The Corner House Girls' Odd Find Part 20

"Well!" exclaimed Dot, in triumph, "he wouldn't have eaten 'em then.

They were _animal_ crackers."

Agnes made her preparations that evening for a visit she proposed to make the next day. After their work was done on Sat.u.r.day the Corner House girls sometimes separated to follow different paths for the remainder of the holiday. This week Agnes was going to visit Mr. Bob Buckham and his invalid wife, who lived some distance from Milton, but not far off the interurban car line.

When she started about ten o'clock to go to the car, not only Tess and Dot, but Tom Jonah was ready to accompany her. The old dog was always glad to be in any expedition; but Agnes did not want him to follow the car and she told him to go back.

"Oh, don't do that, sister," begged Tess. "We'll look out for Tom Jonah.

You know he'll mind us-Dot and me. We'll bring him home from the corner."

So he was allowed to pace sedately behind the trio to the corner of Ralph Avenue where Agnes purposed to take the car. This was not far down Main Street from the Parade Ground, and the children could easily find their way home again.

As the three sisters pa.s.sed the drug store they saw coming out a woman in long, black garments, a veil, and a huge collar and a sort of hood of starched white linen.

Dot's eyes grew big and round as she watched this figure, and finally she whispered: "Oh, Aggie; who is that?"

"That is a sister of charity," replied Agnes.

Dot pondered deeply for a moment and then returned to the charge with: "Say, Aggie, which sister is she-Faith or Hope?"

"Hear that child!" sighed Tess. "I never heard of such a ridiculous question, did you, Aggie?" she asked the laughing, older sister.

Just then the car Agnes must take came along and the older girl ran to climb aboard, after kissing the little ones good-bye. And there was Tom Jonah, bounding right behind her.

"No, no! You must not! You can't, Tom Jonah," Agnes cried, stopping at the car step. "Go back, Tom Jonah!"

The dog's ears and tail drooped. He turned slowly away, disappointed.

"You know I can't take you in the car," Agnes said. "Go home with Tess and Dottie."

She stepped aboard. The conductor just then rang the bell for starting.

Agnes pitched into a seat as the car jumped forward and failed to see whether the dog returned to her sisters or not.

It was a long ride in rather a round-about way to the Buckham farm. Mr.

Bob Buckham raised strawberries for market and was a good friend of the Corner House girls. Agnes particularly was a favorite of the farmer and his invalid wife.

Although the interurban car pa.s.sed one end of the Buckham farm, there was another point where Agnes could leave the car to cut across lots and through the woods to reach the house. She had been this way once with Neale, and she thought it a much pleasanter, if somewhat longer, walk.

So, when the car came to the road in the woods which the Corner House girl was sure was the right one, she signaled the conductor to stop and she stepped down into the snow beside the track.

Agnes was to learn, however, that the woods look different under a blanket of snow, from what they do when the ground is bare.

The road into which she ventured was merely a track leading into a place where cordwood had been cut. Wagons had gone back and forth, but not for several days. The path led in a direction quite different from the Buckham house and every minute she walked this way took her farther and farther from the road to Strawberry Farm.

The air was invigorating, the sun shone, and the path was hard under her feet, so Agnes found the walk very pleasant indeed. Being quite unconscious of her mistake, nothing troubled her mind. She tramped on, rejoicing, expecting to come into familiar territory within a mile or so.

The forest grew thicker as she advanced. The only tracks she saw in the snow on either side of the wood road were those of birds and rabbits.

Jays shot through the leafless woods shouting their raucous call; crows cawed in the distance; close at hand, squirrels chattered and scolded at her from the trees as she pa.s.sed under the stark, bare branches.

Finally the impression was forced upon Agnes Kenway's mind that the wood was very lonely. She heard no axe-and an axe can be heard for miles. She noticed, too, at length, that the tracks in the road-both of men and horses-were not fresh. She had not observed before that a light snow powdered these marks-and it had not snowed for three days.

"Why! can it be possible that n.o.body has been to Mr. Buckham's by this road for so long?" murmured Agnes.

She turned around to look behind her. As she did so some creature-quite a big and s.h.a.ggy animal-darted across the path and disappeared in the brush.

Mercy! How startled Agnes was for a moment. It might be a bear! Or a wolf! Then, of course, she came to herself, shrugged her shoulders, and laughed.

"It's a dog. Somebody is out hunting. But goodness! how he did scare me," she thought.

Agnes went on again, cheerfully enough. The road was by no means straight. If she looked back she could see only a short distance, for the brush and trees hid the back stretches.

She turned again. There was the creature just darting once more into the shrubbery!

Agnes halted in her tracks. She was suddenly smitten with fear. She could not shake the feeling off. Surely there was something d.o.g.g.i.ng her footsteps.

She puckered her lips to whistle; but no sound came. She tried to call; but her tongue seemed dry and her throat contracted. She _knew_ it was a dog; yet the possibility of its being some savage beast instead, terrified her.

Even a bad dog would be dangerous to meet in this lonely place. And he followed her so stealthily!

Agnes was panic-stricken at midday. It was almost noon now, and how strange that she had not reached the Buckham house! Why! she had been walking for an hour.

It came over the girl suddenly that she was lost.

"Yet I don't see how that can be," she murmured. "I'm in the road and it's plain enough. Surely it should lead somewhere."

Nevertheless she would have turned about and gone back to the car tracks had it not been for the apparition that seemed d.o.g.g.i.ng her steps.

She dared not turn back and face that Unknown!

Slily she looked over her shoulder again. There it was-dim, s.h.a.ggy, slinking close to the snow. Agnes was sure now that she knew what it was. Naught but a wolf would act like that-would trail her so silently and with such determination.

Agnes was truly terror-stricken. She began to run-and running was not easy in this rutty road. She fell once; but she did not mind the bruises and scratches she received, for all she could think of was that the wolf might leap upon her while she was down.

Up the poor girl scrambled and ran on, crying now-all her brave temper quenched. She dared look behind no more. How close her awful pursuer was she dared not know.

On and on she hastened; now running, now walking fast, her limbs shaking with dread and weariness. It seemed as though she must come to some habitation soon. She had had no idea that there was any such wilderness as this anywhere back of Milton!

There were no signs here of man's nearness save the road through the forest, nor had she seen such since leaving the main highway. As she said, surely this road must lead somewhere.

Suddenly Agnes smelled smoke. She saw it rising between the trees ahead.

Escape from the prowling beast was at hand. The girl hurried on. The place where the smoke was rising was down a little slope, at the foot of which she suddenly discovered the railroad. She knew something about the locality then. It was some distance from Mr. Bob Buckham's house.

This was a lonely place, too. There was no station anywhere near. Heaps of ties lay about-cords and cords of them. It suddenly smote upon the girl's mind that tramps might be here. Tramps followed the railroad line. And tramps might be more to be feared than a wolf!

She halted in her tracks and waited to get her breath. Of course she glanced fearfully behind again. But the prowling beast was no longer in sight. The vicinity of the fire had doubtless made him hesitate and draw off.

So Agnes could take her time about approaching the campfire. She was sure that was what it must be. The smoke arose from beyond a great heap of railroad ties, and now, when her pulses stopped beating so in her ears, she distinguished voices.

Well! human beings were at hand. She could not help feeling suspicious of them; yet their nearness had driven off the strange and terrible beast that had so frightened her.