an early rabbit into an impenetrable,
frost-incrusted brier patch. He rushed another covey, that flew away
like the wind. He sat down on his haunches and with ears erect watched
the distant, whirling specks scatter into the woods. He was helpless in
the daylight without man and gun. He remembered a white-tiled butcher
shop on upper Broadway, and licked his chops at the recollection.

At midday, a hungry tramp, he approached a farmhouse. A big shepherd dog
met him. When the fierce mix-up was over, and the shepherd had
retreated, Dan carried in his shoulder a long, deep cut. Impelled by the
gnawing in his stomach, he limped toward a log cabin. A troop of black
children ran screaming at sight of him, and a black man burst out of the
cabin door with a gun. As he turned and bounded away, a shot stung his
rump, and others hummed around him. He made for the woods, a pack of
yelping curs on his trail.

From this time he avoided the habitations and highways of man, keeping
to the woods and streams, turning reluctantly aside at the smell of a
human being. Now and then he picked up a stray chicken; twice he fought
inquisitive hounds; always his nose pointed like a compass toward the
place where the sun set. He no longer resembled the dog that had graced
the canine parade on Riverside Drive. He was gaunt, torn, caked with
mud. His proud tail followed the curve of his haunches; he carried his
head low to the ground; in his eyes gleamed hunger and outlawry. Freedom
had exacted its price.

Near the close of the third day there was borne on the slight wind the
smell of a man. Toward it he cautiously slunk, in his heart a desperate,
gnawing loneliness. A masterless dog is like a godless man: there is no
motivation sufficient for his struggles and achievements. If the dog had
been full of meat, if a mate had trotted beside him, still he would have
hungered for the countenance and voice of a master.

Suddenly he sank to the ground and looked keenly ahead. A young human
three feet high, bare and frowsy of head, stood alone in the woods. His
body was shaken by dry sobs, as if the tear supply had long since been
exhausted. Now and then he looked fearfully around at the darkening
shadows. Plainly, he was lost; plainly, he needed protection. Therefore
the big dog advanced with ingratiating tail.

The man-child shrieked, turned, and ran, his terrified red face turned
over his shoulder. He tripped, fell headlong, scrambled to his feet,
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