another of the girl whom he had hoped some day to make his wife.

When the glow fell, and the bald, laconic message was delivered one winter evening at the door, the mother bent her head low; and later, when she found speech and had dropped the corner of her apron, was heard to whisper to herself, “’Twas the Almighty’s will.” Then the tears welled up afresh, as she rocked herself in her chair, gazing at the fire.

The effect upon the father was different. “What...!” he cried, as though some one had struck him. A single candle flickered on the table; his lips were drawn tight across his teeth; his fingers clutched the table-lid convulsively, and he leant across in the direction of his wife.

“What...!” he exclaimed again.

“They’ve killed un,” repeated the wife, the candle-light reflected in her staring eyes. “Seth, Seth,” she continued, following her husband, who had taken up his hat, and was making for the door—“oh, Seth, Seth—’tis the Almighty’s will, man; I do know for sure it be;—Seth, Seth...!”

But Seth Moby had gone out into the night; and from that time forward he walked as one suffering some injustice. He had always been a man of uncertain temper, but this blow appeared to sour him. It is well to remember that once at least in his life he had loved deeply.

The Over-Lord brought Murphy to the door, and arranged matters with Martha Moby, just as he had often done with others in the same way. The day had been wet; the lane on to which the garden-gate opened was muddy; the dog had dirty feet. “You’ll take care of him, I know. He’s a good dog—a good dog,” he repeated, when he left.

It was after dark when Moby returned. “Wants for us to kep the dog, do ’e? There be a sight too many on ’em about; and for what he do want to kep such a lot o’ such curs, nobody can’t think. A-bringin’ a’ the dirt into our housen too. Err ... I’ll warm yer!” he added, making as though he would fling something at the dog.

Murphy looked puzzled, and crept into a corner.

“Don’t carry on like that, Seth; don’t do it, man. The dog’s a poor, nervous little thing with we, and don’t mean to do no hurt.”

But it was of no avail. Seth Moby looked upon Murphy as an interloper, and when he could do anything to frighten him he did, and by any brutal means in his power. Even the mill-hands remarked to one another that their mate, Moby, was a changed man. “’Twas like that wi’ some,” they said. “Trouble sowered ’em, like, and made ’em seem as though they ’ould throw the Almighty o’ one side. And once folk got on a downward grade, same as that, it wasn’t often as they was found on the mending hand—no, it wasn’t for sure.”

On one occasion, after the first week was over, Murphy escaped, and appeared at the mill with a foot or more of rope trailing from his collar, for latterly he had been kept tied up. Seth chanced at that moment to be leaving work, and brought the dog up short by the head, by putting his foot upon the rope end almost before the dog knew that he was there. He half hanged him taking him back, and flung him into the house with an oath that frightened his child, and made her run to the back kitchen that she might not hear what followed; while the dog crept on his stomach to the corner, his tail between his legs: he always moved in this way now, though it is said he never whimpered.

“Oh, Seth, if you goes on like this,” said Mrs. Moby reproachfully, “there’ll be murder, and then trouble to follow: the Master is not one to put up with cruelty to any dog. Bless the man—you’re gettin’ like a mad thing. Leave the dog alone, I tell yer.” Seth had taken off his boots, and flung them at the dog before going up to bed: Mrs. Moby had been engaged trying to disconcert his aim.

That night another foot was heard on the stairs; there was whispering in the kitchen; and for several succeeding weeks, and unknown to others, the dog slept happily with the child, though not without serious risks of trouble being thereby made for both.

At the end of that time the Over-Lord called. He had been away. He had heard on his return that all was not well with the dog, and had come to see for himself. Murphy had been lying curled up on a sack in his corner, but when he heard the well-known footstep he crawled out, hugging the wall nervously till he reached the door.

“Murphy, lad!” exclaimed the Over-Lord, looking intently at the dog—“Murphy, my little man; that you...!” The dog was fawning on him, saying as plain as speech, “Take me away with you; take me away.”

The Over-Lord put his hand down and patted him. He did not say another word, as Murphy followed him out, save “It’s not you, Mrs. Moby; it’s not you.” He had a great heart for dogs, and began to blame himself on his way home for what had evidently occurred. “If the man did not want the dog,” he muttered, “he had only got to say so; besides it was his rent to him: it was not done on the cheap—that never does in any line.”

When he reached his own house, he took the young dog in with him—a thing almost unprecedented, so far as the rest of the outside company were able to recall. They judged their former companion spoilt, or on the high road to being so.

“It was all that hare,” remarked the middle-aged.

“Yes,” agreed the moralists—“success is always pernicious to the young!”

Lookers-on generally misjudge, though they claim to see most of the game.

The next morning, by strange coincidence, a letter was delivered at the mill, destined to alter Murphy’s future altogether.

Daniel was one of those dogs that die famous, though belonging to a small circle; not famous in the sense in which the dogs of history are so, but because he possessed individuality and stamped himself upon the memories of all who ever met him. And these last were not few, for Dan had travelled widely and had gathered multitudes of friends. Then, again, he possessed those two almost indispensable adjuncts of popularity—delightful manners and a beautiful face. It was his invariable custom to get up when any one came into a room; and when he advanced to meet them, it might certainly have been said that, in his case, the tail literally wagged the dog, for his hind-quarters were moved from the middle of his back and went in rhythm with the tail. His looks were perfect. Being by Pagan I., he possessed not only eyes set in black and a coal-black snout, but also that further characteristic of dogs of his date, the blackest of black ears—a feature now entirely lost in the case of Irish terriers, and never, it is said, to be regained.

Apart from a liberal education and the miscellaneous knowledge he had picked up for himself, to say nothing of a wonderful series of clever tricks, the instinct known as the sense of direction was in his case developed to an altogether abnormal extent. Definite traces of this were noticeable when he was still a puppy; but it was at all times impossible for him to lose his way. As he grew older, this instinct became so marked, that it set others wondering whether or not there existed among dogs a sixth, and perhaps a seventh, sense, lying far beyond the grasp of human, limited intelligence.

Dogs, as we all know, are not the only animals, that possess this