CHAPTER XLI
HOW IT ALL ENDED.
Great was the joy at the farm-house over Jack’s return. Mrs. Chatford shed motherly tears on his neck; little Kate hugged him as high up as she could reach; while Mrs. Pipkin, and Mr. Pipkin and Mose, who had just come in to dinner, looked on with faces shining with delight and sympathy. Only Phin appeared not altogether enchanted with the turn affairs had taken; and the envious, hypocritical expression of his grinning face changed to genuine alarm as Mr. Chatford said, “Jack has come just to say good by, and to get his dog.”
“His dog?” cried Phin. “Our dog! He can’t have our dog!”
“It is his dog, and nobody else’s,” said the deacon, sadly. “And though I don’t want to part with either of ’em, especially since Jack has shown himself such a man, we can’t detain him; and of course he can take his dog, if he chooses. Sellick has made him an offer.”
“But you haven’t accepted it, have you, Jack?” said Mrs. Chatford.
“Not yet, but—”
“What does he go for?” demanded Phineas, disturbed at the prospect of losing Lion.
“Because you’ve lied about him, and he can’t live in the house with you!” said the deacon, with extraordinary sternness.
“I didn’t lie,” whimpered Phin. “I remember now I did say something to him like what he said.”