d that he had not
understood me, but that he had loyally, and at the risk of his life,
tried to obey me.

The summit of the Continental Divide, where I stood when I sent him
back, was a very rough and lonely region. On every hand were broken
snowy peaks and rugged canons. My cabin, eighteen miles away, was the
nearest house to it, and the region was utterly wild. I waited a
reasonable time for Scotch to return, but he did not come back.
Thinking he might have gone by without my seeing him, I walked some
distance along the summit, first in one direction and then in the
other, but, seeing neither him nor his tracks, I knew that he had not
yet come back. As it was late in the afternoon, and growing colder,
I decided to go slowly on toward my cabin. I started along a route that
I felt sure he would follow, and I reasoned that he would overtake me.
Darkness came on and still no Scotch, but I kept going forward. For
the remainder of the way I told myself that he might have got by me
in the darkness.

When, at midnight, I arrived at the cabin, I expected to be greeted by
him, but he was not there. I felt that something was wrong and feared
that he had met with an accident. I slept two hours and rose, but
still he was missing, so I concluded to tie on my snowshoes and go
to meet him. The thermometer showed fourteen below zero.

I started at three o'clock in the morning, feeling that I should meet
him without going far. I kept going on and on, and when, at noon,
I arrived at the place on the summit from which I had sent him back,
Scotch was not there to cheer the wintry, silent scene.

I slowly made my way down the slope, and at two in the afternoon,
twenty-four hours after I had sent Scotch back, I paused on a crag and
looked below. There in the snowy world of white he lay by the mitten
in the snow. He had misunderstood me, and had gone back to guard the
mitten instead of to get it. He could hardly contain himself for joy
when he saw me. He leaped into the air, barked, jumped, rolled over,
licked my hand, whined, grabbed the mitten, raced round and round me,
and did everything that an alert, affectionate, faithful dog could do
to show that he appreciated my appreciation of his supremely faithful
services.

After waiting for him to eat a luncheon, we started merrily towards
home, where we arrived at one o'clock in the morning. Had I not
returned, I suppose Scotch would have died beside the mitten. In a
region cold, cheerl