So Patty said to the conductor: “Please put us off just as soon as you can, for we have to take this dog back to Vernondale.”
But with the characteristic perversity of conductors, he said, “No stop, Miss, until Elizabeth. You can get off there—all of you.”
This was nearly half way to New York City, but there was no other way out of it, so, as Patty cheerfully remarked to Grandma, they might as well make up their minds to get off at Elizabeth and take Brownie back to Vernondale.
“Of course,” Patty went on, “I shall be late to school, and I’ll lose a mark, and that’ll throw Clementine ahead of me in the count, for we have been just even up to now; but I can’t help it; Marian’s dog must be taken home, and that’s all there is about that.”
Although Grandma Elliott regretted the necessity of Patty’s losing a mark, for she well knew how the child was striving for the grand prize, yet she appreciated and admired the philosophy which made the best of inevitable circumstances, and she agreed with Patty that there was nothing else to do.
So at Elizabeth they got off of the train, and with some difficulty persuaded Brownie to get off, too.
At this station it was necessary to cross under the elevated tracks to take the train in the opposite direction. Brownie, being ignorant of the imperative necessities of travel, objected to this, and it was only after some coaxing that Patty persuaded him to accompany them.
Meantime there was consternation at the Vernondale end of the route. After the seven-thirty train had left the station, Frank and Marian suddenly realised that since they could see Brownie nowhere around he must have gone on the train with Patty.
“What will they do?” queried Marian; “they can’t take him to New York, and I know they won’t abandon him, so of course they’ll turn around and bring him back on the next train.”
“Of course they will,” assented Frank; “but, let me see, the next train back doesn’t leave Elizabeth until eight-ten; now, if I take the seven-forty I can head them off, and they won’t have to come back.”