alked in the
direction from which it came. Passing through a grove of chestnut-trees,
he reached an elevated open space, where the moonlight shone on the
almost level surface of large gray rocks. Near the middle of this clear
space he saw a black, shaggy object moving slowly about, with its
lowered head turned away from him. He stepped forward to get a closer
view of this creature, and as he did so it turned its head and looked at
him. The next instant it bounded away and disappeared among the nearest
trees.

"Just as I thought," said Brent to himself. "It _was_ a dog, and a
villanous-looking cur, too. Exactly the sort of brute to howl and shriek
at the moon on a night like this."

But, as he sauntered back to the house, various doubts entered his mind.
He reflected that he had seen the animal only for an instant, by
moonlight and at some distance, and that he could not be sure it was
really a dog. Neither could he be confident it had uttered the
mysterious cry, for while it was within his sight it had made no sound
of any kind. "Perhaps it went up there for the same reason I did,--to
find out what was going on," he thought.

As usual, he ended by informing himself that he was under no
responsibility to settle the question, and that, as far as he was
concerned, it would probably remain unsettled.

The next morning he found the farmer and his wife very much depressed,
but he had no hope of being able to convince them that they had heard
nothing supernatural, and thought it best to avoid the subject. He
passed the day in calling on some of the neighbors who had asked him to
visit them, and returned to the farm-house just before nightfall.

He found Rena standing at the door, and, while talking to her, he
mentioned his moonlight walk.

"I saw what I took to be a stray dog up there," he said. "Perhaps it
made the sound we heard."

"Was it a black dog, with rough, curly hair?" asked Rena.

"I think it was; but I couldn't see it very well. Do you know whose it
is?"

"No; but this morning when I came out of the dairy a dog that looked
like that was standing in the path, a little way off, and I was thinking
it might have been the same one."

As she looked away again, Brent said, "I didn't tell your father and
mother about the dog I saw, because I thought it would be well for them
to forget the whole matter as soon as possible."

"Thank you," said Rena, turning her face and looking at him gratefully.

He had lost