“I expect she’ll be sorry not to see me again,” the little girl told herself. “And there’s Mrs. Gormley—and Chet. They’ll think it funny I didn’t bid them good-bye. And, then, there’s Mr. Parlow.”
After all, there seemed to be quite a number of people Carolyn May knew—“just to be acquainted with.” But she had never yet seen the fulfilment of her strong desire to become acquainted with the carpenter’s daughter, Miss Amanda Parlow.
All these thoughts shuttled back and forth in Carolyn May’s brain. The minutes of that afternoon dragged by in most doleful procession. There was no idea in the little girl’s mind that Uncle Joe might change his intention and Prince be saved from the watery grave promised him. When she saw the hardware dealer come into the yard almost an hour earlier than their usual supper time she was not surprised. Nor did she think of pleading with him for the dog’s life.
The little girl watched him askance. Mr. Stagg came directly through the yard, stopping only at the shed for a moment. There he secured a strong potato sack, and with it trailing from his hand went halfway up the knoll to where there was a heap of stones. He stooped down and began to select some of these, putting them in the bag.
This was too much for Carolyn May. With a fearful look at Uncle Joe’s uncompromising shoulders, she went to the tree where Prince was chained. Exchanging the chain for the leather leash with which she always led him about, the little girl guided the mongrel across the yard and around the corner of the house.
Her last backward glance assured her that the hardware dealer had not observed her. Quickly and silently she led Prince to the front gate, and they went out together into the dusty road.
“I—I know we oughtn’t to,” whispered Carolyn May to her canine friend, “but I feel I’ve just got to save you, Prince. I—I can’t see you drownd-ed dead like that!”
Prince whined in sympathy. Perhaps he felt, too, that life held much that was good and beautiful to his doggish soul.
Carolyn May had no idea where they should go to hide from Uncle Joe. This venture was the result of a sudden and unpremeditated determination. Her only thought at first was to get out of sight of the Stagg premises.
So she turned the nearest corner and went up the road towards the little closed, gable-roofed cottage where Aunty Rose had lived before she had come to be Uncle Joe’s housekeeper.