He kept his store open every evening. Not because there was trade enough to warrant it—that was only on Saturday nights—but what would he do if he did not come down after supper and sit in his office for a couple of hours? There he could always find work to do. Outside, he was at a loss for something with which to occupy his mind. On this evening he closed the store later than usual, and set out for The Corners slowly. To tell the truth, Mr. Stagg rather shrank from arriving home. The strangeness of having a child in the house disturbed his tranquillity. The kitchen only was lighted when he approached; therefore, he was reassured. He knew Hannah’s Car’lyn must have been put to bed long since. It was dark under the trees, and only long familiarity with the walk enabled him to reach the back porch noiselessly. Then it was that something scrambled up in the dark, and the roar of a dog’s barking made Joseph Stagg leap back in fright. “Drat that mongrel!” he ejaculated, remembering Prince. The kitchen door opened, revealing Aunty Rose’s ample figure. Prince whined sheepishly and dropped his abbreviated tail, going to lie down again at the extreme end of his leash, and blinking his eyes at Mr. Stagg. “The critter’s as savage as a bear!” grumbled the hardware merchant. “He is a good watchdog; you must allow that, Joseph Stagg,” Aunty Rose said calmly. The hardware dealer gasped again. It would be hard to say which had startled him the most—the dog or Aunty Rose’s manner. CHAPTER V—AUNTY ROSE UNBENDS There never was a lovelier place for a little girl—to say nothing of a dog—to play in than the yard about the Stagg homestead; and this Carolyn May confided to Aunty Rose one forenoon after her arrival at The Corners. Behind the house the yard sloped down to a broad, calmly flowing brook. Here the goose and duck pens were fenced off, for Aunty Rose would not allow the web-footed fowl to wander at large, as did the other poultry. It was difficult for Prince to learn that none of these feathered folk were to be molested. He loved to jump into the water after a stick, and whenever he did so, the quacking and hissing inside the wire-fenced runs showed just how unpopular his dogship was in that community. There was a wide-branching oak tree on a knoll overlooking the brook. Around its trunk Uncle Joe had built a seat. Carolyn May found this a grand place to sit and dream, while Prince lay at her feet with his pink tongue out, occasionally snapping at a gnat. When they saw Aunty Rose, in her sunbonnet, going towards the fenced-in garden, they both jumped up and bounded down the slope after her. It was just here, at the corner of the garden fence, that Carolyn May had her first adventure.