“He looks like the dog I saw to the fire that day I told you of,” said Maysie.
“It can’t be the same one,” replied Hannah, “for that one runs with one of the city engines, and he wouldn’t be so far from home.”
“But it _is_ the same,” said Billy; and always glad to tell how faithful Jack saved his life on the night of the fire, he told the story to them, and how Jack happened to be so far away from his old home.
When they stopped at the pretty farm-house where the city children were to stay, a pleasant-faced woman came out to meet them and show them the rooms they were to occupy, and Sam and Billy left them there, promising to come for them in the afternoon, to show them all the things they had told them about.
The sweet air, the green fields, and the singing birds were what these city children had never before enjoyed, and nothing was lost on them. There was only one drawback to their perfect happiness, and that was the fact that Mother was not there to enjoy it with them.
“If Mother could only be here, too,” said Hannah, “how beautiful it would be!”
“But she said she should enjoy it just as much as we did, when we got home and told her about it,” said Maysie.
“I know she said so,” replied Hannah, “but it ain’t like smelling the beautiful air and seeing the fields and things.”
“But she won’t have so much work to do while we are away, and there won’t be no noise nor nothing,” said Maysie, who always took a hopeful view of things.
“The house will seem awful lonesome to her,” said Johnny, whom Hannah’s remark had made a little homesick.
“She told us to have as good a time as we could,” said Maysie, “and I’ve made up my mind to see everything and tell her all about it. Do you mind how pleased Mother is when we tell her things we’ve seen?”
“I know,” said Hannah with a sigh, “but I wish Mother could be here all the same.”
“But she _can’t_, you know,” said hopeful Maysie, “so what’s the use of fretting about what can’t be helped?”
“Maysie is right,” said Hannah, after a moment’s silence, for she began to see into what an unhappy mood they were drifting. “The best thing we can do is to get as strong and well as we can, and then we can help Mother more when we get home.”
“That’s so,” replied Johnny, once more cheerful; “and it’s the pocketful of shells and nice stones I’ll take home to her,—those the boy told us of.”