“One was enough, wasn’t it?” smiled the boy. “You wouldn’t have known what to do with two baskets.”
The old man snorted doubtfully and did not pursue the subject farther. A little later, Dale discovered, to his surprise, that it was after four. He had no idea the time had flown so. He would have to hustle to get back to town before dark. Fortunately, the kitchen was cleared up, so after stoking the fire he got into his sweater and coat. Then he picked up the wide-brimmed felt hat and carefully rearranged the depressions in its crown.
“Good-by, Mr. Grimstone,” he said, glancing over to where the latter had resumed his place by the stove. “I hope your arm won’t be long coming around.”
The old man frowned at him from under the bushy brows. His head was a little bent, and the long, bony fingers curved over the chair-arm. It was precisely the attitude with which he had greeted the boy’s arrival; yet the latter was conscious of a subtle, intangible difference, felt rather than perceived.
“Good-by,” he answered curtly. That was all until Dale reached the door and was turning the knob. Then, “Much obleeged,” came jerkily from the thin, straight lips.
“You needn’t be,” smiled the scout. “I–I’ve had a very good time.”
It was not exactly the polite fiction that perhaps it seemed. That was the odd part of it. As he went briskly down the lane the boy realized with surprise that not once had he thought regretfully of the rare turkey-dinner at home, or the fun with the fellows he had missed that afternoon. One of the dogs, still licking his chops from the dish of scraps that Dale had given them in the shed, trotted after him, and the boy bent to pat his head without a touch of nervousness.
“Your bark’s a lot worse than your bite, old fellow,” he said aloud.
He straightened up and glanced back at the rambling, weather-beaten house, whose roof lines seemed to merge into the cold gray of the sky, and something deeper than pity stirred him at the thought of the old man sitting alone there in the twilight.
“I shouldn’t wonder if he was a good deal like his dogs,” he murmured as he turned away. “I’m sort of glad–I found it out.”