.

Hero-Stuff.
Life was monstrous pleasant, for Lad, at the Place.

And never, except in early puppyhood, was he lonely.

Never until the Master was so foolish as to decide in his own shallow human mind that the big collie would be happier with another collie for comrade and mate.
After that, loneliness more than once crept into Laddie's serene life; and into the dark sorrowful eyes behind which lurked a soul.

For, until one has known and relied on the companionship of one's kind, there can be no loneliness.
The Master made another blunder--this one on his own account and on the Mistress's,--when he bought a second collie, to share Lad's realm of forest and lawn and lake.