d began to feel close and it made Sammy very sleepy as
well as Dot. But the boy was faithful to his trust. He propped his
eyelids open and manfully held his watch.

Frightened? Never more so, was Sammy Pinkney. But there was some pluck
in the youngster and he felt he must put on a bold front before Dot.

As for the canalboat captain and his "crew," they apparently went the
even tenor of their way. Cap'n Bill Quigg was not a very smart
man--either physically or mentally. The blacksmith at Milton had told
Luke Shepard the truth. Little Louise was the smartest member of the
Quigg family, which consisted only of herself, her father and the hound
dog, Beauty.

She practically "ran the business." In some way Quigg had become
possessed of the old _Nancy Hanks_ and the mules. He plodded back and
forth from one end of the canal to the other, taking such freight as he
could obtain. If there chanced to be no freight, as on this occasion, he
was quite philosophical about it.

Louise worried. She was of a keen, anxious disposition, anyway. She
showed it in her face--a hatchet-face at best behind the plentiful
sprinkling of freckles that adorned it. But by no means was the face
unattractive.

She had had little schooling--only such as she had obtained in winter
when the _Nancy Hanks_ was frozen up near a schoolhouse. Then she
studied with avidity. Had she ever remained long enough for the teachers
really to get acquainted with the shy, odd child, she might have made
good friends. As it was, she knew few people well and was as ignorant of
life as it was lived by comfortably situated people as a civilized human
being could be.

She had begun to scheme and plan for daily existence, and to keep the
wolf of hunger away from the door of the canalboat cabin, when she was a
very little girl--no older than Dot Kenway herself, in fact. Now she
seemed quite grown up when one talked with her, despite her crass
ignorance upon most subjects.

This afternoon she paddled on in her bare feet through the mire of the
towpath, while the thunder storm passed over and the sun came out again.
As she urged on the mules she was planning for a delight that had never
yet entered into her crippled life.

She had not urged her father to stop for the farmer's potatoes, whereas
on any other occasion she would have insisted upon doing so. A dollar
to be earned was an important thing to Louise Quigg.

But she had two half dollars saved and hidden away in