'Yes, I can,' returned Jack. 'I cut all my uncle's wood at Longview with one.'
'Well, I'd be glad enough for a few logs,' she said, 'for the boys are so busy this morning, they've quite forgot it's baking day, and I want plenty o' wood.'
'I'll cut it,' cried Jack, delighted to be of use, and hastened off to the wood pile. Here he found the bucksaw, and cut off a number of short lengths of wood. He was proceeding to split them with an axe, when he found himself being surveyed by a little boy and girl who were standing in front of him hand-in-hand. The boy was about six, and the girl a year younger, and they gazed at Jack with admiring eyes.
'Are you Jack?' asked the boy shyly.
'Yes, I am,' answered Jack, smiling at him.
'Well, I'm Teddy Stuart,' answered the new arrival, evidently anxious to converse, 'and this is Rita. She's my sister. Have you a sister?'
'No, I haven't,' returned Jack, 'but I've got a mother, though,' he added, not to be outdone.
'I know that,' said Teddy approvingly, 'and you've come hundreds of miles to find her. I'd go a million to see my mother if she went away.'
'No, you wouldn't, Teddy,' broke in Rita, speaking for the first time, 'cos you're too little. You're ever so much littler than Jack. Jack,' she went on, with a funny grave look in her face, 'my daddy says you're a little hero, so I want to shake hands wiv you.'
She held out a small hand, and shook Jack's brown paw very solemnly, as if it was an important ceremony. Teddy, not to be behindhand, shook hands also.