turning the
whole place upside down. The game they played seemed to consist of
laboriously lifting heavy articles of furniture, carrying them
about, and putting them down again, in what seemed to Finn a
confused and pointless manner. Evening found the Wolfhound scarcely
more comfortable than his human friends, who were evidently in very
poor spirits. They were moved by conscious regret, and by conscious
anxiety regarding the future. Finn was moved by conscious
discomfort, and vague mental stirrings of impending trouble of some
sort. When he slept, he dreamed of Matey; this time in the form of
a huge fox, whose jaws slashed the air in the most fearsome manner.
(Up till the previous day, Finn had hunted and killed innumerable
wild creatures, but never fought with one.)

The next day was one of even less comfort and more bewilderment. In
addition to the men with green aprons and strongly vocal boots,
there was quite a large assemblage of other people, who strode
about through the rooms of the little house, and in its garden,
stable, and outside den, as though the place belonged to them, and
they were rather disgusted with it. Later on, however, these noisy
men-folk (there were women among them, too) drew together in one of
the front rooms of the house, and made all sorts of--to Finn--meaningless
noises, while one among them stood upon a kitchen-chair
and occasionally smote the top of a salt-box with a small white
hammer, before proceeding to call forth more meaningless noises
from the other people. Finn prowled about in a most unhappy mood,
and once, the Mistress of the Kennels led him into an empty
bedroom, and knelt down on the floor and cried over him, while he
endeavoured to lick her face, whimpering the while, to show his
sympathy. Later on, the people flocked out into the den, and made
more vain noises there; and then to the stable. Finally, they
streamed out into the orchard, and made stupid remarks about the
kennels there; and at long last they went away, leaving the green-aproned
men in undisputed possession, and free to throw furniture
about, and pile it on carts in the road, as they chose.

Then the Master and the Mistress and Finn went away together to the
station, saying nothing, and looking very unhappy. Finn carried his
tail so low that it dragged, and its black tip picked up mud from
the wet road, upon which a fine autumnal drizzle had begun to fall.
That night, and for two subsequent nights, Finn lived