Mr. and Mrs. Follet were much interested in his story, so much so that they forgot the waiting breakfast. Then they turned to it, but Steve had remembered that he dropped his fox skin as he ran to Nancy’s rescue and he wanted to go at once for it, but Mrs. Follet would not let him go till he had eaten breakfast. The neatly laid table with its snowy cloth was a new wonder to Steve, and when the little girl, looking fresh and sweet as a rose, sat down opposite him, he was so awed and thrilled he could scarcely 64 eat. Angels could hardly have given him a more heavenly vision than did this little girl.
Breakfast over, Steve started at once for the fox skin, and Mrs. Follet sent Nancy with him to help find it. The little girl lost some of her shyness as they looked for the skin, and Steve listened to her chatter, feeling in a strange way that it was all a dream which he had had before, as we do sometimes in experiences which move us strongly.
They found the skin with little trouble, and when they had carried it back to the house, Mr. Follet took it up and carefully examined it.
“So you’re trying to get this here skin to the man in the city who sent the watch to you?”
“Yes,” said Steve.
“And you ain’t got hair or hide o’ the watch now?” continued Mr. Follet.
“No, I hain’t,” said the boy sorrowfully.
“Well, I’ll be sniggered,” said Mr. Follet. “And how under the canopee do you expect to find him in the city when you git thar?”
The boy’s uncomprehending stare showed that he had no conception of a city, and Mr. Follet looked at his wife, laughed and went over to the station, which was station and store combined.
For a few days Steve continued to live in a dream. The house was a marvel to him. Mrs. 65 Follet cooked on a stove and constantly fixed strange, nice things to eat; a clock ticked on the mantel, which comforted him somewhat for the loss of his watch,––there were queer but to him surprisingly beautiful and comfortable pieces of furniture, and one room had a nice piece of good stout cloth with red and green flowers on it spread over the floor on which people walked!