“That’s a great scheme,” said Marian; “go ahead! and I will wait here until you come back.”
So Frank took the next train, but as it chanced to be behind time, he reached Elizabeth just as the returning train was pulling out of the station, with Patty on board.
Expecting some such complication, Patty stood on the platform, and waved her hand to Frank, whom she saw on the incoming train.
“Brownie’s all right,” she cried, “but we’ll have to go back, now we’re started.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Frank called back, realising that his journey had been for nought.
So Patty and Grandma and the dog whizzed into the Vernondale station and alighted to find Marian tearful and almost in hysterics.
“I’m so glad to see you,” she said, “and I’m so glad to see Brownie, and Frank has gone to Elizabeth, and Patty, won’t you be late to school, and did you ever know such a performance?”
Brownie flew around like mad, and wagged his tail as if he quite understood that he was the hero of the occasion, and then Patty and Grandma took the next train to New York City, and Marian was careful that Brownie should not accompany them this time.
And so that’s how it happened that Patty was late to school for the first time, and that one mark put Clementine ahead of her in the monthly report.
But, as Patty told her father, she couldn’t help the dog jumping on the train, and Mr. Fairfield agreed that that was quite true.