him. He sprang forward to it, seized it in his mouth, and came trotting
back to the farmer's wife, and laid it down at her feet; and then,
standing back a few steps, he looked up into her face, with a very
earnest expression of countenance, which seemed to say,--

"What do you want me to do next?"

This very act of Franco's embarrassed the woman considerably. She could
not bear to take up the very stick, which Franco had himself brought to
her, and throw it at him again; and, on the other hand, she could not
bear to give up, and let Franco remain. She, however, picked up the
stick, and brandished it again towards Franco, and, stamping with her
foot at him, she said,--

"Away with you, dog; get home!"

What the result of this contest would have been, it is very difficult to
say, had it not been that it was soon decided by the occurrence of a
singular incident; for, as the farmer's wife nodded her head, and
stamped at the dog, the jar or the motion seemed to give the wind a
momentary advantage over her bonnet, which, in her haste, she had not
tied on very securely. A strong gust carried it clear from her head, and
blew it away over Franco, upon the snow by the side of the road beyond.
Franco, who was all ready for a spring, bounded after it, and pursued it
at full speed. The snow was nearly level with the top of the stone
walls, and the wind carrying it diagonally from the road, it rolled over
the little ridge of stones which remained above the drifts, and then
swept across the field, down a long descent, like a feather before the
gale.