"That's just why I take him," said Timothy; "because he isn't handsome
and has nobody else to love him."

("Not a very polite reason," thought Rags; "but anything to go!")

"Well, jump in, dog and all, and they'll give you the best free ride to
the country you ever had in your life! Tell 'em it's all right, Jim;"
and the train steamed out of the depot, while the kind man waved his
bandana handkerchief until the children were out of sight.




SCENE IV.

_Pleasant River._

JABE SLOCUM ASSUMES THE RÔLE OF GUARDIAN ANGEL.


Jabe Slocum had been down to Edgewood, and was just returning to the
White Farm, by way of the cross-roads and Hard Scrabble school-house. He
was in no hurry, though he always had more work on hand than he could
leave undone for a month; and Maria also was taking her own time, as
usual, even stopping now and then to crop an unusually sweet tuft of
grass that grew within smelling distance, and which no mare (with a
driver like Jabe) could afford to pass without notice.

Jabe was ostensibly out on an "errant" for Miss Avilda Cummins; but, as