"Thicky stone, wi’ grass on his head, was called ’Pilgarlic.’ His hair is green in summer and it turns yellow, like ’tis now, when winter comes. And yonder rock--its real name is the ’Cuckoo stone,’ because cuckoo always sits there to cry when he comes to Dennycoombe; that flat rock was ’Lame Annie’--a poor friend of mine as couldn’t walk." David laughed. "Fancy thinking such things all out of your own head!" he exclaimed. "Ah! here’s the earth! Yes, that’s a fox." Presently he prepared to go homeward and she offered to walk a little of the way by a sheep-track under Eylesbarrow. He agreed and thanked her; but when the turning point was reached, David declared that it was now too dark for Margaret to see her way home at all. And so it became necessary for him to turn again and walk beside her until Coombeshead windows blinked through the night. Then he left her, and ventured to squeeze her hand rather tightly as he did so. He went home somewhat slowly and suffered as many sensations of affection, admiration and uneasiness as his nature would admit. He was deep in love and felt that possession of Margaret Stanbury represented the highest good his life could offer. *CHAPTER V* *THE VIRGIN AND THE DOGS* Rhoda Bowden loved the dogs, and her part in the little commonwealth of Ditsworthy lay with them. Ten were kept, and money was made from Elias Bowden’s famous breed of spaniels. To see Rhoda, solemn and stately, with puppies squealing and tumbling before her, or hanging on to her skirts, was a familiar sight at the warren. "It takes all sorts to make a world," said Mrs. Bowden, "and I must allow my Rhoda never neighboured kindly with the babbies--worse than useless with ’em; but let it be a litter, and she’s all alive and clever as need be." Indeed, the girl had extraordinary skill in canine affairs. She loved and understood the dogs; and they loved her. By a sort of instinct she learned their needs and aversions, and the brutes paid her with a blind worship that woke as soon as their eyes opened on the world. Yelping and screaming, the puppies paddled about after her; the old dogs walked by her side or galloped before. Sometimes she went to the warren with them and watched them working. After David they were nearer to her heart than most of her own species. She seemed to fathom their particular natures and read their individual characters with a closeness more intense and a judgment more accurate than she possessed for mankind.