She obeyed him gaily. When he started off, she turned to wave her mittened hand to Miss Amanda, who still stood on the porch. But the door of the carpenter shop, where a lamp burned, was shut tightly.
“That woman will get her death of cold,” grumbled Uncle Joe, starting off at a round pace. “Don’t know enough to go in out o’ the cold.”
But Amanda Parlow did not notice the cold. She was thinking of a time, oh, so long ago! when Joe Stagg had seated her on his bright red sled and given her a ride. How her heart had beat when he had turned to gaze at her! And now—Slowly her eyes filled with tears, and again:
“Oh, Joe! Joe! How could you?”
CHAPTER XVI—A SALT-SEA FLAVOUR
Swiftly Joseph Stagg trudged towards home, dragging Carolyn May behind him.
“Oh, dear me!” exclaimed the little girl with exultation, “we’re all so excited, Uncle Joe!”
“I can see you’re all of a-twitter,” he returned absent-mindedly. “What’s the matter?”
“Oh, you never could guess!” was Carolyn May’s introduction, and forthwith, in breathless sentences, went on to tell of her discovery in the snow and about the old sailor now lying asleep on the Parlow couch.
“I vum!” ejaculated Uncle Joe, when he had listened to it all. “Who ever heard the beat of that! And Jed Parlow really helped take him in, did he? The day of miracles isn’t past, then, that’s sure.”