“We’d have been up a stump for knowing the direction, if it hadn’t been for that bell.”
“Me, too,” muttered Chet Gormley. “That’s what kep’ me goin’, folks—the chapel bell. It just seemed to be callin’ me home.”
Joseph Stagg carried his niece up to Mrs. Gormley’s little house, while Rightchild helped Chet along to the same destination. The seamstress met them at the door, wildly excited.
“And what do you think?” she cried. “They took Mandy Parlow home in Tim’s hack. She was just done up, they tell me, pullin’ that chapel bell. Did you ever hear of such a silly critter—just because she couldn’t find the sexton!”
“Hum! you and I both seem to be mistaken about what constitutes silliness, Mrs. Gormley,” grumbled the hardware dealer. “I was for calling your Chet silly, till I learned what he’d done. And you’d better not call Miss Mandy silly. The sound of the chapel bell gave us all our bearings. Both of ’em, Chet and Miss Mandy, did their best.”
Carolyn May was taken home in Tim’s hack, too. To her surprise, Tim was ordered to stop at the Parlow house and go in to ask how Miss Amanda was.
By this time the story of her pulling of the chapel-bell rope was all over Sunrise Cove, and the hack driver was, naturally, as curious as anybody. So he willingly went into the Parlow cottage, bringing back word that she was resting comfortably, Dr. Nugent having just left her.
“An’ she’s one brave gal,” declared Tim. “Pitcher of George Washington! pullin’ that bell rope ain’t no baby’s job.”
Carolyn May did not altogether understand what Miss Amanda had done, but she was greatly pleased that Uncle Joe had so plainly displayed his interest in the carpenter’s daughter. On this particular occasion, however, she was so sleepy that she was lifted out of the hack when they reached home by Uncle Joe, who carried her into the house in his arms.
When Aunty Rose heard the outline of the story she bustled about at once to get the little girl to bed. She sat up in bed and had her supper, with Prince sitting close beside her on the floor and Aunty Rose watching her as though she felt that something of an exciting nature might happen at any moment to the little girl.