. All I want is to have people love
me; and as long as I own the Love Magnet, everyone I meet is sure to
love me dearly."

"The Love Magnet! Why, what's that?"

"I'll show you, if you won't tell any one," he answered, in a low,
mysterious voice.

"There isn't any one to tell, 'cept Toto," said the girl.

The shaggy man searched in one pocket, carefully; and in another
pocket; and in a third. At last he drew out a small parcel wrapped in
c