“Now, Prince,” said the little girl as they set forth, “I do hope we don’t meet any cats—or other dogs, either. Dogs are bad enough; but, you know, if you see a cat you can_not_ keep your mind on what you are doing.” Prince whined and wagged his ridiculous tail. It did seem as though he knew just what she was talking about. However, until they got away from The Corners, at least, they met with no adventure. The blacksmith hailed Carolyn May—he was a jolly fellow—and asked her if she wanted to have her horse sharpened. “No, thank you, Mr. Lardner,” the little girl replied. “You see, Prince has got his claws, so he _can’t_ slip on the hard snow. He doesn’t need to be sharpened like the horses.” It was not altogether a pleasant afternoon, for there was a curtain of haze being drawn over the sun, and the wind was searching. And not only did the wind cut sharply, but it blew clouds of light snow from the tops of the drifts into one’s face and eyes. Carolyn May almost wished she had not started for Miss Amanda’s house—and this before she was halfway to her destination. Prince, however, did not seem to mind it much. The sled slipped easily over the beaten snow, and Carolyn May was a light load for him, for Prince was a strong dog. Out of sight of the houses grouped at The Corners the road to town seemed as lonely as though it were a veritable wilderness. Here and there the drifts had piled six feet deep, for the wind had a free sweep across the barrens. “Now, there’s somebody coming,” said Carolyn May, seeing a moving object ahead between the clouds of drifting snow spray. “Is it a sleigh, Princey, or just a man?” She lost sight of the object, then sighted it again. “It must be a man. It can’t be a bear, Princey.” Everybody had told her there were no more bears left in the woods about Sunrise Cove. “And, anyway, I’m only afraid of bears at night—when I go up to bed in the dark,” Carolyn May told herself. “Here it is broad daylight!” Besides, if it were any such animal, Prince would surely give tongue. He only sniffed and pricked up his ears. The strange object had disappeared again. It was just at the place where the spring spouted out of the rocky hillside and trickled across the road. There was a sort of natural watering trough here in the rock where the horses stopped to drink. The dog drew the little girl closer to the spot. “Where _has_ that man gone to? If it was a man.” Prince stopped suddenly and whined. “What is the matter, Princey?” demanded Carolyn May, really quite disturbed. There was something in the drift that the wind was heaping beside the beaten track. What could it be? “Prince!” The dog barked, and then looked around at his mistress, as though to say: “See there!” Carolyn May tumbled off the sled in a hurry. When she did so she slipped on a patch of snow-covered ice and fell. But she was not hurt. “There! that’s where the water runs across the road. It’s all slippy—Oh!”