He understood almost nothing of what it meant to have
his visitors clamber into the carriage, nevertheless a grave little
query came into his eyes.
"Well, Jim, good-bye again," said Stowe, and he shook the old miner's
hand a final time. "Good-bye, Miss Dennihan--good-bye, boys."
With all the little youngsters in their bright red caps waving their
mittened hands and calling out good-bye, the awkward men, Miss Doc, old
Jim, and tiny Skeezucks saw them drive away. Till they came to the
bend of the road the children continued to wave, and then the great
ravine received them as if to the arms of the mountains.
CHAPTER XIX
OLD JIM'S RESOLUTION
All that day little Skeezucks and the pup were waiting, listening,
expecting the door to open and the three small girls to reappear. They
went to the window time after time and searched the landscape of
mountains and snow, Tintoretto standing on his hind-legs for the
purpose, and emitting little sounds of puppy-wise worry at the long
delay of their three little friends.
A number of the men of the camp came to visit there again that evening.
"We thought little Skeezucks might be lonesome," they explained.
So often as the door was opened, the pup and the grave little
pilgrim--clothed these days in the little white frock Miss Dennihan had
made--looked up, ever in the hope, of espying again those three red
caps.
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