The setter first came to Jack Barlow's door soon after he moved into the little village. Barlow wondered if the dog would be any good on grouse. ''Who owns the big set-ter?" he asked Gibney, the hotel manager. 2 "Nobody," Gibney said, "and nobody ever will. But if I were you, I'd leave it alone." His answer puzzled Barlow. 3 A few days later the dog was back. Barlow took it for a walk in the woods. It quartered back and forth like an expert. ° The next day the grouse season opened. As Barlow ate his breakfast, he made several trips to the door to see if the dog had come. There was no sign of it. At last Barlow got into his jeep and drove off alone. He hunted all day and didn't see one grouse. 5 But the next morning the setter was sitting on his porch. It followed him to the jeep and they drove off together. 6 In the woods the setter led Barlow across a stream. Then suddenly the dog disap-peared. Barlow stopped to listen for it. A cloud covered the sun. A cold wind sprang up. Thunder rolled. Then all at once the sun came out again and the wind fell. Barlow looked about him. The trees were huge, towering. He seemed to be in an area where the trees had never been cut down. But how could that be? All the timber in that region had been thoroughly cut more than fifty years ago. In hit shock Barlow forgot about the dog. When he looked for it again, the setter was pointing. Barlow moved in. A grouse flew up. Another followed. Barlow shot it. Then twelve more birds flew up. Barlow couldn't believe his eyes. No one had seen fourteen grouse together in that area for years. A queer feeling of unreality took hold of him. The rest of the morning was the same. The setter found grouse everywhere. I. About noon Barlow heard the beating of many wings above him. He looked up to see a great flock of birds passing between him and the sun. Barlow suddenly recognized them as passenger pigeons. He had read about the flocks of passenger pigeons that
had once been so common in North Ameri-ca. But they'd been gone from the earth for years. ' Fear seized Barlow. He was alone in a strange world. Somehow he must have gone back in time — perhaps even to the days before white men settled in North America. He started to run madly, fighting his way through fallen timber. When he stopped at last to catch his breath, he saw the second-growth timber round him once again. There were no more of the great ancient trees and no more pigeons. He sobbed with relief. 2 By evening Barlow was calmer. He cleaned the six grouse he had shot that morning. Then he walked to the hotel to find Gibney. "I guess you did it," Gibney said. 3 "Yes," said Barlow. "Maybe now you can tell me what it was all about." ° "It's quite a story," Gibney said. "You see, that dog once belonged to it grouse hunter named Michaels. One day the dog displeased Michaels in some way. So he killed the beast. Later Michaels himself died. Then the dog began to be seen again. It would wait for grouse hunters. It would show them how good it was. And then it would take them back many years in time for the best hunt of their lives. But after that it would never have anything to do with them again." 5 "Never," Barlow asked. He was thinking of the big flocks of grouse, the great trees. He wanted to go back to that place. ' 6 "No," said Gibney, "you can coax it all you want. But that dog — or whatever it is —will never come near you again."
2 The elders gathered about the rabbi and said,' "What will we do now? You can see how ignorant this man is. In spite of your command, he walks out." 3 "We shall wait half an hour," the rabbi said, "and then we shall see." But in minutes Kalman was back. In his hands he held the scales he used in his shop. Lifting them above his head, he marched straight to the front. s Still holding the scales high, Kalman began to speak: "Lord, as you know, I am ignorant. But all my fife I have been honest, and these scales are the sign of my honesty. I have never robbed a customer in my shop by giving him short weight. NO, Lord, hear me. If my scales have been true, send rain right now so that we all may live." 9 The grocer finished his strange prayer. There was dead silence. Suddenly a wind rattled the windows. The skies grew dark. Then h., drops of rain began to fall. The town was saved! Afterward the rabbi kept wondering at the miracle. Why was it Kalman who had saved the community? True, he had kept honest scales. But there must have been others just as honest. Then one by one the merchants of the town began to come to the rabbi. Each confessed that at times his scales had not been true. The merchants told him they hadn't meant to do wrong. It was just that they hadn't known how important it was to test their s.les and make sure they were always honest. " Now the rabbi knew why God had chosen Kalman to pray for rain. He ordered that Kalman's scales be placed in the syna-gogue, so that every its in town would remember how important honesty is.