g a small but valuable dog. Said this
man to Moses, "I wish you would hold my dog while I step into the mill;"
and Moses took the string.

Mr. St. Clair hitched his horse a little way from the mill, and then
said to Moses, "When the man takes his dog, you can go to your aunt
Debby's. I will call for you there, after I have been to the station and
got the little girl." Mr. St. Clair then walked up the bank of the
stream to see the waters flow.

[Illustration: MOSES LETS THE DOG FALL.]

Moses led the dog along to the mill, and leaned against the building
awhile; then sat down on a barrel. Soon the barrel began to move. The
reason of this was that it stood on an elevator. Moses had not noticed
that the barrel stood on an elevator. First he wondered what the matter
was, and second, he thought he would jump; but by that time the barrel
was quite a way off the ground, and, besides, he was troubled by holding
the string of the dog, and the lozenges. The barrel rose higher and
higher, and when the little dog found himself swinging in the air, he
kicked and yelped, and jerked the string so that Moses was obliged to
let it go, and also to drop the lozenges, for he had to grasp the barrel
with both hands. The dog fell, and broke one of his legs. [Please
remember that it was the _dog_, and not Moses.] Moses and the barrel
were taken in at the third story. A traveller passing through the place
heard of this elevator accident, and told of it that afternoon at a
house in Gilead. But this person understood that it was the _boy_ who
broke his leg--"a Stimpcett boy," he said, in telling the news. Mrs.
Stimpcett heard of it soon after milking-time; but this will be spoken
of farther on in the story.

Mr. St. Clair walked far up the bank of the stream, and when he came
back, the miller told him that his bag of meal had been put into his
cart. He went out, and seeing a cart with a bag of meal lying at the
bottom, he stepped in, and drove around to the station.

Now this cart which Mr. St. Clair took belonged to a man who came from
Cherry Valley. Here, you see, was a mistake. But Mr. St. Clair not only
took the wrong cart, he took the wrong little girl, as will now be told.
He drove in haste to the station, knowing he had staid too long walking
up the bank of the stream. On the platform of the station sat a
roly-poly, chubby-cheeked little girl, with a carpet-bag and a heavy
bundle. He asked her, "Are you waiting for some one to come fo