“Yes,” repeated Mr. Stagg, “it was the dog.”
Both looked very uncomfortable. Joseph Stagg began to pick up the scattered chestnuts from the overturned basket. The lady stooped and whispered to Carolyn May:
“Come to see me, my dear. I want to know you better.”
“And Prince?” asked the little girl.
“And Prince, of course.”
Then she kissed Carolyn May and slipped quietly away from the brook, disappearing very quickly in the undergrowth. Uncle Joe stood up, with the basket in his hand.
“You’d better call the dog away from that snake, Car’lyn May,” he said in a strangely husky voice. “We’ll be going.”
The little girl approved.
“You surely don’t want to eat it, Prince,” she told her canine friend. “Snakes aren’t meat, nor even fish. Are they, Uncle Joe?”
“Humph! what d’you s’pose they are, then?” he demanded.