“No, let me send something this time; you have done it all,” said Adele. “I’ll go up to the house in a minute and get something. Would you mind if I took Cloudy to show to Aunt Betty and Miss Eloise? I won’t let anything happen to him and I’ll bring him right back.”
“Of course you may take him,” Jessie consented generously. And carrying the basket steadily, Adele sped away.
She was not gone very long and when she came back she brought a small paper bag of cakes and another of candies which were promptly despatched across the watery way to Jessie; but as Cloudy was asleep in the basket the little bags themselves were tied on the pole and were transported in that way.
“Aunt Betty said Cloudy was lovely,” said Adele, “and he behaved beautifully. I told her how generous you offered to be, and she sent her love to you.”
“What did Miss Eloise say?”
“She wasn’t there. Aunt Betty said she had gone somewhere, but she didn’t say where. I asked Aunt Betty if she thought papa would bring me a kitten from the city, and she said he was going to bring me a big dog in place of Dapple Gray. I’d love a big dog.”
“But where is Dapple Gray?” asked Jessie.
“He’s been sent away,” said Adele in a low voice. “Papa said as long as I couldn’t be trusted that I couldn’t have him to drive till I was old enough to have common sense, and so he has sent him to my cousin till my sense grows enough for me to have him again. Do you suppose common sense does grow?”
“I think it must,” returned Jessie thoughtfully, “for all grown people have it.”
“I don’t believe they do,” said Adele, “for I have heard papa say ever so many times that So-and-So had not a grain of common sense, and So-and-So would be a big man, too.”