With her customary kiss, she left the little girl and went downstairs. Carolyn May had seen so much excitement during the day that she might have been expected to sleep at once, and that soundly. But it was not so. The little girl lay with wide-open eyes, her imagination at work. “Two’s company, three’s a crowd.” She took that trite saying, in which Aunty Rose had expressed her own feelings, to herself. If Uncle Joe and Miss Amanda were going to be married, _they would not want anybody else around_! Of course not! Somewhere, somehow, in listening to older people talk, Carolyn May had obtained the impression that all couples desired to be by themselves just as soon as they were married. They had no need nor desire for other people. Her idea was that the so-called “honeymoon” extended over long, long months. “And what will become of me?” thought Carolyn May chokingly. All the “emptiness” of the last few months swept over the soul of the little child in a wave that her natural cheerfulness could not withstand. Her anchorage in the love of Uncle Joe and Miss Amanda was swept away. She was going to be alone again. There would be nobody whose right it was to care for her. With her mother and father drowned in a foreign sea and Uncle Joe utterly taken up with the “lovely lady” he loved, who was there to care for Carolyn May? The heart of the little child swelled. Her eyes overflowed. She sobbed herself to sleep, the pillow muffling the sounds, more forlorn than ever before since she had come to The Corners. CHAPTER XXVIII—THE JOURNEY It was certainly a fact that Amanda Parlow immediately usurped some power in the household of the Stagg homestead. She ordered Joseph Stagg not to go down to his store that next day. And he did not! Nor could he attend to business for several days thereafter. He was too stiff and lame and his burns were too painful. Chet Gormley came up each day for instructions and was exceedingly full of business. A man would have to be very exacting indeed to find fault with the interest the boy displayed in running the store just as his employer desired it to be run. “I tell you what it is, Car’lyn,” Chet drawled, in confidence. “I’m mighty sorry Mr. Stagg got hurt like he did. But lemme tell you, it’s jest givin’ me the chance of my life! “Why, maw says that Mr. Stagg and Miss Mandy Parlow’ll git married for sure now!” “Oh, yes,” sighed the little girl. “They’ll be married.” “Well, when folks git married they allus go off on a trip. Course, _they_ will. And me—I’ll be runnin’ the business all by myself. It’ll be great! Mr. Stagg will see jest how much value I be to him. Why, it’ll be the makin’ of me!” cried the optimistic youth. Yes, Carolyn May heard it on all sides. Everybody was talking about the affair of Uncle Joe and Miss Amanda.