"Oh yes, ma'am." Huldah had no doubts on that point. "Those fellows
would be afraid to come back. Dick did give them a scare, springing
out of the dark on them like that, and they're too hurt about the
legs to want to walk any further than they can help, yet awhile!"

"Oh yes, of course," in accents of great relief, "I'd forgotten.
They wouldn't want to come and face Dick again, and they wouldn't
know but what he was mine, and always living here."

A bright idea came to Huldah. "Would you like me to let Dick out
into the garden again. He'd see that nobody came into it.
Nobody wouldn't dare touch anything with him there, I know!"

The suggestion evidently pleased Mrs. Perry, and relieved her
greatly. "Now that would be a comfort," she said, gratefully.
"I'd feel ever so safe then. On a warm night like this he can't
hurt, can he?"

Huldah laughed. "Dick doesn't know what 'tis to sleep in," she said.
"The most he ever had was a sack thrown down under the van, unless
when Charlie was put in a stable, and they'd let Dick go in too, but
Uncle Tom liked best to have him about, to guard the van."

All the time she was talking she was laying in the fire quickly and
deftly. Mrs. Perry watched her interestedly. She felt the comfort
of having someone cheerful to speak to; and when she remembered that
but for this little stray waif she would have been alone now, and her
hen-house robbed, her heart was very full of gratitude.