“I’m proud to know ye, Car’lyn,” he said. He stepped quickly out of the way of Prince when the latter started for the front of the store. “Just whisper to your cayenne friend that I’m one of the family, will you?”
“Oh, Prince wouldn’t bite,” laughed the little girl gaily.
“Then he’s got a lot of perfectly useless teeth, hasn’t he?” suggested Chetwood.
“Oh, no——” commenced the little girl.
“Come on, now,” said Mr. Stagg with some impatience, and led the way to the door.
Prince paced sedately along by Carolyn May’s side. Once out of the shop in the sunlit street, the little girl breathed a sigh of relief. Mr. Stagg, peering down at her sharply, asked:
“What’s the matter?”
“I—I—Your shop is awful dark, Uncle Joe,” she confessed. “I can’t seem to look up in there.”
“‘Look up’?” repeated the hardware dealer, puzzled.
“Yes, sir. My papa says never to get in any place where you can’t look up and see something brighter and better ahead,” said Carolyn May softly. “He says that’s what makes life worth living.”