As he crossed the log over the mill-stream, the spotted
fox-hound puppy waddled after him, and several startled rabbits peered
out from a clump of sassafras by the "worm" fence. Over the fence went
Abel, and under it, on his fat little belly, went Moses, the puppy. In
the meadow the life-everlasting shed a fragrant pollen in the sunshine,
and a few crippled grasshoppers deluded themselves into the belief that
the summer still lingered. Once the puppy tripped over a love-vine,
and getting his front paws painfully entangled yelped sharply for
assistance. Picking him up, Abel carried him in his arms to the pine
wood, where he place him on a bed of needles in a hollow.
Through the slender boles of the trees, the sunlight fell in bars on
the carpet of pine-cones. The scent of the living forest was in his
nostrils, and when he threw back his head, it seemed to him that the
blue sky was resting upon the tree-tops. Taking off his coat, he felt
the edge of his blade, while he leaned against the great pine he had
marked out for sacrifice. In the midst of the wood he saw the walls of
his house rising--saw the sun on the threshold--the smoke mount from
the chimney.
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