Even Prince helped. He seized Mr. Oly Littlefield by the tail of his short linen coat. He almost dragged the coat over the man's head; but the buttons held and the dog was of some aid in pulling the cockatoo man out of the pit. He managed to raise himself a little and then fell sideways, prying his wooden leg from the sand. The little girls, with screams, fell over backward as the cockatoo man came free. Prince lost his hold on the coat and slithered half way down the hill. "Oh! _Oh!_ OH!" shrieked Edna in crescendo. "It's all over!" Carolyn gasped. "What the Dancin' Doolittles!" ejaculated the old fellow. "And _now_ who's to go back and git more groceries, I want to know? I wish't I'd let Ozy do it in the first place." Carolyn expected him to turn his wrath upon, them--especially upon Prince. She stood off a little, clutching Edna's hand, and staring at him. The cockatoo man turned his head stiffly, where he sat on the hillside with his wooden leg sticking straight out before him, and blinked at the children and the dog. "I declare to man!" he said. "You young 'uns was good to me. Even that dog, I reckon he meant well by me, though I think he's tored the coat purt' near off my back. I thank ye! Merciful--Dancin'--Doolittles!" as he rose to an erect position. "How'll I git my basket--_an'_ my cane?" He really was much subdued, and Carolyn May began to feel sympathetic. "Oh, sir! we'll help you if you'll let us," she cried. "I ain't in a position to object, I reckon," returned Mr. Littlefield dryly. They ran after the basket and his cane, and even picked up the lemons. But most of the dry groceries he had bought were under the loose sand that was still pouring down the hillside in various little streams. Mr. Littlefield accepted his possessions with good grace and thanked the little girls. "I'll hobble on to the shack and wait for Ozy to come back from the fishin'. I declare! I ain't able now to make another v'y'ge to Peleg Rose's store and back again--nossir! Much obleeged to you, I'm sure, leetle gals. Good-bye." He hobbled down the path toward the cabin on the shore. Edna grabbed Carolyn's arm and shook her. "Oh, Carolyn May! _Now_ is the time to ask him." "Ask him what?" "How he came to have that wooden leg?" "Oh, no," Carolyn said thoughtfully. "I wouldn't ask him that _now_. Maybe Mr. Littlefield wouldn't like to talk about his wooden leg just when it got him into so much trouble," she added with tact. "I guess we'd better ask Mr. Cap'n Littlefield first." They did not, however, have the opportunity to put the query to the captain at that time. He was not at the shore cabin, and his cousin was in no mood to entertain visitors. So the little girls and Prince plodded home again. Knowing the way by the highroad, they followed that instead of the patrol path, although it was longer. The dusty road brought them around by Barzilla's sheep pasture which at one end was separated by a stone wall only from the highway.