He could say no more, and sank back in his chair, shaking like a leaf, while Jeff said to him, “Yes, it’s Jeff, come back, and sorry to find Mrs. Taylor dead, and you so helpless. Shall I take you home?” “Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I’m all of a tremble, and so glad you’ve come, and so would Dotty be, if she knew,” Uncle Zach replied; “and this is your critter?” motioning towards Nero, who, with sundry sharp woofs, was signifying his approval of affairs. “Yes, this is Nero. He belonged to Mark, and I could not leave him in the mountains alone. He is a friendly, faithful fellow, and will guard you, or your property, with his life,” Jeff said, caressing the dog, in whose eyes there was a human look as if he understood what was being said. As a rule Mr. Taylor did not care much for dogs. Dotty had disliked them, and would never have one on the premises. They tracked her clean piazza and floor and trampled down her flower beds, she said. But Dotty was gone. Nero had belonged to Mark, and when he put his nose on Zacheus’s knee and looked up in his face, the old man’s heart was won and Nero adopted with Jeff. “Doggie, doggie, Mark’s doggie, you are welcome,” he said, patting Nero whose bushy tail was in full swing and who, with the sagacity of his race, had seen that Uncle Zach needed care and had constituted himself his body guard. Meanwhile Craig and Alice, and Helen and Roy and Fanny had been watching the scene at a distance. They were yet to be met and it was hard meeting them all. Jeff had seen Helen at Clark’s when he took Fanny and Roy there after Inez’s funeral. She had been rather reserved towards him then and said very little, but now her manner changed, and she was the first to go forward and meet him as he came near to them. Inez was dead and he could never claim any connection with Fanny. He would stay with Uncle Zach as his proper place, and she was very cordial in her greeting. Alice and Craig came next, the former doing most of the talking and both seeming so pleased to see him that he felt his spirits rising and had not been as happy in years as he was when at last he stood again in the house where he had spent his boyhood.