She neared us, and seeing Dy-lee and the dogwolves, cried out with horror. "Ahmusk! Fly, or they will slay you!" "Come here, little fearful one," I said, "and I will open your mind to a thousand new things!" * * * * * She stood there, regarding me, and the fear went out of her eyes, to be replaced by a vast relief. "Then this creature will not harm you?" "Nor you either. This is my friend Dy-lee," I told her, and taking her hand, put it into his. He shook it, and she smiled uncertainly. "Ahmusk--the dogwolves?" I patted the biggest on the head. Oh, but that was my hour! "I have made them gentle as fawns," I said, stretching the facts somewhat. Then she knew that all was well, and she leaped into my arms and kissed me until I thought she would never be done; and yet truly I was sorry when she stopped. "What has happened, Bear-throat? Where have you been for two days, and who is this, and how does it come that the dogwolves do not bite, and why are you all blood-smeared, and--" "Lora, Lora," I said, "I have a thousand things to tell you, but we can never begin on them if you must chatter endlessly--" "And Halfspoor, did you find his track, and where will he spend the night, and--" "Lora!" I shouted, enfolding her in a fierce embrace. "Listen to me, and I shall tell you! Great Halfspoor ranges the Fearful Forest, where I will meet him again one day. This is Dy-lee--" "And _what_ is Dy-lee?" she asked, her voice rather muffled against my chest. I gave up. "I will tell you one thing," I said, "and then I will let you babble until you run out of queries. I am like a man who has feared lightning all his life, and has now been struck; and I not only survive, but have found it a pleasant experience--" "Where were you hit by lightning? Where did you get all the thorn scratches?" she asked. Dy-lee put his hand on my shoulder and said, pointing to Lora, "Zheena! Zheena!" By which I think he meant to say that females are all alike, and so, patting my girl on her shining head, I grinned across at him and replied, "How right you are, Dy-lee, how very right you are!" "What did he say?" asked Lora. "He said that there is nothing in all the fine green world like a woman." "Well!" said she, "you've learnt a little wisdom in your traveling, I must say!" "A little," said I, "a little." And so we journeyed homeward to the glen and our people, we three good new companions, and the dogwolves went before us and gamboled with pleasure in the soft grass of the fields. * * * * *