noises, while he
pawed the Master's shoulder; and these sounds said as plainly as
any words could, and perhaps more emphatically: "I love you. I
understand; and I love you, Master. It's you and me, for always;
and nothing else matters, wherever we may be!"

And then the Master would say something about the Mistress of the
Kennels, and Finn would beat the deck with his thirty-inch tail,
which was as thick and strong at its roots as a man's arm. Or
perhaps, if the weather were calm as well as fine, the Mistress
herself would come along and join them, seated in a low deck chair;
and then, though Finn's eyes would take on a momentarily anxious
look if her hand touched the Master, he would yet be very happy,
stretched out between them, with the half of one dark eye to spare
for one of them, and his whole big heart shining out upon the
Master in the gaze which held his head always turned the one way.

Just as something always seems to strike a balance in the affairs
of men-folk, so the gods who watch over the affairs of Finn's kind
are wont to provide compensations. For months, before this sea
voyage, Finn's whole being had been absorbed by the interests of
the half-tame wild, in the country beside the Sussex Downs.
Dreaming and waking, the hunt had held his thoughts, and solitary
roaming had been his delight. Here aboard the great steamer he was
suddenly and completely cut off from all these things; but
something else had come to take possession of his active nature,
his busy mind, his growing heart; and the great love of the Master
which grew in him now effectually shut out anything like regret for
the old life, by making the new life all-sufficing and more compact
of interest, of satisfying fullness, than ever the home life had
been at its best.

If it had not been for this remarkable development of Finn's
character which was brought about by his confinement on board a
ship with the Master, he would never have played the part he did in
what was really the most important event of his life up till this
time; and one, too, which taught the Master a good deal, regarding
his own relationship to the great Wolfhound he had bred. It all
happened on a Sunday morning when, the weather being very hot, the
captain held service on the upper deck, under awnings, of course.
Half a dozen children were allowed, during the latter part of the
service, to withdraw, and play quietly by themselves, twenty yards
away from the last row of c