Anne knew that she had often received a hundred dollars for a well-broken young hound; but poor Cadence did not seem to be broken at all, except in spirit, so that might make a difference; anyway, the camera could wait, for she kept seeing those appealing eyes, and had an instinctive feeling that Cadence’s fate was in her hands.
“Sell Cadence to you, so she needn’t be shut up so much? What will they say at home to another dog about? You know it was only last week that Tommy told me that Lumberlegs and Lily grinned at each other ‘awfully,’ and that Waddles would not let either of them go to walk with him. What will your mother say?”
Anne had not thought of this, to be sure; but no one at home had ever objected to any animals excepting white mice, and her mother had rebelled at having them kept in a bureau drawer, and finally put them under ban.
As Anne grew older she was more drawn toward those of her own race than when as Tommy-Anne she had played alone; but the birds and little beasts were still her friends and brothers, and ever would be. She would, if possible, get Cadence from behind the bars and risk the consequences.
“What do you want her for? She is either stupid or sullen, and will not even charge or come to heel; she will never learn anything.”
“Please, Miss Jule, I don’t think she is stupid or ugly, only somehow she doesn’t understand; maybe she can’t think when she is shut up so much. You know that when I was little I could never learn lessons in school, but if I sat by father I couldn’t have helped learning if I had tried.”
Miss Jule did not smile at the simple earnestness of the tall slip of a girl with the great dark eyes that looked so pleadingly at her, for Anne at fifteen believed as thoroughly in the brotherhood and rights of all living things as had Tommy-Anne at five.
“Well, I’ll make a bargain with you,” she said at last; “you may have her on a week’s trial: if you like her, you shall have her at a reasonable price” (for Miss Jule knew that with Anne’s ideas it would never do to offer her as a gift something she had offered to purchase); “if you can’t manage her, you can bring her back. Perhaps Waddles may like her for a mate.”
“Here, take a leader,” called Miss Jule, as Anne darted off full of the new idea, “she’s as likely to bolt off to the next county as to go home with you.”