"I wouldn't have been the one to take that dog's life for anything in the world!" he exclaimed.

"I'd pretty near as soon have killed a man.

It never entered my head that any tame animal would come leaping out of the woods that way at this time of night.

He loomed up nearly as big as a lion when the moon shone out on him.

The next minute it was all dark again, and I heard his big soft feet come pattering through the leaves, straight on toward me.