Juliet did not reply. She gazed out at the landscape through which they were passing, and which was growing every moment more soft and lovely as the sky grew mellower and the shadows longer. She almost doubted her aunt's words. And yet this would be a very big churchyard; and certainly there were cows and sheep in sight, and there were red and white and yellow flowers growing beside the line. So she said nothing, but thought that she would wait and find out things for herself. At Littlebourne station Mrs. Rowles and Juliet alighted. The ticket-collector looked hard at Juliet, and the cabman outside the gate said, "Got a little un boarded out, Mrs. Rowles?" Mrs. Rowles shook her head and walked on. She bethought herself of a means by which to avoid most of her neighbours' eyes. She would go round the field way, and not through the village. It was a much prettier walk, but rather longer. "Are you tired, Juliet?" she asked kindly. "Of course I am." "Well, we shall soon be home now." "It don't matter," said the child; "I'm 'most always tired." They went through some pasture-fields where cows lay about quiet and happy, and through corn-fields where green wheat and barley rustled in the evening breeze. "You're right," muttered Juliet; "it ain't all churchyard, 'cause they don't have cows and green flowers in churchyards." "Do you like the country, my dear?" "I don't know yet. I ain't seen any shops, nor any mutton-chops." "Well, you shall see them all by and by. Now we are going through a farmyard, where you will see cocks and hens, and perhaps some little pigs." But before they had time to look for either pigs or poultry they heard a succession of alternate fierce growls and short shrieks, and both Mrs. Rowles and Juliet stopped short. The growls seemed to be those of a big dog, and the shrieks those of a little girl. Both sounds came from an inner yard of the farm, through which there was a public right of way. Something in the shrieks made Mrs. Rowles's cheek turn pale, and something in the growls made Juliet's face flush red. "Oh, dear!" cried Mrs. Rowles, "it is some child in danger!" [Illustration: JULIET SEIZED THE DOG BY HIS COLLAR.] "It is some horrid cruel dog!" said Juliet. The aunt went cautiously through the gate into the inner yard, and the niece rushed through it boldly. What they saw was indeed alarming. Little Emily Rowles was in a corner of the wall, shut in there on one side by a great high kennel, and on the other side by the huge mastiff who belonged to the kennel. He lay on the ground, his head on his paws, and his eyes fixed on the child; and whenever she made the slightest movement he growled in the fiercest manner. No wonder she uttered cries of dread and despair. Before Mrs. Rowles could think what was best to do, Juliet had done it.