Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-17

master indifference grew swiftly to an unreaso
anger against him; and as he fretted over it
tinually, malicious fate seemed to delight in
ting him, or leading him to put himself, ever il
wrong. Absorbed in longing for his master
hardly thought of the child at all. Several tt
in laundering effort to make things right
Sonny and the Kid, Joe seated himself on the
doorstep, took the little one on his knee, and C
Sonny to come and make friends. At the sou1
the loved summons Sonny shot out from the Ike
which had become his constant refuge, tore W
across the yard, and strove, in a sort of ecstas
show his forgiveness and his joy by climbing
Joes lap. Being large dog, and the lap air
filled, this meant roughly crowding out the XII
whose very existence, at this moment, Sonny
unaware But to the obtuse man Sonnys a
seemed nothing more than mean and je
effort to supplant the Kid.
To the Kid this proceeding of Sonny's was a
game. He would grapple with the dog, hug
pound him gleefully with his little fists, and
him every pet name he knew.
But the man would rise to his feet angrily,
cry, IF that's all ye're good fer, gitl Git out,
ye!" And Sonny, heartsore and bewldered, "
shrink back hopelessly to his kennel. When
or something much like it, had happened Sc
times, even Ann, for all her finer perceptions,
to feel that Sonny might be bit nicer to the
and as a consequence, to stint her kindness.
to Sonny, sunk in his misery and pining on1
that love which his master had so inexplicably
was negectful or not.
Uneventfully day followed day on the K
backwoods farm. To Sonny, the discarded
discredited, they were all hopeless days,
dark and interminable. But to the Kid
they were days of wonder, every one.
He loved the queer black and white pigs,
which he studied intently through the
cracks in the boarding of their pen. He
loved the calf, and the three velvet eyed
COWS, and the two big red oxen insepara-
al, 10 Tbe
inexhaustible interest to him; and so were
the airy throngs of buttercups ahoat on
the grass, and the yet more aerial troops
of the butterflies Pickering above them
white and brown and red and black and
gold and yellow and maroon. But in the
last choice he loved best of all the silent,
unresponsve Sonny, of whose indifference
he seemed quite unaware. Sonny, lying
on the grass, would look at him soberly,
submit to his endearments without one
answering wag of the tail, and at last,
after the utmost patience that courtesy
could require would slowly get up, yawn,
and stroll off to his kennel or to some
pretended business behind the barn. His
big heart harbored no resentment against
the child whom he knew to be child
and irresponsible. His resentment was all
against fate or life, or whatever it was
the vague, implacable force which was
causing Joe Barnes to hurt him. For Joe
Barnes he had only sorrow and hungry
devotion.
Little by little. however, Sonny's lonely
and sorrowful heart, in spite of itself was
beginning to warm toward the unconscious
child. Though still outwardly Indifferent
he began to feel gratihed rather than bored
when the Kid came up and gaily disturbed
his slumbers by pounding him on the head
with his little palm and tumblng over
his sturdy back. 1t was mild gratfica-
ton, however, and seemed to call for no
demonStrat1Ve expression.
Tpa,, ha oh TO no 11p
heavy hearted, some ten a dozen PAGES in fro
the kitchen door, while Joe Barnes sat on the doo
smoking his after dinner pipe, and Ann bu
through the dish washing At such times, in
old happy days, Sonny's place had always bee
been forgotten by Joe Barnes, who had the Xii
side him. Suddenly, tired of sitting still, the
one jumped up and ran over to Sonny Sonny
lutely pretended to be asleep. Laughingly the
sprawled over him, pulled his ears gently. then
l. L. A -