Scent and sight presently were attracted by a feeble fluttering
under a low-limbed catalpa tree in whose branches a pair of
hysterical robins were screeching. Lad paused, his tulip ears at
attention, his plumed tail swaying. Then he pushed his long
muzzle through a clump of grass and emerged carrying a flapping
and piping morsel between his mighty jaws. The birds, on the limb
above, redoubled their frenzied chirping; and made little futile
dashes at the collie's head.
Unheeding, Lad walked back to the Mistress and laid gently at her
feet the baby robin he had found. His keen teeth had not so much
as ruffled its pinfeather plumage. Having done his share toward
settling the bird's dilemma, Laddie stood back and watched in
grave interest while the Mistress lifted the fluttering infant
and put it back in the nest whence it had fallen.
"That makes the fifth baby bird Laddie has brought to me in a
month," she commented, as she and the Master turned back toward
the house. "To say nothing of two field mice and a broken-winged
bat. He seems to think I'll know what to do for them.
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