The examiner., 1888-03-03

the family where the girls and Mrs.
Parsons had had some difficulty in in
!ducing him not to show his gratitude
in too demonstratiye manner. When
they descended from the wagon and
went on board the steamer he was SO
fearful of being left that he kept in
front of them and under their feet until
several members of the family came
near falling over him; but when Erastus
had said goodbye" to them all and
turning to go called to him to follow,
he went willingly, evidently satisfied
that after all he was mistaken and this
was only a holiday excursion.
And now he sat upon the seat with
Erastus in perfect contentment and
with slight air of importance, as if he
felt a Consciousness of having proven
anew his devotion to those he served,
and had received a recognition of his
value.
Ordinarily the presence of the dog
might have prevented any feeling of
LONELINESS in the man had he been dis
posed to it; but to-day, although he did
feel that the dog was company in a
sense, yet his very presence, being unu-
;sual. served to remind him that the
house to which they were returning
was desolate, and somehow things took
on an unreal look, and when he turned
into the barnyard and saw the chickens
and turkeys scratching in the straw or
wallowing in the dust, he was not quite
certain whether they were chickens and
turkeys or just the ghosts of those that
were wont to scratch and strut there
before all other signs of life had ceased
and such an unnatural and oppressive
ho1 fo1 n bio
place.
After taking the gears from the horses
and feeding them he started to the
house to get his dinner. The thought
of cooking his own meal was not quite
$50 pleasant now as he had thought it
might be, and he was half inclined to
go without it or take cold snack and
wait until night before cooking any
thing. Then his appetite began to re-
turn, and he concluded to at least fry a
couple of eggs and make a cup of cot
fee.
He entered the house by the back
way, and stood for a moment looking
about him. The fire was out in the
kitchen stove; the chairs stood, stiff
backed and unsociable, against the
wall; the room had lost its air of cheer.
fulness, and his football had a lonely
kind of a sound as he stepped on the
bare kitchen floor.
He threw open the door which opened
onto the kitchen porch and letin flood
of sunshine. The old dog had pre-
eeded him to the house and taken his
accustomed place upon the porch and
was resting. When Erastus opened the
door, the dog opened one eye sleepily
and half raised his head as if to inquire
If he was wanted for anything, and then
stretched himself to sleep again. Every
thing seemed asleep or dead, and he
cooked and ate his dinner with a feel
ing as il he was cut o from all human
society by thousand miles of desert.
When he had eaten his own meal he
called Bose in and set down a plate
with scraps on it for him to eat.
Then, not knowing exactly what to do
with the remainder of the food which
he had cooked, he set that down for the
dog also, and took his hat and went out
to work.
Several times that afternoon he won
dered to himself that he had never be-
fore noticed how still it was out there
in the orchard, and whether it was al
ways so perfectly quiet on the farm any
how; and if the gee sc swimming about
Cuc llGDIc DOAl IlldStC 1OI Iutnk DJ
means of II low dam across the creek,
always moved around without making
any more stir in the water; or if their
occasional .shonk' when one rose up
in the water and tapped his wings was
always pitched on that particular lone
some key.
AS night approached he returned to
the house and fed the teams and the
pigs and the poultry and then went in
and got his own supper. At dinner he
had said to himself that he would wash
all the dishes after supper, when he
should have nothing else to do. but
after eating his supper he found that he
had no hot water, aud decided to defer
the job until morning; SO he let Bose
lick the grease off OF them and stacked
them up in the sink and went to bed an
hour earlier than was his custom, with
out spending any time porting over his
favorite authors, with nobody to dis
turb him, y as he had fancied himself
doing when the idea of leaving him in
sole charge of the house for a week had
first been preached.
The next morning he arose, built a
fire and put on water to heat and then
went out to feed the animals. The old
dog welcomed him with WAC of the
tail, and even followed him to the gate,
but went no further. He had not yet
recovered from his yesterdays unusual
exercise, and when Erastus returned
from the barn hef0und him in his &C
customed place on the porch with his
head between his paws, from which he
did not raise it, although he thumped
on the floor of the porch with his tail as
an intimation that he was resting well,
but was ready for breakfast whenever
it was convenient to his master.
On entering the kitchen, Erastus
found the fire burned out; but he re-
built it and cooked and ate breakfast,
after which he washed the dirty dishes,
and got out TO work about the middle
of the forenoon. He ate a cod lunch
for dinner to save TINE, and for supper,
friend, the son of neiohbor, was
present, and they piled the dirty dishes
in sink, where Mrs. Parsons found
them, with other. on her return from
the trip to San Francisco.