soft that it
ain't any wonder I kept right on sleepin'."

"Have you been here all night?" the little woman asked in surprise,
advancing a pace now that Snip had decided there was no longer any
necessity for him to continue the shrill outcries.

"I didn't have any place to sleep; there wasn't a light to be seen in
your house. Well, to tell the truth, I was afraid I'd be driven away,
same's I had been at the other places, so sneaked in----"

"Aunt Hannah! Aunt Hannah!"

It was a sweet, clear, childish voice which thus interrupted the
conversation, and the little woman said nervously, as she glanced
suspiciously at Snip:

"I wish you would hold your dog, little boy. That is Gladys, an' she's
so reckless that I'm in fear of her life every minute she is near
strange animals."

Seth did not have time to comply with this request before a
pink-cheeked little miss of about his own age came dancing into the
barn like a June wind, which burdens itself with the petals of the
early roses.

"Oh, Aunt Hannah! Why, where in the world did that little boy--What a
perfectly lovely dog! Oh, you dear!"

This last exclamation was called forth by Master Snip himself, who
bounded forward with every show of joy, and stood erect on his hind
feet with both forepaws raised as if asking to be taken in her arms.

"Don't, Gladys! You mustn't touch that animal, for nobody knows
whether he may not be ferocious."

The warning came too late. Gladys already had Snip in her arms, and as
the little fellow struggled to lick her cheek in token of his desire
to be on friendly terms, she said laughingly:

"You poor, foolish Aunt Hannah! To think that a mite of a dog like
this one could ever be ferocious! Isn't he a perfect beauty? I never
saw such a dear!"

The little woman hovered helplessly around much like a sparrow whose
fledglings are in danger. She feared lest the dog should do the child
a mischief, and yet dared not come so near as to rescue her from the
imaginary danger.

There was just a tinge of jealousy in Seth's heart as he gazed at
Snip's demonstrations of affection for this stranger. It seemed as if
he had suddenly lost his only friend, and, at that moment, it was the
greatest misfortune that could befall him.

Gladys was so occupied with the dog as to be unconscious of Aunt
Hannah's anxiety. She admired Snip's silky hair; declared that he
needed a bath, and insisted on knowing how "such a treasure" had come
into Seth's possess