“I thought he’d keep you talking here all night. And you sat there drinking it all in as if you liked it.”
“I did,” said Jean, flatly. “I loved it. I haven’t been here at all. I’ve been way out on the Kansas prairie.”
“Stuff,” said Piper calmly. “Say, got any good dogs up at your place?”
“No, why?” Jean looked at him with sudden curiosity.
“Nothing, only you remember when you were moving from the Cove, Doris sold me her Boston bull pup Jiggers?”
“Oh, I know all about it.” As if she could ever forget how they had all felt when Doris parted with her dearest treasure and brought the ten dollars in to add to the family fund.
“We’ve got some dandy puppies. I was wondering whether you’d take one home to Doris from me if I brought it in.”
“I’d love to,” said Jean, her face aglow. It was just like a boy to think of that, and how Doris would love it, one of Jiggers’ own family. “I think we’ll call it Piper, if you don’t mind.”
Piper didn’t mind in the least. In fact, he felt it would be a sign of remembrance, he said. And he would bring in the puppy as soon as Jean was ready to go home.
“But you needn’t hurry her,” Bab warned, coming to sit with them. “She’s only been down a week, and I’m hoping if I can just stretch it along rather unconsciously, she’ll stay right through the term, the way she should.”