“Then the people went away, all but one young lady, and in the gutter he saw a little terrier lying; its front leg was broken, and though it was partly stunned, its eyes were full of pain and terror. Before he could reach the dog the lady had gone to it, tied her handkerchief around the hurt paw, and lifting it up very gently, and in spite of its being bloody and dirty, carried it away. When she had gone a little distance down a side street she stopped and hesitated. Then father overtook her and asked if he might help with the dog. She said that she had just remembered that she did not live in the city, and that as they would not let her carry the dog on the street cars, she was wondering how she could get it home.
“Father said that he would gladly carry it to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ Hospital, and so, without even thinking they had never been introduced, they walked along together, and the poor little dog stopped moaning and licked father’s hand. When they got to the hospital the people said that they would chloroform the dog dead, or if it was a pet they could cure it, for they thought it must be a pet, otherwise two nicely dressed people would not be likely to get themselves all smeared up to bring it to the hospital. Of course it wasn’t a pet, only a yellow brown, wire-haired terrier with back legs that didn’t exactly match the front. The lady was going to say ‘chloroform him,’ when he struggled up on three legs and licked her nose, so she changed the words to ‘cure him if you can, and I will pay,’ and she told her name and address.
“Then father found that she was the sister of one of his college chums, and so you see by and by they were married. She turned out to be mother, and we had that terrier for ever so long, though he always had one bent paw and limped. Father christened him Accident, and we called him Axy for short. And when he grew old and died, we began the dog cemetery beyond the orchard with him, and after that father bought Waddles for me.”
Anne told the story almost as if she was reading it from a book, for it was very real to her, and both she and Tommy were never tired of hearing their father repeat it.
She had barely ended when the door flew open and in bounced Quick, Tip, and Hamlet, followed by Miss Jule. With a rush and whirl the dogs pounced upon Miss Letty, and began to dig her out from among the pillows as if she had been a rabbit in its burrow, while Anne vainly tried to call them off and rescue the snowy bedspread.
Miss Jule looked from one to the other with a question in her eyes as she saw her niece’s flushed face, but she received her answer when she read the letter that Letty handed her. She put it back in its envelope, saying dryly: “I claim you until the six months are up, after that we shall see. Meanwhile Mr. Hugh has asked you all to go to-morrow and picnic on the new land he has bought that lies between the river and Pine Ridge.
“His cousins, the Willoughby girls, are staying with him; but as their mother is an invalid, I am to keep you out of mischief and see that you do not get lost. I will take the brake with the luncheon, and you can either drive all the way or take your wheels and alternately drive with me or ride them.” So Anne went home to prepare for the next day and appease Tommy, who would be broken-hearted to hear that his White Lady was going to a picnic without him, while Miss Letty seated herself at the desk by her window to answer her letter, and this is the English of what she wrote:—
“Dear Aunt Marie: My Aunt Julie makes it a point that I remain with her the six months for which I came. But believe me, I am very well amused, even though I have no companions but Diane and the little Tommy, for this place is much more unusual than even Paris. The dogs are not wild, as you think, but most polite, with delightful manners. Two have now come to call upon Hamlet, and as I write are conversing with him below the window. He is well, but his costume is so altered that you would hardly know him. I also no longer wear a veil, it not being the custom here, neither is it to have an uncle choose one’s husband in advance of one’s wish to marry. I decidedly prefer all American customs in such matters. It is glorious summer now. Do not let us speak of winter, dear aunt, until the frost has browned the leaves at least.
“Your affec. niece
“Lettice.”
As she sealed the envelope she heard a horse galloping down the road, but why she smiled as she looked out the window, or felt somehow deceitful about the letter she had written, she could not have told. Perhaps it was because Hamlet was standing on his head and doing some of his old tricks, all the while looking very wise, and as if he knew that he was surprising Tip, who always tried to imitate him.