ut at that instant Snip came into view from behind
his master, and she ceased the task at once to cry in delight:

"What a dear little dog! Did he come with you?"

"Yes, ma'am," Seth replied hesitatingly; and he added as the woman
stooped to caress Snip: "We're in a big hurry, an' if you'll give me
the cakes I'll thank you."

"Dear me, why didn't you say so at first?" and she resumed her task of
counting the cakes, stopping now and then to speak to Snip, who was
sitting up on his hind legs begging for a bit of the stale pastry.
"How far are you going?"

"I don't know; you see we can't walk very fast."

"Got friends out this way, I take it?"

"Well,--yes--no--that is, I don't know. Won't you please hurry?"

The woman seemed to think it necessary she should feed Snip with a
portion of one cake that had already been counted out for Seth, and to
still further tempt the dog's appetite by giving him an inch or more
broken from one of the checkerberry sticks, before attending to her
duties as clerk, after which she concluded her portion of the
transaction by holding out a not over-cleanly hand for the money.

Seth hurriedly gave her five pennies, and then, seizing Snip in his
arms, ran out of the shop regardless of the questions she literally
hurled after him.

His first care was to gaze down the road in the direction from which
he had just come, and the relief of mind was great when he failed to
see any signs of life.

"They haven't caught up with us yet, Snippey," he said, as if certain
the officers were somewhere in the rear bent on taking him prisoner.
"If they stop at the store, that woman will be sure to say we were
here."

Having thus spurred himself on, he continued the journey half an hour
longer, when they had arrived at a grove of small trees and bushes
through which ran a tiny brook.

"We can hide in here, an' you'll have a chance to run around on the
grass till you're tired," he said, as, after making certain there was
no one in sight to observe his movements, he darted amid the
shrubbery.

It was not difficult for a boy tired as was Seth, to find a
rest-inviting spot by the side of the stream where the bushes hid him
from view of any who might chance to pass along the road, and without
loss of time Snip set himself the task of chasing every butterfly that
dared come within his range of vision, ceasing only for a few seconds
at a time to lick his master's hand, or take his share of the stale
past