Page:Silversheene (1924).djvu/263

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light and look very foolish. At such times he usually went to Dick to be comforted, for he had also seen these things in the stern old days in Alaska, and understood.

But by degrees these bad dreams of the past, and the intuitions of his heritage of wolf ancestry, faded away, until they were almost forgotten.

Thus it was that Silversheene grew old, with the hard, relentless things in his life growing dim and distant and the bright and beautiful things each year becoming brighter and more real. He grew old with his beloved family about him. By the open fire or out on the ranch he was always one of them. There was no chair too good for him, and no seat too comfortable. They all loved him as dog was never loved before and he repayed them in kind. They were his royalty, his Kings and Queens for whom he would gladly have laid down his life. All but Richard, and Dick was his god.

Often he would steal away from the rest of the family to be alone with Dick. They