Ruth Belmore Endicott

“ Carolyn May was very much excited about an hour later when a rusty, closed hack drew up to the front gate of the Stagg place and stopped. She and Prince were then playing in the front yard—at least, she was stringing maple keys into a long, long chain (a delight heretofore unknown to the little city girl) , and the dog was watching her with wrinkling nose and blinking eyes.
An old man with a square-cut chin whisker and clothing and hat as rusty as the hack itself held the reins over the bony back of the horse that drew the ancient equipage. ”

“ Having remained in the store all the morning, he had not realised how much stronger the smell of smoke was than it had been at breakfast time. Quite involuntarily he quickened his pace.
The fog and smoke overcast the sky thickly and made it of a brassy colour, just as though a huge copper pot had been overturned over the earth. Women stood at their doors, talking back and forth together in low tones. There was a spirit of expectancy in the air. Every person he saw was affected by it.
There seemed scarcely any danger of a forest fire sweeping in upon Sunrise Cove, or even upon The Corners. ”

“ The forest was a seething furnace. Smoke drifted out over the lake in a heavy cloud. Dead embers showered about them. Prince rolled and burrowed in the damp sand at the edge of the water. Cherry filled his throat with a long, cool, satisfying draught.
“My, Uncle Joe! you are just the bravest man!” declared Carolyn May, finding her voice. “Isn’t he, Miss Mandy? And, see, his arm is all burned. Dear me, we must get home to Aunty Rose and let her do it up for him.” ”

“ Before the week was over, winter had come to Sunrise Cove and The Corners in earnest. Snow fell and drifted, until there was scarcely anything to be seen one morning when Carolyn May awoke and looked out of her bedroom windows but a white, fleecy mantle.
This was more snow than the little girl had ever seen in New York. She came down to breakfast very much excited.
“What are we going to do about all this snow?” she asked. “Why! there isn’t any janitor to shovel off the walk, and no street cleaners to clear the crosswalks! How am I ever going to get to school?” ”

“ Stagg began to read a future which had little to do with the dull prospect of the hardware store itself.
“Look up!”
The thought came to him while his countenance was a-smile. His reverie had surely inspired a pleasanter feeling within and a happier expression without. Carolyn May’s reiterated phrase rather startled Joseph Stagg.
“Why, the child’s right,” he murmured. “It’s looking up makes a man dream of happiness. But—it’s only a dream, I reckon. Only a dream.” ”

“ Stagg.
“Oh,” cried Carolyn May a moment later, “I see it again. That’s a skirt I see. Why, it’s a lady!”
Mr. Stagg suddenly grew very stern-looking, as well as silent. All the beauty of the day and of the glade they had entered seemed lost on him. He went on stubbornly, yet as though loath to proceed.
“Why,” murmured Carolyn May, “it’s Miss Amanda Parlow! That’s just who it is!”
The carpenter’s daughter was sitting on a bare brown log by the brook. She was dressed very prettily, all in brown. Carolyn May had seen her that day in church in this same pretty dress. ”

“ As for 284 Amanda Parlow, she hugged the little girl tightly and kept up a show of cheerful spirits.
Prince whined and yapped pleadingly, and the man stopped for a moment to let the dog leap to the rear of the buckboard, where he crouched, panting.
It would not be wise for them to halt often, nor for long. The wind, although steady, was rising. The roaring of the fire grew louder and louder in their ears.
Suddenly Joseph Stagg dragged Cherry’s head around. The horse snorted and hesitated, for the smoke was blinding him. ”

“ Even Aunty Rose, who in most things guided affairs at the Stagg homestead, could go only so far. What Uncle Joe really determined to do, not even the austere housekeeper could balk. No, there seemed no escaping the awful tragedy that was to be. And if Prince had to die——
“I’m quite sure I don’t want to live,” thought Carolyn May dismally. “If papa, and mamma, and Prince are all dead—why! there aren’t enough other folks left in the world to make it worth while living in, I don’t believe. If Prince isn’t going to be alive, then I don’t want to be alive, either.” ”

“ Time, if not the great physician for all wounds, surely dulls the ache of them. Miss Amanda’s emotions had been dulled during the years which had passed since she and Joseph Stagg had broken their troth. Carolyn May—surely with the best intentions in the world—had rasped this wound. The woman sat in the kitchen rocker and wrung her hands tightly as she thought. ”

“ By-and-by Prince began to get very uneasy. It was long past his dinner hour, and every time he heard the screen door slam he jumped up and gazed eagerly and with cocked ears and wagging tail in that direction.
“You poor thing, you,” said Carolyn May at last. “I s’pose you are hungry. It isn’t going to do you a bit of good to eat; but you don’t know it. I’ll ask Aunty Rose if she has something for you.” ”

“ Uncle Joe and Miss Amanda would be just as Aunty Rose had hinted—so deeply engaged with each other that they would have no time or thought for a sunny-haired and blue-eyed little girl 301 who had brought, all unknown to herself, a new creed into the lives of many of the adults of The Corners.
Carolyn May was not a sly child, but she was a secretive one. There is a difference. She had many thoughts in her little head that her adult friends did not suspect. She studied things out for herself. Being a child, her conclusions were not always wise ones. ”

“ The little girl lay with wide-open eyes, her imagination at work.
“Two’s company, three’s a crowd.” She took that trite saying, in which Aunty Rose had expressed her own feelings, to herself. If Uncle Joe and Miss Amanda were going to be married, they would not want anybody else around! Of course not!
Somewhere, somehow, in listening to older people talk, Carolyn May had obtained the impression that all couples desired to be by themselves just as soon as they were married. They had no need nor desire for other people. ”

“ The door had been left open by the surprised janitor.
A burst of voices came into the apartment. Uncle Joe turned wonderingly. Miss Amanda stood up. Carolyn May flew out of bed with a shriek that startled them both.
“My papa! My mamma! I hear them! They’re not drownd-ed! God didn’t let ’em be lost at sea!”
She was out of the room in her nightgown, pattering in bare feet over the floor. A brown man, with a beard and twinkling blue eyes, caught her up in strong arms and hugged her swiftly—safely—to his breast. ”

“ You never did have any money, and you don’t really know who your parents are. You began being a charity dog so early that it hasn’t never mattered to you at all—that’s how I s’pose it must be.
“And, then, you were always loved. Papa loved you, and so did mamma; and, of course, I always loved you to death, Princey!” she cried, putting both arms suddenly around the dog’s neck.
“I—I guess that’s where it must be,” pursued Carolyn May. “If persons are only loved, it doesn’t matter if they are charity. ”

“ She liked to shell peas, and Aunty Rose had more in her pan than the little girl had ever shelled at one time at home.
Prince whined and lay down. He had begun to realise now that this was no play, at all, but punishment. He blinked his eyes at Carolyn May and looked as sorry as ever a dog with cropped ears and an abbreviated tail could look.
The hutch was under a wide-branching tree. It was shady, and the bees hummed. A motherly hen with thirteen black chickens paraded by.
“I wonder,” thought Carolyn May dozily, “how the mother can be so white and her family can be so black. ”

“ I know your uncle must love you.”
“Do you s’pose so?” queried Carolyn May, trying not to cry.
“He must! How could he help loving you? Immersed as Joseph Stagg is in business and his own selfish projects, he cannot be so hard-hearted as not to love his only sister’s child.”
Carolyn May clutched at her, suddenly and tightly.
“Oh, Miss Mandy!” she gasped, “don’t you s’pose he loves other folks, too? You know—folks he’d begun to love ever so long ago?” ”

“ A cat crossed slowly and with dignity from curb to curb ahead of them, and the dog almost forgot his manners.
“Here!” exclaimed Mr. Stagg sharply. “Haven’t you a leash for that mongrel? If we’ve got to take him along——”
“Oh, yes, Uncle Joe,” Carolyn May hastened to assure him. “There’s a strap in my bag—right on top of the other things. Do let me get it. You see, Prince has had trouble with cats; they worry him.”
“Looks to me,” grunted Mr. Stagg, “as though he’d like to worry them. What Aunty Rose will say to that mongrel——”
“Oh, dear me!” sighed the little girl. ”

“ She could count seven dwellings from where she sat on the Stagg porch, and there were others not in sight. No apparent life at the blacksmith shop; none at the store. Not even a vehicle on the road, now that the hack had crawled out of view towards Sunrise Cove.
“Goodness me!” she said again, and this time she jumped up, startling Prince from his nap. “Maybe there is a spell cast over all this place,” she went on. “Everybody has been put to sleep, just like in a fairy story. I don’t know whether a little girl who isn’t asleep can wake ’em up, or whether it must be a prince. ”

“ My papa used to say the snow was a blessing to the poor who wanted to earn a little money.
“Of course, lots of the men that shovel snow don’t have warm coats—or mittens, even—or overshoes! They wrap their feet in potato sacks to keep them warm and dry.”
“Well, well,” murmured Aunty Rose. “So that’s what they do with snow in the city, is it? Live and learn.”
Uncle Joe had shovelled off the porch and steps, and Prince had beaten his own dooryard in the snow in front of his house. For he had a house of his own, now—a roomy, warm one—built by Mr. Parlow. ”

“ I reckoned you’d be lonesome up there at The Corners,” said the carpenter. “Is that your dog?”
“He’s Prince—yes, sir,” Carolyn May said, looking at the panting mongrel proudly. “He’s a splendid dog. I know he must be valuable, even if he is a mongorel. He got his paw hurt once, and papa and I took him to a vetrernary.
“A vetrernary,” explained Carolyn May, “is a dog doctor. And I heard this one tell my papa that there must be blood of ’most all kinds of dogs there was in Prince’s veins. There aren’t many dogs like him.” ”

“ Joseph Stagg stood on the dock and shouted at the top of his voice:
“Prince! Prince! Prince!”
The wind must have carried his voice a long way out across the cove, but there was no reply.
Then, suddenly, the clear silver tone of a bell rang out. Its pitch carried through the storm startlingly clear.
“Hullo! what’s the chapel bell tolling for?” demanded the man who had suggested the lanterns.
“The boy will hear that!” cried another. “If he isn’t an idiot, he’ll follow the sound of the chapel bell.”
“Ya-as,” said the cook, “if the ice ain’t opened up ’twixt him an’ the shore.” ”

“ Every mark of affection that the hardware merchant showed his little niece the latter retailed to Miss Amanda, and each event lost nothing in the telling.
Now she desired to show her friend the new sled and Prince’s harness. Mr. Stagg might still pass the Parlow house with his face averted; nevertheless, his praises were sung to Miss Amanda continually by Carolyn May.
“Now, Prince,” said the little girl as they set forth, “I do hope we don’t meet any cats—or other dogs, either. Dogs are bad enough; but, you know, if you see a cat you cannot keep your mind on what you are doing.” ”

“ With a final stroke Aunty Rose allowed the big fowl to go—and he ran away fast enough. But the austere Mrs. Kennedy did not consider the matter ended there. She had punished one culprit; now she turned to Prince.
“Your dog, child, does not know his manners. If he is going to stay here with you, he must learn that fowl are not to be chased nor startled.”
“Oh, Aunty Rose!” begged the little girl, “don’t punish Prince! Not—not that way. Please, don’t! Why, he’s never been spanked in his life! ”

“ The clergyman did not seem to mind neglecting his task for the pleasure of helping Carolyn May with hers. Be explained quite clearly just what Miss Minnie meant by “writing what is in you.”
“Oh! It’s what you think about a thing yourself—not what other folks think,” cried Carolyn May. “Why, I can do that. I thought it was something like those physerology lessons. Then I can write about anything I want to, can’t I?”
“I think so,” replied the minister.
“I’m awfully obliged to you, Mr. Driggs,” the little girl said. “I wish I might do something for you in return.” ”

“ He doesn’t know what’s become of me,” thought Carolyn May.
Downstairs, in the great kitchen, Aunty Rose was stepping back and forth, from table to sink, from sink to dresser, from dresser to pantry. As the 30 daylight faded, she lit the lamp which swung from the ceiling and gave light to all the room. ”

“ Joseph Stagg and the little girl went on across the stepping-stones, while Prince splashed through the water. Carolyn May was thinking about Miss Amanda Parlow, and she believed her Uncle Joe was, too.
“Uncle Joe,” she said, “would that bad old snake have stung Miss Amanda?”
“Huh? No; I reckon not,” admitted Mr. Stagg absent-mindedly. “Blacksnakes don’t bite. A big one like that can squeeze some.”
“But you were scared of it—like me and Prince. And for Miss Amanda,” said Carolyn May, very much in earnest. ”

“ Eat your dinner, that I’ve saved warm for you.” 49
“Isn’t Prince to have any dinner, Aunty Rose?” asked the little girl.
“You may let him out, if you wish, after you have had your own dinner. You can feed him under the tree. But stand by and keep the hens away, for hens haven’t any more morals than they have teeth, and they’ll steal from him. I don’t want him to snap any of their heads off before they’re ready for the pot.”
“Oh, Aunty Rose,” said Carolyn May seriously, “he’s too polite. He wouldn’t do such a thing. Really, you don’t know yet what a good dog Prince is.” ”

“ As Chet Gormley’s gossipy mother had told Carolyn May, time was when the hardware dealer—then having just opened his store in Sunrise Cove—and the carpenter’s daughter were frequently together.
Often when Joseph Stagg came in sight of the Parlow residence Amanda was at the gate. She sometimes walked to town with him. He even remembered—but that was still earlier in their lives—pulling her on his red sled. There had never been any other girl Joe Stagg cared for. ”

“ You don’t ever seem to have time to look up and see the sky, or stop to hear the birds sing.
“Seems to me, Uncle Joe,” concluded Carolyn May, giving a happy little jump on his lap, “that if you let your mind sort o’ run on—on something besides hardware once in a while, maybe you would have time to show me how much you loved me. Then I wouldn’t have to ask.”
The man looked at her somewhat blankly. Then he turned his head, ran his hand through his bushy hair, and gazed away meditatively.
The little girl had awakened his heart. And that heart was very, very sore. ”