"Oh, no, I couldn't," she was plainly excited now. "Don't you dare come over to Looney Land. The reason I liked you was on account of you fetching Uncle Pete up from the pier. He told me, and I was—thankful."
She hung her head and her cropped hair stood out like a brush around her face. Kitty was a pathetic sight, even when excited.
"Was he your uncle? Is he all right?" asked Louise.
"Nope. He isn't all right. Can't hardly stir ever since. He said he would have died if you girls hadn't helped him, and I want to thank you for that. I'd just die without Uncle Pete."
"Well, good-by," said Julia, as they started off this time positively. "Tell Uncle Pete we will come over to see him soon."
At this the child ran over to Louise and literally grabbed her, seizing her two hands, and holding them as tightly as her own could grasp them.
"Oh, please, please don't come!" she begged, and her eyes had the look of a frightened animal. "You don't know what it would mean to me. And I ask you not to. Won't you promise?"
The girls looked at the changed creature in undisguised astonishment.
"We don't want to bring trouble on you, Kitty, if that is what you mean," said Julia. "But we have promised ourselves a trip to that queer island. Of course, if it would hurt you for us to go——"
"Oh, it would, that's it. It would hurt me more than you could guess. So tell me you won't come over!"