When the man had opened the gate, he stopped and looked at Bobby and then at the Supe'tendent on the porch. He came directly towards Bobby as he kept backing away, caught him up in his arms and tossed him into the lap of the lady who sat on the front seat!
"You'd like a whole week in the country, too, wouldn't you?" said the man.
"Yes'm."
Bobby was so surprised that that was all he could think of to say.
"I'm afraid he will be too much trouble for you," called the Supe'tendent. "He's so young."
Bobby steeled his heart and started to climb down from the lady's lap, but his lower lip twitched in spite of his effort to keep it steady.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the man, as he led the horses out into the road, shut the gate, jumped into the seat by the woman and drove off in a cloud of dust. He didn't seem to be at all afraid of the much-to-be-feared Supe'tendent!
Bobby was so glad to be riding away from the Home that he thought he almost liked the Supe'tendent this once, and looked back and waved good-bye to her. She stood there stiff and angry and did not reply.
Thus it came about that Bobby North had his first trip away from the Home that he could remember. The week at Mr. and Mrs. Robert Eller's in the country was a glorious time—days to be remembered by all the red letters on the playing blocks that were sometimes given him on a Sunday to keep him quiet.
Besides the calves and little pigs, the clover field and the daisies in the yard, there was the two-months' old puppy that Mr. Eller's little boy told him was a St. Bernard. It soon became the chief delight of this puppy to chase Bobby about the yard and trip him and then, when he fell headlong, to lick his hands and face affectionately with a moist, red tongue. The man never once objected to his playing with the awkward and much-to-be-desired puppy all day long.