The lilting song continued to its end and the dog and horse stood as
though hypnotized by the melody and the fingers' magnetic touch. Then
the song ended as abruptly as it had begun and Peggy slid lightly from
her perch to the ground, raised both arms, stretching hands and fingers
and inclining her head in a pose which would have thrilled a teacher of
"Esthetic Posing" in some fashionable, faddish school, though it was all
unstudied upon the girl's part. Then she cried in a wonderfully
modulated voice:

"Oh, the joy, joy, joy of just being ALIVE on such a day as this! Of
being out in this wonderful world and free, free, free to go and come
and do as we want to, Shashai, Tzaritza! To feel the wind, to breathe it
in, to smell all the new growing things, to see that water out yonder
and the blue overhead. What is it, Dr. Llewellyn says: 'To thank the
Lord for a life so sweet.' WE all do, don't we? _I_ can put it into
words, or sing it, but you two? Yes, you can make God understand just as
well. Let's all thank Him together--you as He has taught you, and I as
He has taught me. Now:"

It was a strange picture. The girl standing there in the beautiful early
spring world, her only companions a thoroughbred, half-wild Kentucky
colt and a Russian wolfhound, literally worth their weight in gold,
absolutely faultless in their beauty, and each with their wonderfully
intelligent eyes fixed upon her. At the word "Now," the colt raised his
perfect head, drew in a deep breath and then exhaled it in a long,
trumpet-like whinny. The dog voiced her wonderful bell-like bay; the
note of joy sounded by her kind when victory is assured.

The girl raised her head, and parting her lips gave voice to a long-