“Oh! He will; He always does,” answered little Miss Weezy for the family. “Good-by, Miss Hobbs.”
After that Harry and Essie came in with sticky hands and faces to make their farewell speeches; and then their Aunt Ruth waddled homeward between them like a plump mother-duck between two plump ducklings.
They were met at the corner by a handsome, dark-eyed Spanish boy. It was Manuel Carillo, coming to take away Kirke’s burro and cart to keep during vacation.
“You’ll be good to Hoppity, this summer, won’t you, Manuel?” said Kirke playfully, as he helped him harness the sleek gray burro into the trig gray cart. “You won’t be mad with him because he threw you and broke your leg.”
“Mad? Oh, no! that’s all right.”
Manuel grinned, and slapped the limb in question to show how strong it was.
“Hoppity ought to help you carry around your newspapers to pay for that bad trick of his. Now, oughtn’t you, Hoppity?” said Kirke, giving the little beast a parting love-pat.
Kirke was glad to lend Manuel the burro. It seemed one way of making amends for the sad accident of the year before that had been caused partly by his own recklessness.
When Kirke returned to the house the family were sitting down to an early luncheon. Molly made room for him beside herself, saying cheerily,—
“Manuel drove by the window just now, smiling all over his face. How much he does think of you, Kirke!”