He knew this was home.

Yet the green grass was gone, and a million trees had changed into blackened stubs.
The world was no longer shut in by deep forests.

And Cragg's Ridge was naked where he and Nada had romped in sunshine and flowers, and out of it all rose the mucky death-smell of the flame-swept earth.

These things he understood, in his dog way.

But what he could not understand clearly was why Nada was not in the cabin, and why they did not find her, even though the world was changed.
He sat back on his haunches, and Jolly Roger heard again the whimpering grief in his throat.