The labored letter was therefore finished and sent away. As Dot said, “it lifted a great load from their minds.”
But there was another matter that served to trouble all four of the Corner House girls for some days. That was what Mr. Reynolds, the lumberman, was going to do about Tom Jonah.
The girls seldom left their tent now without taking the dog with them. He was something of a nuisance in the boat when they went crabbing; but Agnes would not hear of going out without him.
“I know that man will come back here some time and try to get him away,” she declared. “But Tom Jonah will never go of his own free will—no, indeed!”
“And he won’t sell him again, he said,” sighed Ruth. “I don’t just see what we can do.”
However, this trouble did not keep the Corner House girls from having many good times with their girl friends at the Spoondrift bungalow, and their boy friends on the beach.
There were fishing trips, and picnics on Wild Goose Island. They sometimes went outside the cove in bigger boats, and fished on the “banks,” miles and miles off shore. There was fun in the evenings, too, at the hotel dances, although the Corner House girls did not attend any of those held at the Overlook House, for they were not exactly friendly with Trix Severn.
One day Pearl Harrod’s Uncle Phil arranged to take a big party of the older girls to Shawmit, which was some miles up the river. Ruth and Agnes went along and that day they left Tom Jonah at Willowbend to take care of the smaller girls.
Ruth determined to see Mr. Reynolds, so when they reached Shawmit, she hunted up the lumberman’s office. She found him in a more amiable mood than he had been on the morning he drove to Pleasant Cove to get Tom Jonah.
“Well, Miss!” he said. “How do you feel about giving up that dog?”