“Kate Hallock!” exclaimed Frank, “it was none of your business to go telling father what Mr. North said. I could tell him myself, when I wanted him to know anything about it. No! I won’t let you go with me just because you did tell.”
“O, Frank! I thought papa would be so very glad, because I heard him say that he needed every single dollar he could save; and I thought you would be as happy as I was myself, when he said he would do it. And I went and got your lines and clams and everything; and I don’t care to fish, so I’ll bait your hook every time.”
“No, Kate; I’ve got to give up the boat, and I will have it all to myself this last day; besides, it is still, and if I see Captain Green outside, I’m going out beyond the island to fish. So you see you could not go.”
“O, Frank, don’t go alone; please don’t! Get Harry Cornwall to go with you,” she urged; but he resisted that appeal, and saying there was no time to spare in hunting up Harry, who was doubtless off in some potato field or other, kept on his way to the little boathouse where the Clover lay.
“I’ll tell you what, Frank,” said Kate, her heart beating fast with hope, “I’ll run across lots to the Lane and find him, and I’m sure he’ll go if I ask him; and you can wait and fish a few minutes down by the coal dock, till he has time to get there. I’ll be as quick as ever I can. I don’t believe mamma will care if I do not stop to go back and ask her.”
Kate was running by the time she finished speaking, and she did not hear Frank’s last call, which was “I sha’n’t wait a minute for anybody”; and she did not stop until she reached the stone wall that separated the meadow lands from the highway. When she stood within the low doorway of Mrs. Dobson’s kitchen, she could only gasp forth,
“Where’s Harry?”
“What is the matter with you, Kittie, my Clover? You’re as—”
“Please tell me quick where Harry is,” panted forth Kate. “I must find him.”
“Then you come right in and sit down until you get your breath and I’ll go call him. He’s topping corn this morning.”