BE!"

He tightened his hold on the collar as he gave the command. Chum
ceased to quiver in eagerness and stood still, half puzzled, half
grieved by the man's unwonted tone.

The sheep, at sight and smell of the dog, rushed jostlingly from
their pen and scattered in every direction, through barnyard and
garden and nearer fields. Bleating and stampeding, they ran. Link
Ferris blinked after them, and broke into speech. Loudly and
luridly he swore.

This stampede might well mean an hour's running to and fro before
the scattered flock could be herded once more. An hour of panting
and blasphemous pursuit, at the very outset of an overbusy day.
And all because of one worthless dog.

His father had been right. Link saw that--now that it was too
late. A dog had no place on a farm. A poor man could not afford
the silly luxury of a useless pet. With whistle and call Ferris
sought to check the flight of the flock. But, as every farmer
knows, there is nothing else on earth quite so unreasonable and
idiotic as a scared sheep. The familiar summons did not slacken
nor swerve the stampede.

The fact that this man had been their protector and friend made
no difference to the idiotic sheep. They were frightened. And,
therefore, the tenuously thin connecting line between them and
their human master had snapped. For the moment they were merely
wild animals, and he was a member of a hostile race--almost as