Carolyn of the Corners Part 26

"Ha! didn't tell you 'twas ten mile away from here, did they?"

"Is it? Well, no, they didn't tell me that," admitted the visitor, "or I'd not started so late. You see, I come up on a schooner. This here lake boatin' ain't in my line. I'm deep-water, I am."

"So I should s'pose," said Mr. Parlow. "How'd you git up here, anyway?"

"The war," said the visitor. "The war done it. Couldn't git a good berth in any deep-water bottom. So I thought I'd try fresh-water sailin'. And now they tell me this here lake'll be froze up solid and all the traffic stopped all winter long."

"Likely to be," admitted Mr. Parlow.

"Don't it beat all?" murmured the sailor. "And me up in this cold country-and full of rheumatiz. I tell you, matey, I been workin' as quartermaster's mate on the old Cross and Crescent Line, a-scootin'

'cross to Naples from N'York-there and back-goin' on ten year. I ain't goin' to like it up here in this here cold, northern, s...o...b..und country, I don't believe."

"What did you leave your boat for?" asked the carpenter curiously.

"What boat? This here lake schooner? I told you."

"No. The other."

"Oh, she was sunk. There's things happenin' over to the other side of the ocean, mate," said the injured man earnestly, "that you wouldn't believe-no, sir! The Cross and Crescent Line's give up business till after the war's over, I reckon."

"You'd better not encourage him to talk any more, father," interposed Miss Amanda, coming into the room again. "The best thing he can do for himself is to sleep for a while."

"Thank ye, ma'am," said the sailor humbly. "I'll try."

The carpenter went back to work. Miss Amanda took Carolyn May out into the kitchen. She looked at her rather curiously, and once she seemed about to speak seriously-perhaps about the injured sailor. Carolyn May sidetracked this, however, by asking:

"Don't you think Prince is a very brave dog, Miss Amanda? You know, he's almost like those Saint Bernard dogs that live in the Yalps and carry blankets and cunning little barrels around their necks to folks that get lost in the snow. You have seen pictures of 'em, haven't you, Miss Amanda?"

"Yes, my dear," agreed the pretty nurse, smiling.

"Only I never knew what the barrels were for," admitted Carolyn May.

"Now, if the dogs found the poor men in the water, drownding, maybe the barrels would float and help keep 'em from sinking."

"I hardly think it probable that the barrels were for that purpose,"

said Miss Amanda, laughing.

"Anyway," urged Carolyn May, "Prince is just as brave as those other dogs."

"Indeed, yes," agreed the woman. "And I think that a certain little girl is very brave, too."

"Oh, but I couldn't have got the poor gentleman here, if it hadn't been for Prince."

"Quite true. And he deserves a reward for that. We'll call him in and give him a party," said Miss Amanda. "I have been saving some chicken bones for him."

"Oh, my dear!" cried Carolyn May, "he just adores chicken bones. You are the very kindest lady, Miss Amanda! I love you, heaps and heaps-and so does Prince."

Darkness came on apace. The sky had become overcast, and there was promise of a stormy night-more snow, perhaps. But Miss Amanda would not allow Carolyn May and Prince to start for home at once.

"Watch for your uncle, Carolyn May, out of the front-room window, and be all ready to go with him when he comes along," said Miss Parlow. "No, it isn't time for him yet. When the clock says ten minutes to five you can begin to look for him."

"Oh, my! Miss Amanda," said Carolyn May wonderingly, "how well you know his time for coming home, don't you?"

Miss Amanda blushed and did not appear to think that question needed an answer. After that she seemed much preoccupied in mind.

When Uncle Joe came along, Carolyn May ran out and hailed him from the porch.

"Wait for me, Uncle Joe! Wait for me and Princey, please! Just let me get my mittens and Prince's harness and kiss Miss Mandy."

That last she did most soundly, and in full view of the man waiting in the white road. Miss Amanda's tenderness, as she knelt on the porch to b.u.t.ton Carolyn May's coat, was marked by the hardware dealer-and also her s.h.i.+ning brown hair and her eyes so bright and sparkling. But he made no comment on this picture when his little niece joined him.

"Oh, Uncle Joe, I've got just the wonderfulest story to tell you! Shall we harness Prince up again, or will you--"

"I can't wait for the dog, Car'lyn May. I'm in a hurry. You oughtn't to be out in this wind, either. Get aboard your sled, now, and I'll drag you myself," Mr. Stagg interrupted.

She obeyed him gaily. When he started off, she turned to wave her mittened hand to Miss Amanda, who still stood on the porch. But the door of the carpenter shop, where a lamp burned, was shut tightly.

"That woman will get her death of cold," grumbled Uncle Joe, starting off at a round pace. "Don't know enough to go in out o' the cold."

But Amanda Parlow did not notice the cold. She was thinking of a time, oh, so long ago! when Joe Stagg had seated her on his bright red sled and given her a ride. How her heart had beat when he had turned to gaze at her! And now-Slowly her eyes filled with tears, and again:

"Oh, Joe! Joe! How could you?"

CHAPTER XVI-A SALT-SEA FLAVOUR

Swiftly Joseph Stagg trudged towards home, dragging Carolyn May behind him.

"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed the little girl with exultation, "we're all so excited, Uncle Joe!"

"I can see you're all of a-twitter," he returned absent-mindedly.

"What's the matter?"

"Oh, you never could guess!" was Carolyn May's introduction, and forthwith, in breathless sentences, went on to tell of her discovery in the snow and about the old sailor now lying asleep on the Parlow couch.

"I vum!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Uncle Joe, when he had listened to it all. "Who ever heard the beat of that! And Jed Parlow really helped take him in, did he? The day of miracles isn't past, then, that's sure."

Of course, when Carolyn May arrived at home, the story had to be told all over again to Aunty Rose Kennedy-all the details, even to Prince's feast of chicken bones. If the housekeeper was surprised-as Joseph Stagg had been-that the carpenter should take the injured man into his house, she did not say so.

"A mighty plucky youngster, this Car'lyn May of ours," Uncle Joe remarked. "What do you say, Aunty Rose?"

"She is, indeed, Joseph Stagg," agreed the woman.

Carolyn May was very much excited over the adventure, and, although it snowed some that night and the paths were drifted full in places, she wanted greatly to go down to the Parlow house the next day to see her "sailor man," as she called the unfortunate she had a.s.sisted.

Naturally, she could not expect Uncle Joe to stop and ask how the sailor was, he not being on speaking terms with the Parlows; but the hardware dealer did pick up a morsel of news about the stranger and brought it home at noon time to detail to Aunty Rose and the little girl at the dinner table.