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below. I thought he had misunderstood me, so I 

 called him back, patted him, and then, pointing 

 down the slope, said, " Go for the mitten, Scotch ; 

 I will wait here for you." He started for it, but 

 went unwillingly. He had always served me so 

 cheerfully that I could not understand, and it 

 was not until late the next afternoon that I real- 

 ized that he had not understood me, but that he 

 had loyally, and at the risk of his life, tried to 

 obey me. 



The summit of the Continental Divide, where 

 I stood when I sent him back, was a very rough 

 and lonely region. On every hand were broken 

 snowy peaks and rugged canons. My cabin, 

 eighteen miles away, was the nearest house to it, 

 and the region was utterly wild. I waited a rea- 

 sonable time for Scotch to return, but he did not 

 come back. Thinking he might have gone by 

 without my seeing him, I walked some distance 

 along the summit, first in one direction and then 

 in the other, but, seeing neither him nor his tracks, 

 I knew that he had not yet come back. As it was 

 late in the afternoon, and growing colder, I de- 

 cided to go slowly on toward my cabin. I started 



145 



