There was a long and thought-crammed pause.  The woman plunged deep into the silences as her fat brain wrought over the suggestion.  Then—­

“Maybe you have got just a few grains of sense, after all, Ed,” grudgingly vouchsafed Mrs. Hazen.  “It isn’t a bad idea.  Only he’ll grieve a lot for her.”

“He’ll be hoping, though,” said her husband.  “He’ll be hoping all the while.  That always takes the razor-edge off of grieving.  Leave it to me.”

That was the happiest day Dick Hazen had ever known.  And it was the first actively happy day in all Lass’s five months of life.

Boy and dog spent hours in a ramble through the woods.  They began Lass’s education—­which was planned to include more intricate tricks than a performing elephant and a troupe of circus dogs could hope to learn in a lifetime.  They became sworn chums.  Dick talked to Lass as if she were human.  She amazed the enraptured boy by her cleverness and spirits.  His initiation to the dog-masters’ guild was joyous and complete.

It was a tired and ravenous pair of friends who scampered home at dinner-time that evening.  The pallor was gone from Dick’s face.  His cheeks were glowing, and his eyes shone.  He ate greedily.  His parents looked covertly at each other.  And the self-complacency lines around Hazen’s mouth blurred.

Boy and dog went to bed early, being blissfully sleepy and full of food—­also because another and longer woodland ramble was scheduled for the morrow.

Timidly Dick asked leave to have Lass sleep on the foot of his cot-bed.  After a second telegraphing of glances, his parents consented.  Half an hour later the playmates were sound asleep, the puppy snuggling deep in the hollow of her master’s arm, her furry head across his thin chest.

It was in this pose that Hazen found them when, late in the evening, he tiptoed into Dick’s cubby-hole room.  He gazed down at the slumberous pair for a space, while he fought and conquered an impulse toward fair play.  Then he stooped to pick up the dog.

Lass, waking at the slight creak of a floorboard, lifted her head.  At sight of the figure leaning above her adored master, the lip curled back from her white teeth.  Far down in her throat a growl was born.  Then she recognized the intruder as the man who had petted her and fed her that evening.  The growl died in her throat, giving place to a welcoming thump or two of her bushy tail.  Dick stirred uneasily.

Patting the puppy lightly on her upraised head, Hazen picked up Lass in his arms and tiptoed out of the room with her.  Mistaking this move for a form of caress, she tried to lick his face.  The man winced.

Downstairs and out into the street Hazen bore his trustful little burden, halting only to put on his hat, and for a whispered word with his wife.  For nearly a mile he carried the dog.  Lass greatly enjoyed the ride.  She was pleasantly tired, and it was nice to be carried thus, by some one who was so considerate as to save her the bother of walking.