"Please, miss," said the shaggy man, "can you tell me the roadto Butterfield?"

Dorothy looked him over. Yes, he was shaggy, all right, but there wasa twinkle in his eye that seemed pleasant.

"Oh yes," she replied; "I can tell you. But it isn't this road at all."

"No?"

"You cross the ten-acre lot, follow the lane to the highway, go northto the five branches, and take--let me see--"

"To be sure, miss; see as far as Butterfield, if you like," said theshaggy man.

"You take the branch next the willow stump, I b'lieve; or else thebranch by the gopher holes; or else--"

"Won't any of 'em do, miss?"

"'Course not, Shaggy Man. You must take the right road to getto Butterfield."

"And is that the one by the gopher stump, or--"

"Dear me!" cried Dorothy. "I shall have to show you the way, you'reso stupid. Wait a minute till I run in the house and get my sunbonnet."

The shaggy man waited. He had an oat-straw in his mouth, which hechewed slowly as if it tasted good; but it didn't. There was anapple-tree beside the house, and some apples had fallen to the ground.The shaggy man thought they would taste better than the oat-straw, sohe walked over to get some. A little black dog with bright brown eyesdashed out of the farm-house and ran madly toward the shaggy man, whohad already picked up three apples and put them in one of the bigwide pockets of his shaggy coat. The little dog barked and made adive for the shaggy man's leg; but he grabbed the dog by the neck andput it in his big pocket along with the apples. He took more apples,afterward, for many were on the ground; and each one that he tossedinto his pocket hit the little dog somewhere upon the head or back,and made him growl. The little dog's name was Toto, and he was sorryhe had been put in the shaggy man's pocket.

Pretty soon Dorothy came out of the house with her sunbonnet, and shecalled out:

"Come on, Shaggy Man, if you want me to show you the road toButterfield." She climbed the fence into the ten-acre lot and hefollowed her, walking slowly and stumbling over the little hillocks inthe pasture as if he was thinking of something else and did not noticethem.

"My, but you're clumsy!" said the little girl. "Are your feet tired?"

"No, miss; it's my whiskers; they tire very easily in this warmweather," said he. "I wish it would snow, don't you?"

"'Course not, Shaggy Man," replied Dorothy, giving him a severe look."If it snowed in August it would spoil the corn and the oats and thewheat; and then Uncle Henry wouldn't have any crops; and that wouldmake him poor; and--"

"Never mind," said the shaggy man. "It won't snow, I guess. Is thisthe lane?"

"Yes," replied Dorothy, climbing another fence; "I'll go as far asthe highway with you."

"Thankee, miss; you're very kind for your size, I'm sure,"said he gratefully.

"It isn't everyone who knows the road to Butterfield," Dorothyremarked as she tripped along the lane; "but I've driven there many atime with Uncle Henry, and so I b'lieve I could find it blindfolded."

"Don't do that, miss," said the shaggy man earnestly; "you might makea mistake."

"I won't," she answered, laughing. "Here's the highway. Now it's thesecond--no, the third turn to the left--or else it's the fourth.Let's see. The first one is by the elm tree, and the second is by thegopher holes; and then--"

"Then what?" he inquired, putting his hands in his coat pockets.Toto grabbed a finger and bit it; the shaggy man took his hand out ofthat pocket quickly, and said "Oh!"

Dorothy did not notice. She was shading her eyes from the sun withher arm, looking anxiously down the road.

"Come on," she commanded. "It's only a little way farther, so I mayas well show you."

After a while, they came to the place where five roads branched indifferent directions; Dorothy pointed to one, and said:

"That's it, Shaggy Man."

"I'm much obliged, miss," he said, and started along another road.

"Not that one!" she cried; "you're going wrong."

He stopped.

"I thought you said that other was the road to Butterfield," said he,running his fingers through his shaggy whiskers in a puzzled way.

"So it is."

"But I don't want to go to Butterfield, miss."

"You don't?"

"Of course not. I wanted you to show me the road, so I shouldn't gothere by mistake."

"Oh! Where DO you want to go, then?"

"I'm not particular, miss."

This answer astonished the little girl; and it made her provoked, too,to think she had taken all this trouble for nothing.

"There are a good many roads here," observed the shaggy man, turningslowly around, like a human windmill. "Seems to me a person could go'most anywhere, from this place."

Dorothy turned around too, and gazed in surprise. There WERE agood many roads; more than she had ever seen before. She tried tocount them, knowing there ought to be five, but when she had countedseventeen she grew bewildered and stopped, for the roads were as manyas the spokes of a wheel and ran in every direction from the placewhere they stood; so if she kept on counting she was likely to countsome of the roads twice.

"Dear me!" she exclaimed. "There used to be only five roads, highwayand all. And now--why, where's the highway, Shaggy Man?"

"Can't say, miss," he responded, sitting down upon the ground as iftired with standing. "Wasn't it here a minute ago?"

"I thought so," she answered, greatly perplexed. "And I saw thegopher holes, too, and the dead stump; but they're not here now.These roads are all strange--and what a lot of them there are!Where do you suppose they all go to?"

"Roads," observed the shaggy man, "don't go anywhere. They stay inone place, so folks can walk on them."

He put his hand in his side-pocket and drew out an apple--quick,before Toto could bite him again. The little dog got his head outthis time and said "Bow-wow!" so loudly that it made Dorothy jump.

"O, Toto!" she cried; "where did you come from?"

"I brought him along," said the shaggy man.

"What for?" she asked.

"To guard these apples in my pocket, miss, so no one would steal them."

With one hand the shaggy man held the apple, which he began eating,while with the other hand he pulled Toto out of his pocket and droppedhim to the ground. Of course Toto made for Dorothy at once, barkingjoyfully at his release from the dark pocket. When the child hadpatted his head lovingly, he sat down before her, his red tonguehanging out one side of his mouth, and looked up into her face withhis bright brown eyes, as if asking her what they should do next.

Dorothy didn't know. She looked around her anxiously for somefamiliar landmark; but everything was strange. Between the branchesof the many roads were green meadows and a few shrubs and trees, butshe couldn't see anywhere the farm-house from which she had just come,or anything she had ever seen before--except the shaggy man and Toto.Besides this, she had turned around and around so many times trying tofind out where she was, that now she couldn't even tell whichdirection the farm-house ought to be in; and this began to worry herand make her feel anxious.

"I'm 'fraid, Shaggy Man," she said, with a sigh, "that we're lost!"

"That's nothing to be afraid of," he replied, throwing away the coreof his apple and beginning to eat another one. "Each of these roadsmust lead somewhere, or it wouldn't be here. So what does it matter?"

"I want to go home again," she said.

"Well, why don't you?" said he.

"I don't know which road to take."

"That is too bad," he said, shaking his shaggy head gravely. "I wishI could help you; but I can't. I'm a stranger in these parts."

"Seems as if I were, too," she said, sitting down beside him. "It'sfunny. A few minutes ago I was home, and I just came to show you theway to Butterfield--"

"So I shouldn't make a mistake and go there--"

"And now I'm lost myself and don't know how to get home!"

"Have an apple," suggested the shaggy man, handing her one with prettyred cheeks.

"I'm not hungry," said Dorothy, pushing it away.

"But you may be, to-morrow; then you'll be sorry you didn't eat theapple," said he.

"If I am, I'll eat the apple then," promised Dorothy.

"Perhaps there won't be any apple then," he returned, beginning to eatthe red-cheeked one himself. "Dogs sometimes can find their way homebetter than people," he went on; "perhaps your dog can lead you backto the farm."

"Will you, Toto?" asked Dorothy.

Toto wagged his tail vigorously.

"All right," said the girl; "let's go home."

Toto looked around a minute and dashed up one of the roads.

"Good-bye, Shaggy Man," called Dorothy, and ran after Toto. Thelittle dog pranced briskly along for some distance; when he turnedaround and looked at his mistress questioningly.

"Oh, don't 'spect ME to tell you anything; I don't know the way," shesaid. "You'll have to find it yourself."

But Toto couldn't. He wagged his tail, and sneezed, and shook hisears, and trotted back where they had left the shaggy man. From herehe started along another road; then came back and tried another; buteach time he found the way strange and decided it would not take themto the farm-house. Finally, when Dorothy had begun to tire withchasing after him, Toto sat down panting beside the shaggy man andgave up.

Dorothy sat down, too, very thoughtful. The little girl hadencountered some queer adventures since she came to live at the farm;but this was the queerest of them all. To get lost in fifteen minutes,so near to her home and in the unromantic State of Kansas, was anexperience that fairly bewildered her.

"Will your folks worry?" asked the shaggy man, his eyes twinkling ina pleasant way.

"I s'pose so," answered Dorothy with a sigh. "Uncle Henry saysthere's ALWAYS something happening to me; but I've always comehome safe at the last. So perhaps he'll take comfort and think I'llcome home safe this time."

"I'm sure you will," said the shaggy man, smilingly nodding at her."Good little girls never come to any harm, you know. For my part, I'mgood, too; so nothing ever hurts me."

Dorothy looked at him curiously. His clothes were shaggy, his bootswere shaggy and full of holes, and his hair and whiskers were shaggy.But his smile was sweet and his eyes were kind.

"Why didn't you want to go to Butterfield?" she asked.

"Because a man lives there who owes me fifteen cents, and if I went toButterfield and he saw me he'd want to pay me the money. I don't wantmoney, my dear."

"Why not?" she inquired.

"Money," declared the shaggy man, "makes people proud and haughty. Idon't want to be proud and haughty. All I want is to have people loveme; and as long as I own the Love Magnet, everyone I meet is sure tolove me dearly."

"The Love Magnet! Why, what's that?"

"I'll show you, if you won't tell any one," he answered, in a low,mysterious voice.

"There isn't any one to tell, 'cept Toto," said the girl.

The shaggy man searched in one pocket, carefully; and in anotherpocket; and in a third. At last he drew out a small parcel wrapped incrumpled paper and tied with a cotton string. He unwound the string,opened the parcel, and took out a bit of metal shaped like ahorseshoe. It was dull and brown, and not very pretty.

"This, my dear," said he, impressively, "is the wonderful Love Magnet.It was given me by an Eskimo in the Sandwich Islands--where there areno sandwiches at all--and as long as I carry it every living thing Imeet will love me dearly."

"Why didn't the Eskimo keep it?" she asked, looking at the Magnetwith interest.

"He got tired of being loved and longed for some one to hate him.So he gave me the Magnet and the very next day a grizzly bear ate him."

"Wasn't he sorry then?" she inquired.

"He didn't say," replied the shaggy man, wrapping and tying the LoveMagnet with great care and putting it away in another pocket. "Butthe bear didn't seem sorry a bit," he added.

"Did you know the bear?" asked Dorothy.

"Yes; we used to play ball together in the Caviar Islands. The bearloved me because I had the Love Magnet. I couldn't blame him foreating the Eskimo, because it was his nature to do so."

"Once," said Dorothy, "I knew a Hungry Tiger who longed to eat fatbabies, because it was his nature to; but he never ate any because hehad a Conscience."

"This bear," replied the shaggy man, with a sigh, "had no Conscience,you see."

The shaggy man sat silent for several minutes, apparently consideringthe cases of the bear and the tiger, while Toto watched him with anair of great interest. The little dog was doubtless thinking of hisride in the shaggy man's pocket and planning to keep out of reach inthe future.

At last the shaggy man turned and inquired, "What's your name,little girl?"

"My name's Dorothy," said she, jumping up again, "but what are wegoing to do? We can't stay here forever, you know."

"Let's take the seventh road," he suggested. "Seven is a lucky numberfor little girls named Dorothy."

"The seventh from where?"

"From where you begin to count."

So she counted seven roads, and the seventh looked just like all theothers; but the shaggy man got up from the ground where he had beensitting and started down this road as if sure it was the best way togo; and Dorothy and Toto followed him.