jokes…she was even beginning to miss his annoying sense of humor. It was almost more than a dog could stand.

Dusty was around to talk to, of course, but her irregular sleeping patterns made it difficult to pick a good time to stop by and chat. And when Luna did manage to luck out, Dusty was still prone to nod off at any time.

Even that would have been bearable if she had had some other way to get away from Haley and Phoebe. The Gossip Twins could talk their way into or out of anything, including talking her into hanging out with them. It didn’t matter how bored she was or how uninterested she was in discussing crushes or gossip or dog salons. If Dusty wasn’t awake and they were, there was no point in arguing. Whenever she tried to suggest actually doing something, her sisters would respond with unified horror and list the usual terrors of muddy fur, wet fur, and broken toenails. Luna fought away the dream of herself becoming like them, trying to distract herself from the nonstop talking by thinking of Toby. ‘I wonder what he’s doing right now?’ she wondered. ‘Whatever it is, it’s bound to be more fun than this.’

But Toby wasn’t having fun. His nose was stuffed up, an early sign of a cold setting in. He made an effort not to show it, but the musher could tell quite easily that he was sick and wouldn’t let him run again.

When they got to the next town late one evening about five days after they started, they were a full day behind schedule. Toby was grateful that Kodi didn’t blame him, and glad for the chance to sleep in warmer quarters. However, he found himself resigned to sleeping in a cage at the vet’s office so he wouldn’t get the other dogs sick. ‘First I fail, now I’m quarantined!’ he thought with frustration. ‘How can it get any worse?!’

He found out the next morning. When it was time to go, the musher approached him with a strange bundle of what smelled like wool. “Looks like you got lucky,” he said. “Some lady gave this to me and said that she made it for her own dog, but she wanted you to have it since you’re sick.” He unfolded the object.

Toby took a moment to realize what he was looking at, then stepped back in speechless horror. But there was nothing he could do.

The other sled dogs stared, then burst out laughing as Toby emerged from the office. It wasn’t very kind, but they certainly had reason to laugh. Toby was wearing a purple dog sweater with little red flowers embroidered all over it. Several of the town dogs stopped to see what the racket was, and in moments they were rolling on the ground in hysterics. Soon only three dogs weren’t laughing: Kodi, Norik, and Toby.

“That’s enough!” snapped Kodi, glaring at the dogs hitched up behind him. “All of you, stop it right now!”

“Oh, come on, Kodi!” laughed Kirby. “Just look at the kid!”

“I am,” the lead dog answered sternly. “But there’s nothing funny about it.”

“Lighten up, man!” chortled Ralph between laughs. “He looks so ridiculous.”

“Dis frob a guy who whides aboud brogen toenails!” snapped Toby, but his nasal speech only made them laugh harder.

Then a growl from the back of the sled team silenced the other dogs. They turned to see Norik with his hackles up, teeth bared, and eyes sparking. “I believe Kodi said quiet,” he snarled. The other dogs stared at him. Even Kodi was amazed. “Now look,” Norik went on. “That kid may not have much talent, but he’s got a heck of a lot more guts than some of you.  I’m guessing Kodi and myself are the only ones on this team besides that kid who would try to get out of a free ride, and I’m not even sure about myself. So any dog who makes fun of that kid is messing with me from now on. And for those who don’t know,” he added, pulling his lips back just a little bit farther, “I fight a lot better than I run.”

Stunned, Toby allowed himself to be placed on the sled and roped in place, with the new bag of mail right where he could use it as a pillow. “Thags,” he called forward to Norik. “I owe you one.”

Norik shrugged. “Eh,” he muttered, “You’ve got pluck, kid. Besides, I’ve been laughed at, back before I moved to Nome.”

“Whad did you do dere?” asked Toby as the musher gave the command and the sled pulled out.

Norik called back over his shoulder, “Simple. I proved that I had what it took.” After a pause he added, “And I learned not to bite off more than I could chew.”

‘I guess I haven’t been doing so well there,’ thought Toby.

The man who's a dreamer

And never takes leave

Who thinks of a world

That is just make believe...

“C’mon, boys,” the musher called. “We’re almost there.”

Suddenly Kodi stopped cold. The other dogs screeched to a halt, tumbling over one another in the process. But Kodi didn’t notice. He just stared around, his eyes wide and ears erect.

“What is it, Kodi?” asked the musher.

Toby felt a sense of foreboding come over him. Cautiously, he sniffed the air. Even stuffed up as it was, his nose caught the slightest hint of a scent and set off an alarm in his brain. ‘Oh, no…’

And a moment later it was upon them. With a deafening roar, a massive grizzly lumbered out of the woods and charged the team. “Mush!” the musher yelled. The dogs tried to get away, but they were too uncoordinated as the bear drew near. Kodi’s sudden halt had left several of them tangled up in one another. And by the time they untangled themselves, it would be too late.

Toby didn’t even think. He just jumped from the sled, almost seeming to fly as he ran at the bear. His sickness was momentarily forgotten; all that mattered was making sure the others would survive. The bear saw him coming and turned to meet his challenge. It swung a paw about the size of his own head, but he ducked the blow and then jumped aside, narrowly avoiding the next strike. As soon as he was close enough, he darted between the bear’s legs and turned, jumping up to latch onto the back of its neck. ‘You can’t get me back here,’ he thought as the bear tried to reach him.

The dogs gaped in amazement until Norik yelled, “Come on, guys! Get unstuck!”

Unfortunately, the bear wasn’t too happy about having a rider. It shook, whipping Toby back and forth like a rag doll. Only by impossibly good luck did he manage to avoid being gouged when it tried to paw him free, just barely swinging out of the way of each clumsy maneuver. In the meantime he was getting some heavy bruises as he crashed again and again on the bear's’ sides and back.

Meanwhile the musher had managed to pull out a gun and was trying to figure out what to do. With the way the bear was moving he couldn’t risk a shot to the head for fear of hitting Toby. “Blast it,” he hissed, wishing he could. As the bear reared up in an attempt to throw Toby off, the musher saw his chance and fired, shooting the bear in the hip. The bear lurched.

Unfortunately there was an unexpected side effect of the hit. The bear had been taking another swipe at Toby as the bullet struck, and its reflexive lurch jerked the dog right into the path of the attack. Toby went flying toward the sled, aware of a searing pain in his right side. He landed with a thud and heard a crack as his left hind leg struck a rock. ‘This is it,’ he thought.

But it wasn’t over. The bullet must have hit a nerve or something, because it had crippled the bear, at least for a short time. The musher tried to fire again, but the gun jammed. Throwing down the weapon, he ran forward and put Toby on the sled, then jumped onto the back and cried to the team, “Mush! MUSH!” The dogs, now untangled, readily obeyed, and the bear let out one last furious roar as its prey escaped.

Toby desperately clung to consciousness as the sled jerked and bounced along the path, shaking his fractured leg. Every jolt brought pain so intense he almost passed out. It felt like forever before the sled pulled to a stop. “Come on, Toby,” said the musher, jumping off and coming to take a look at the damage. Toby’s leg was at an unnatural angle, and the bear’s claws had ripped through the sweater and torn into his skin, leaving five wicked gashes that ran about ten inches each down his side. “Don’t you go dying, boy. Not after you saved our lives.”

The team looked on in concern as the musher stripped off the dog sweater, applied salve to the wounds, and bandaged Toby’s side. Kodi snatched two branches and trotted back, trailing the team behind him. He dropped the branches at the musher’s feet. “Good boy,” said the musher, patting Kodi on the head. “Just right for splints.” He took some of the bandages and wrapped the leg between the two sticks. Toby whimpered as the bones shifted back into position. “Good dog, Toby,” said the musher, patting him on the head. His voice sounded weak. “You may not be a sled dog, but you’re a real hero.”

Toby’s mind struggled to focus through the pain and make sense of his situation. All he had wanted was to be a hero like Balto, but now here he was dying in the wilderness. ‘Why?’ he wondered.

Then the song of the wolf returned to him:

'To measure the meaning

Can make you delay

It’s time you stop thinking

And wasting the day...'

Toby tried to make sense of it, but he was too tired to concentrate.

Kodi whispered in his ear,