"Anyone might think that this was Friday the thirteenth," growled Billy. "I broke my fishing rod and I've lost my knife and Jim Archer stepped on a nail and can't go on a hike this afternoon--"
Billy's curious talk never failed to interest Keineth. She knew that it was not Friday and it was not the thirteenth and wondered what Billy ever meant! But she never asked him; something in the scornful superiority with which Billy treated all girls made Keineth very shy with him. She wished they might be better friends, for she felt very sure that it would be great fun to share with him the exciting adventures Billy seemed always to find! Vaguely she wondered what she could do that might put her on an equal footing with this freckled-faced lad who was, after all, only two years older than she was!
"Jim stepped on the nail yesterday--what's that got to do with to-day!" Peggy answered teasingly, "Well, we were going to hike to-day," Billy explained, too doleful to indulge in retort. "And all the other fellows are doing something else."
"Billy--Billy," called Alice from around the corner. "Just see what I found!" She ran toward them, holding in her hand a dirty, ragged piece of leather.
"Where'd you find that?" demanded Billy, taking it from her. "It's--why, jiminy crickets--it's one of my best shoes!"
Billy meant that it had been!
"Pilot!" the children cried, looking at one another.
"That's what mother used to scold about Rex doing," Peggy recalled.
"Why couldn't he eat my old ones!" groaned Billy, throwing the leather off into some bushes. He felt troubled--he remembered that he had left the shoes out on the floor of his dressing room. It was all his fault, but Pilot would be blamed!
"What can we do?" asked Keineth, sensing a tragedy.
"I don't care anything about the shoes," answered Billy, "'cause I'd just as soon wear these old ones as not--what d' I care about shoes? But mother'll say that we can't keep the dog!"
"He's only on trial--" Peggy broke in sadly.
"If you girls could keep it a secret we'd give Pilot another chance--"
"Alice is sure to tell! She can't keep anything!"
"I can keep a secret! You just try me!"
"Well, then," Billy lowered his voice mysteriously, "not a word! You just cross your hearts that you won't tell a word! We'll give Pilot another chance!"
Solemnly the three girls crossed their hearts. Billy went off then in search of some amusement of his liking, leaving them with the burden of the secret.
It weighed upon them through the day. And the more heavily when at noon time the cook from Clark's tapped upon the kitchen door and reported with great indignation that "jes' while her back was turned a minute that there dog had stolen her leg she was about to be carvin' and had gone off with it like he was possessed."
"Your leg--well, now!" cried Nora, all sympathy. "Faith--not my _own_ leg, but a leg of lamb!" wept the other, "and what the mistress will be a sayin' I don't know!"
"Where is that dog?" Mrs. Lee had sternly asked of the children. No one knew. Keineth and Peggy exchanged troubled glances and then fixed frowning eyes upon Alice.
"It really is very foolish in us to keep him," Mrs. Lee went on. "Probably this is just the beginning of the annoyances he will cause!"
"He tramples down the flowers terribly," Barbara complained.
Mr. Lee caught the anxious look in Billy's eyes.
"Well, well, Mother, perhaps Billy will keep a closer watch on his dog after this!"
Billy promised with suspicious readiness. "Mr. Sawyer says Pilot's a valuable dog," he told them. "And we ought not to give a valuable dog away, anyway!"
"We'll see," Mrs. Lee concluded.
But that evening Pilot sealed his own doom!
For, as the children were playing croquet near the veranda, he came running across the lawn and triumphantly dropped at Billy's feet a beautiful gold fish, quite dead!
"Oh--oh--oh!" screamed Alice.
"It's from Sawyer's pond!" cried Peggy on her knees.
"The poor little thing." Keineth lifted it. "It's dead!"
"It's their new Japanese gold fish," added Barbara, who, with Mrs. Lee, had come down the steps from the veranda. "You'll have to pay for this, Billy!"
"I think this is the last straw," said Mrs. Lee sternly, turning to her husband.
"Oh, Mammy, he couldn't help it--they swim round and he thinks they are playing!" Peggy implored.
Pilot, standing back, his tail wagging slowly, regarded them with wondering, disappointed eyes. He had felt so very proud of his fish and now his family seemed to look upon him with displeasure.
"And I can tell the secret now," cried Alice, "we weren't going to tell--he ate one of Billy's _best_ shoes!"
"You just wait!" cried Billy. Peggy turned a terrible face upon Alice. "We'll never, never, never tell anything to the tell-baby again!" she hissed. "Will we, Ken?"
"I guess I knew it first," Alice whimpered.
"It was my fault--I left them out, Mother! And I'd just as soon wear my old shoes!" Billy turned pleadingly to his mother.
"I am sure you would," she smiled, "but nevertheless I must be firm about this dog. He is a nuisance and will be an expense. By the time we have paid the Clarks for their lamb and the Sawyers for their goldfish and bought you a pair of shoes the damages against Pilot will have run up to a nice little sum!"
"But, Mother, you can take it out of my allowance!"
"That will not guard against other things of this same sort happening. No, my son, I do not like to make you unhappy, but we must get rid of the dog. Please say no more about it. Day after to-morrow we'll send him into the city with the vegetable man."
Mrs. Lee turned back to the veranda. When she spoke with that tone in her voice the children never answered. Peggy, linking her arm in Keineth's, turned an angry shoulder upon Alice. Billy blinked his eyes very fast to clear them of the tears that had gathered in spite of himself, threw his arm about the dog's neck and led him away to some hiding place where, secure from intrusion, he could pour out his rebellious heart to his pet.
"There's no use staying angry at Alice!" Keineth protested in a low tone to Peggy as they walked away. She felt sorry for the little girl standing at a little distance irresolutely swinging a croquet mallet. "It was her secret, anyway and Aunt Nellie would have found out about the shoe some time. Perhaps we were wrong not to tell her at first."
"You always stand up for everybody," Peggy complained, dropping Keineth's arm in vexation. But Peggy's sunny nature could not long carry a grudge of any kind. She had made a solemn vow, too, that she would never be unkind to Alice again! And there _would_ be just time before dark to play one more game of croquet!
"Will you play, Allie? You can have red and play last," she cried. "Come on, Ken!"
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