The school session on Friday afternoons was always shortened. This day Mr. Brady, one of the school trustees, came to review the school and, before he left, to pay Miss Minnie her salary for the month.
Carolyn May had permission from Aunty Rose to go calling that afternoon. Freda Payne, whom she liked very much, lived up the road beyond the schoolhouse, and she had invited the little city girl to come to see her. Of course, Prince had to be included in the invitation. Freda fully understood that, and Carolyn May took him on his leash.
They saw Miss Minnie at her desk when they went past the schoolhouse. She was correcting written exercises. Carolyn May secretly hoped that her own was much better than she feared it was.
Not far beyond the schoolhouse Prince began to growl, and the hairs stiffened on his neck.
“Whatever is the matter with you, Prince?” demanded Carolyn May.
In a moment she saw the cause of the dog’s continued agitation. A roughly dressed, bewhiskered man sat beside the road eating a lunch out of a newspaper. He leered at Carolyn May and said:
“I guess you got a bad dog there, ain’t ye, little girl?”
“Oh, no! He’s us’ally very polite,” answered Carolyn May. “You must be still, Prince! You see,” she explained, “he doesn’t like folks to wear old clothes. If—if you had on your Sunday suit, I’m quite sure he would not growl at you.”
“He wouldn’t, hey?” said the man hoarsely, licking his fingers of the last crumbs of his lunch. “An’ suppose a feller ain’t got no Sunday suit?”
“Why, then, I s’pose Prince wouldn’t ever let you come into our yard—if he was loose.”