And he would have eaten that tramp up, if hed gotten hold of him, Agnes declared, as they gathered at the breakfast table.
Oh, no, Aggie; I dont think Tom Jonah would really have bitten that Gypsy man, Tess hastened to say. But he might have grabbed his coat and held on.
With those jaws I guess he would have held on, sighed Agnes.
Anyway, said Dot, he saved Ruthies hens. Didnt he, Ruthie?
Ill gladly pay his license fee if he wants to stay with
us, said Ruth, gaily.
The cornmeal muffins chanced to be a little over-baked that morning; at least, one panful was. Dot did not like crusts; she had been known to hide very hard ones under the edge of her plate.
She played with one of these muffin crusts more than she ate it, and Aunt Sarah Maltby (who was a very grim lady indeed with penetrating eyes and a habit of seldom speaking) had an accusing eye upon the little girl.
Dorothy, she said, suddenly, you will see the time, I have no doubt, when you will be hungry for that crust. You had better eat it now like a nice girl.
Aunt Sarah, I really do not want it, said Dot, gravely. And and if I dont, do you think I shall really some day be hungry for just this perticlar crust?
You will. I expect nothing less, snapped Aunt Sarah. The Kenways was allus spend-thrifts. Why! when I was your age, Dorothy, I was glad to get dry bread to eat!
Dot looked at her with serious interest. You must have been awfully poor, Aunt Sarah, she said, sympathetically. You have a much better time living with us, dont you?
Ruth shook her head admonishingly at the smallest girl; but for once Aunt Sarah was rather nonplussed, and nobody heard her speak again before she went off to church.
Neale came over later, dressed for Sunday school, and he was as much interested in the new boarder at the Corner House as the girls themselves.
If he belongs anywhere around Milton, somebody will surely know about him, said the boy. Ill make inquiries. Wherever he comes from, he must be well known in that locality.
Why so? demanded Agnes.
Because of what it says on his collar, laughed Neale ONeil.
Because of what it doesnt say, I guess, explained Ruth, seeing her sisters puzzled face. There is no name of owner, or license number. Do you see?
It it would be an insult to license a dog like Tom Jonah, sputtered Tess. Just just like a tag on an automobile!
Yo right, honey, chuckled Uncle Rufus. He done seem like folkses don he? Ise gwine tuh give him a reglar barf an cure up dem sore feetses ob his. Hell be anudder dawg sho will!
The old man took Tom Jonah to the grass plot near the garden hydrant, and soaped him well with the insect-suicide soap Dot had talked about and afterward washed him down with the hose. Tom Jonah stood for it all; he had evidently been used to having his toilet attended to.
When the girls came home from Sunday school, they found him lying on the porch, all warm and dried and his hair fluffy. They had asked everybody they met almost about Tom Jonah; but not a soul knew anything regarding him.
Hes going to be ours for keeps! Hes going to be ours for keeps! sang Tess, with delight.
Sandyfaces earlier family Spotty, Almira, Bungle and Popocatepetl had taken a good look at the big dog, and then backed away with swelling tails and muffled objections. But the old cat had to attend to the four little blind mites behind the kitchen range, so she had grown familiar enough with Tom Jonah to pass him on her way to and from the kitchen door.
He was too much of a gentleman, as his collar proclaimed, to pay her the least attention save for a friendly wag of his bushy tail. To the four half-grown cats he gave little heed. But Tess and Dot thought that he ought to become acquainted with the un-named kittens in the basket immediately.
If they get used to him, you know, said Tess, theyll all live together just like a happy family.
Like us ? suggested Dot, who did not quite understand the reference, having forgotten the particular cage thus labeled in the circus they had seen the previous summer.
Why! of course like us! laughed Tess, and Sandyface being away foraging for her brood, Tess seized the basket and carried it out on the porch, setting it down before Tom Jonah who was lying in the sun.
The big dog sniffed at the basket but did not offer to disturb the sleeping kittens. That would not do for the curious girls. They had to delve deeper into the natural lack of affinity between the canine and the feline families.
So Tess lifted one little black and white, squirmy kitten just as its mother did, by the back of its neck and set it upon the porch before the dogs nose. The kitten became awake instantly. Blind as it was, it stiffened its spine into an arch, backed away from the vicinity of the dog precipitately, and spit like a tiny teakettle boiling over.
Oh! oh! the horrid thing, wailed Dot. And poor Tom Jonah didnt do a thing to it!
But see him! gasped Tess, in a gale of giggles.
For really, Tom Jonah looked too funny for anything. He turned away his head with a