ss with which the little man
moulded the dog beneath his hands. After a promising display he would
stand, rubbing his palms together, as near content as ever he was.

"Weel done, Wullie! Weel done. Bide a wee and we'll show 'em a thing or
two, you and I, Wullie.

"'The warld's wrack we share o't,
The warstle and the care o't.'

For it's you and I alane, lad." And the dog would trot up to him, place
his great forepaws on his shoulders, and stand thus with his great head
overtopping his master's, his ears back, and stump tail vibrating.

You saw them at their best when thus together, displaying each his one
soft side to the other.

From the very first David and Red Wull were open enemies: under the
circumstances, indeed, nothing else was possible. Sometimes the great
dog would follow on the lad's heels with surly, greedy eyes, never
leaving him from sunrise to sundown, till David could hardly hold his
hands.

So matters went on for a never-ending year. Then there came a climax.

One evening, on a day throughout which Red Wull had dogged him thus
hungrily, David, his work finished, went to pick up his coat, which he
had left hard by. On it lay Red Wull.

"Git off ma coat!" the boy ordered angrily, marching up. But the great
dog never stirred: he lifted a lip to show a fence of white, even teeth,
and seemed to sink lower in the ground; his head on his paws, his eyes
in his forehead.

"Come and take it!" he seemed to say.

Now what, between master and dog, David had endured almost more than he
could bear that day.

"Yo' won't, won't yo', girt brute!" he shouted, and bending, snatched
a corner of the coat and attempted to jerk it away. At that, Red Wull
rose, shivering, to his feet, and with a low gurgle sprang at the boy.

David, quick as a flash, dodged, bent, and picked up an ugly stake,
lying at his feet. Swinging round, all in a moment, he dealt his
antagonist a mighty buffet on the side of the head. Dazed with the blow,
the great dog fell; then, recovering himself, with a terrible, deep roar
he sprang again. Then it must have gone hard with the boy, fine-grown,
muscular young giant though he was. For Red Wull was now in the first
bloom of that great strength which earned him afterward an undying
notoriety in the land.

As it chanced, however, M'Adam had watched the scene from the kitchen.
And now he came hurrying out of the house, shrieking commands and curses
at the combatants. As Red Wull sp