around the door for you! Would she allow you to sleep
across the foot of the bed? Ho, ho, ho! Would she have
you tracking on her floor? It would be the barn, and
growling you didn't do at that. If I'd serve you right, I'd
give you a dose and allow you to see how you like it. But
it's cutting off my nose to spite my face, as the old adage
goes, for whatever she did to a dog, she'd probably do
worse to a man. I think not!''

He entered the front room and stood before a long shelf
on which were arranged an array of partially completed
candlesticks carved from wood. There were black and
white walnut, red, white, and golden oak, cherry and
curly maple, all in original designs. Some of them were
oddities, others were failures, but most of them were
unusually successful. He selected one of black walnut,
carved until the outline of his pattern was barely
distinguishable. He was imitating the trunk of a tree with
the bark on, the spreading, fern-covered roots widening
for the base, from which a vine sprang. Near the top was
the crude outline of a big night moth climbing toward
the light. He stood turning this stick with loving hands
and holding it from him for inspection.

``I am going to master you!'' he exulted. ``Your
lines are right. The design balances and it's graceful. If
I have any trouble it will be with the moth, and I think
I can manage. I've got to decide whether to use cecropia
or polyphemus before long. Really, on a walnut, and in
the woods, it should be a luna, according to the eternal