Part 35 (2/2)

Sammy Pinkney scurried around for some missile to throw at the dog catchers. The little girls' shrieks brought neighboring children to yards and doors and windows. But there chanced not to be an adult on the block to whom the dog catchers might have listened.

”Oh, Mister! Don't! Don't!” begged Tess, sobbing, and trying to hold by the coat the man who had netted Tom Jonah. ”He's a good dog--a real good dog. _Don't_ take him away.”

”If you hurt Tom Jonah my sister Ruthie will do something _awful_ to you!” declared Dot, too angry to cry.

”Wish my father was home,” said Sammy, threateningly. ”He'd fix you dog-catchers!”

”Aw-gowan!” exclaimed the man, pus.h.i.+ng Tess so hard that she almost fell, and breaking her hold upon his coat.

But Tess forgot herself in her anxiety for Tom Jonah. She bravely followed him to the very step of the van.

”Give him back! Give him back!” she cried. ”You must not hurt Tom Jonah.

He never did you any harm. He never did _anybody_ any harm. Give him back to us! Please!”

Her wail made no impression on the man.

”Drive on, Harry,” he said. ”These kids give me a pain.”

The green van moved on. Tom Jonah's gray muzzle appeared at the screened door at the back. He howled mournfully as the van headed toward Main Street.

”Oh, what shall we do? What shall we do?” cried Tess, wringing her hands.

”Let's run tell Ruthie,” gasped Dot.

”I wish Neale O'Neil was here,” growled Sammy.

But Tess was the bravest of the three. She had no intention of losing sight of poor Tom Jonah, whose mournful cries seemed to show that he knew the fate in store for him.

”Where are you going, Tess?” shouted Sammy, as the Corner House girl kept on past the gate of her own dooryard, after the green van.

”They sha'n't have Tom Jonah!” declared the sobbing Tess. ”I--I won't let them.”

”And--and Iky Goronofsky says that they make frankfurters out of those poor dogs,” moaned Dot, repeating a legend prevalent among the rougher school children at that time.

”Pshaw! he was stringin' you kids,” said Sammy, with more wisdom, falling in with Dot behind the determined Tess. ”What'll we do? Tess is going right after that old van.”

”We mustn't leave her,” Dot said. ”Oh! I _wish_ Ruthie had seen those horrid men take Tom Jonah.”

As it was there seemed nothing to do but to follow the valiant Tess on her quest toward the dog pound. As for Tess herself she had no intention of losing sight of Tom Jonah. She made up her mind that no matter how far the van went the poor old dog who had been their friend for so long should not be deserted.

At the seash.o.r.e, soon after Tom Jonah had first come to live with the Corner House girls, the dog had been instrumental in saving the lives of both Tess and Dot. He had often guarded them when they played and when they worked. They depended upon him at night to keep away prowlers from the Corner House henroost. No ill-disposed persons ever troubled the premises at the Corner of Willow and Main Streets after one glimpse of Tom Jonah.

”I don't care!” sobbed Tess, her plump cheeks streaked with tears, when her little sister and Sammy caught up with her a block away from home.

”I don't care. They sha'n't put poor Tom Jonah in the gas chamber. _I_ know what they do to poor doggies. They sha'n't treat him so!”

”But what'll you do, Tess!” demanded Sammy, amazed by the determination and courage of his little friend.

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