Each man
patted him, and praised him and said they ought to have mistrusted all
the time that it could be nobody but he. It was some minutes before
Isaac Brown could trust himself to do anything but pat the sleek old
head that was always ready to his hand.
"He must have overheard us talkin'; I guess he'd have come if he'd
dropped dead half-way," proclaimed John Henry, like a prince of the
reigning house; and Rover wagged his tail as if in honest assent, as he
lay at his master's side. They sat together, while the fire was
brightened again to make a good light for the coon-hunt supper; and
Rover had a good half of everything that found its way into his master's
hand. It was toward midnight when the triumphal procession set forth
toward home, with the two lanterns, across the fields.
V
The next morning was bright and warm after the hard frost of the night
before. Old Rover was asleep on the doorstep in the sun, and his master
stood in the yard, and saw neighbor Price come along the road in her
best array, with a gay holiday air.
"Well, now," she said eagerly, "you wa'n't out very late last night, was
you? I got up myself to let Tiger in. He come home, all beat out, about
a quarter past nine. I expect you hadn't no kind o' trouble gittin' the
coon. The boys was tellin' me he weighed 'most thirty pounds."
"Oh, no kind o' trouble," said Isaac, keeping the great secret
gallantly. "You got the things I sent over this mornin'?"
"Bless your heart, yes! I'd a sight rather have all that good pork an'
potatoes than any o' your wild meat," said Mrs.
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