“Good-bye!” she called, and they all shouted “Good-bye!” in return and waved their hands to their pretty friend.
Slowly the magnificent bow lifted and melted into the sky, until the eyes of the earnest watchers saw only fleecy clouds flitting across the blue.
“I’m dreadful sorry to see Polychrome go,” said Betsy, who felt like crying; “but I s’pose she’ll be a good deal happier with her sisters in the sky palaces.”
“To be sure,” returned Shaggy, nodding gravely. “It’s her home, you know, and those poor wanderers who, like ourselves, have no home, can realize what that means to her.”
“Once,” said Betsy, “I, too, had a home. Now, I’ve only—only—dear old Hank!”
She twined her arms around her shaggy friend who was not human, and he said: “Hee-haw!” in a tone that showed he understood her mood. And the shaggy friend who was human stroked the child’s head tenderly and said: “You’re wrong about that, Betsy dear. I will never desert you.”
“Nor I!” exclaimed Shaggy’s brother, in earnest tones.