"Oh, daddy, don't talk that way," Jess protested. "You make we shiver."
"Shiver, eh? Guess ye'd shiver in earnest if ye had one of them critters at ye. Ye'd think there was a two-foot icicle slippin' down ye'r spine. Look at that!" and Abner held out his damaged finger.
"What, did the rats do that?"
"Sure. Git me a rag, will ye, and tie it up? Then I must be off."
"Where are you going, daddy?"
"To look fer ye'r mother, of course."
"But where?"
"Guess I'll go to town first. I want to take them rats along. Mebbe the Dimocks know somethin' about Tildy. They'll know, anyway, what's happened to that chafer an' the car."
After the finger had been carefully bandaged, Abner went to the barn, harnessed Jerry, hitched him to the wagon, and drove up to the back door. Jess watched her father with considerable curiosity as he placed the box in the bottom of the wagon.
"What in the world are you going to do with those rats?" she enquired.