Dolly whistled.

"If she knew him the way I do, she would," she said. "And I've only seen
him twice--but that's two times too many!"

"Well, after he'd locked her in, Jake went off, and I tried to let her
out. I couldn't find the key, and I was trying to break the lock on the
door with a stone. I'd nearly got it done, when Jake came along and
found me doing it. So he stood off and threw bits of burning wood from
the fire near me, to frighten me. That was an old trick of his.

"But that time the woodshed caught fire, and he was scared. He got the
key, and we let Zara out, and then he said he was going to tell Maw
Hoover that we'd set the place on fire on purpose. I knew she'd believe
him, and we were frightened, and ran off."

"Well, I should say so! Who wouldn't? Why, he's worse than I thought he
was, even, and I knew he was pretty bad."

"We were going to Zara's place first, but that was the day they arrested
Zara's father. They said he'd been making bad money, but I don't believe
it. But anyhow, we heard them talking in their place--Zara's and her
father's--and they said that I'd set the barn on fire, and they were
going to have me arrested, and that Zara would have to go and live with
old Farmer Weeks, who's the meanest man in that state. And so we kept on
running away, because we knew that it couldn't be any worse for us if we
went than if we stayed. So that's how we finally came away."

"Oh, how exciting! I wish I ever had adventures like that!"