Even Melvin had not expected that Dorothy and he would long be away from the rest of the party, though he did not realize that he was in any wise responsible to them, since his duties as camp-helper had not yet begun. But he enjoyed his freedom from the society of so many strangers and found Dorothy a pleasant companion. She might have been just another boy, for any “nonsense” there was about her; and she was so delighted with everything he pointed¹ out that he, also, began to find new beauties in the familiar scenery, and to grow eager to show her all he could.  
For the teamster prolonged his journey to the very crest² of the hill behind the town, and made it slowly. He had so many questions to ask concerning his old neighbors that he delayed all he reasonably could and rather resented Melvin’s attempts to entertain Dorothy.
 
“That’s Point Prim³ lighthouse, yonder. See? Yes, Joel, Reuben Smith did paint his house bright blue, just as he vowed⁴ he would to spite his neighbor. That’s Digby Gap, where the two hills come so near together in the water. The boats that sail [Pg 143]from here have to pass through it and travelers say—No. I didn’t hear what price that Company did get for its last ‘catch.’ Lobsters⁶ haven’t been running so free this year, I hear; and there’s another company started canning them. If Judge Breckenridge stays long enough I hope he’ll take you sailing up Bear River. It’s a nice drive there, too, but the sail is better. Up yonder is the Joggin—Why, Joel, I’m sure I don’t know. I hadn’t heard.”
 
Such was a sample of the talk which went on and which provoked from the lad, at last, the comment:
 
“Learning under difficulties!” which he said with such an amused glance toward Dorothy that she laughed and felt that Molly had been right in her belief that “that boy has some fun in him.” Thought of Molly made her also exclaim:
 
“Oh! I do wish she were here! She would have liked this so much! I don’t believe she ever rode in an ox-cart either, any more than I did before. How funny it is! And how much longer shall we be? I’m afraid I ought to have asked Mrs. Hungerford or Miss Greatorex before I came. But I didn’t think. I never do think till—afterward.”
 
“Glad of it. Glad you didn’t, else likely you’d have lost the ride. Joel doesn’t call this an ox-cart, though. Not by any means. This, if you please, is an ‘ox-omobile,’ and very proud of it he is. Guess you needn’t worry. Nobody can get lost in little Digby; and—Where now, Joel? How much longer will you be?”
 
[Pg 144]“Oh! I reckon not long. Just a little minute or few. Depends on folks havin’ their trunks ready to haul. Some towerists have been stopping up here to one these houses and engaged me to take their luggage down to the pier⁸. They’re goin’ over to St. John, I reckon, only one of ’em. She’s goin’ to the dee-po. When we go down hill you two may set on the trunks—if you can!” and Mr. Snackenberg laughed at his own thoughts.
 
The trunks did happen to be ready. Indeed the “towerists” were even impatient to be gone and were just starting to walk to the pier when the carter arrived. They looked rather enviously⁹ at Dorothy and Melvin, so comfortably seated in the cart, but its owner did not extend an invitation to them to ride. Indeed, as he explained to his companions:
 
“If I was a mind I could have all Digby village a ridin’ in my ‘ox-omobile.’ They seem to think it’s powerful cunnin’, as if they’d never seen a team of oxen before. Where’ve they lived at, I’d like to know, that they don’t know an ox when they see it. There. Them trunks is in. Now, Sissy, you just set right down and—You’ll find out the rest.”
 
The trunks did fill the cart pretty well but there was plenty of room to put one’s feet in the spaces between; and Dorothy fixed¹⁰ herself comfortably, wondering why Melvin disdained¹¹ to ride but strode along beside the teamster who also walked. Throned in solitary¹² state all went well for awhile, until a corner was turned and the steep descent into [Pg 145]the town began. Then the trunks slid upon the slippery hay, resting their weight against the chain at the rear, which alone prevented their falling out; and after a few efforts to maintain her seat Dorothy also sprang to the ground and joined the others.
 
“Ha, ha, ha! Ridin’ up-hill and ridin’ down is two quite different things, ain’t it, Sissy? Ever been to the pier to see the boat start across the Bay to St. John’s, New Brunswick? No? First time you been to the Province? All right. You stick close to me and I’ll p’int out all the ‘lions’ there is to see. Melvin, here, can talk as glib¹³ as the next one when he gets waked up, but I know more about Digby ’an he does. One the sights towerists rave⁵ the most over is the fish-grounds. They’re right adj’ining the pier and you can kill them two ‘lions’ at once. Ha, ha!”
 
“But, sir, I’m afraid I ought to go back. I mean—to where my friends are. Is the pier on the road home?” asked Dorothy.
 
“All roads lead home—for somebody. The pier and the fish-curin’ grounds amongst ’em. Don’t you vex¹⁴ yourself, Sissy. If you was to go from one end to the other of this little town you couldn’t never get fur from where you live.”
 
The truth was that the old teamster wanted to keep the young folks with him as long as he could. There were still numberless questions he hadn’t put to Melvin and he had taken a fancy to Dorothy. If she was simply a “towerist” she was, of course, an idler and it was of no consequence her wasting [Pg 146]her time. He hadn’t learned yet why Melvin was here and if he didn’t find that out he felt he “couldn’t bear it.” So now he asked:
 
“Well, son of all the Cooks, what’s fetched you here this time o’ day? Lost your job?”
 
“Not exactly. I’ve given it up. I’m tired of sailing back and forth¹⁵ over the same old route and a friend of mine wanted to take my place. I’m going to help a gentleman I know in his camping out. Cook, maybe, or whatever he wants. Now—that’s all. You needn’t ask me how much I earn, or what’s next, or anything. You just go ahead and tell this Miss Dorothy anything you fancy; since you know so much more of things than I do.”
 
“H’ity-t’ity! Miffed, be ye? Never mind. You’d ought to rest your tongue, ’cause I ’low it’s never wagged so fast afore in your whole life. But I’m ekal to it. I’m ekal. I’ve growed to be a regular ‘Digby chicken,’ I’ve tarried here so long already. Ever eat ‘Digby chicken,’ Sissy?”
 
Joel was affronted¹⁶ in his own turn now and determined¹⁷ to ignore that “Miss” which Melvin had pronounced so markedly. Joel wasn’t used to “Miss”-ing any girl of Dorothy’s size and he wasn’t going to begin at his time of life. Not he!
 
Meanwhile, Melvin had relapsed into utter silence. He declined to answer any of the teamster’s further questions, and if his knowledge of the locality had been quite as accurate as he had boasted he would have suggested to the girl that they take a short-cut back to the hotel. Yet, he had heard that [Pg 147]teasing Molly say they were bound for the fish-grounds. Beyond these lay, also, that notable Battery Point, with its rusty¹⁸ old guns; its ancient, storm-bent¹⁹ trees; and the Indian encampment still further along. He had seen tourists so many times that he fancied they were all alike, full of curiosity, and with ample leisure to gratify it. So, in all probability, the Judge and his friends were still at that end of town and he had better stick to Joel till he conducted the girl and him to their presence. Then he would himself vanish until such time as the Judge might require his service.
 
They came to the pier and drove along its great length, the teamster pointing out all sorts of interesting things, so that Dolly forgot all else in her eager listening.
 
“Forty feet high the tide rises sometimes, right on this very p’int. That’s why it’s built so lofty. Look over the edge. See that sloping wharf²⁰ clean down into the water? Well, sir, that’s where folks land sometimes; and other times away up top here. My heart! The pretty creetur!”
 
Joel abruptly²¹ checked his team and stooped above something lying on the wide planking of the pier. Then he lifted the object and handed it to Dorothy, explaining:
 
“That’s a poor little coddy-moddy! A little baby gull²³. Pity! Something’s hurt it, but it’s alive yet. Makes me feel bad to see any young creetur suffer; most of all to see a bird. Put it in the crook²⁴ of your elbow, Sissy, and fetch it along. [Pg 148]I’ll take it home with me and see if I can’t save its life.”
 
After a moment he added, seeing her look wistful, as he thought:
 
“I’d give it to you, Sissy, but towering folks haven’t no time nor chance to tend sick birds. It’ll be better off in my house than jogglin’ over railroads and steamboats.”
 
There was sense in this as Dorothy rather reluctantly admitted, for she would have liked to keep the “coddy-moddy” and made a pet of it. With Joel, however, it would simply be cured and set free, or it would die in peace. Also she was touched by the real tenderness with which the rough-handed teamster made a nest in the straw of his cart and placed the bird upon it.
 
He had first deposited the trunks in the baggage-room and there was nothing to keep him longer; so with another whimsical glance at Melvin, who had sauntered behind them, he remarked:
 
“Right this way to the fishin’-grounds! ‘Stinks a little but nothin’ to hurt!’”
 
Then in the fatherly fashion which almost every man she met adopted toward her, he held out his hand to Dorothy C. and led her back over the pier and around to the broad field where numbers of men were salting and piling the haddock and cod²² they had caught. The fish were piled in circles or wheel-like heaps, after they were sufficiently²⁵ dried; and the fresher ones were spread upon long frames to “cure.” It was a great industry in that locality [Pg 149]and one so interesting to Dorothy that she wanted to linger and watch the toilers despite the decidedly “fishy” odor which filled the air.
 
But Joel said that he must leave them then and, after pointing with his whip to a grassy²⁷ plain beyond the fishing-grounds, advised:
 
“Best step right over to the Battery, Sissy, now you’re so nigh it. I’ve learned in my life that things don’t happen twice alike. Maybe you won’t be just here again in such terr’ble agreeable company—” and he playfully touched Melvin on the shoulder—“and best improve it. And, Sissy, strikes me you’re real likely. Sort of a common sense sort of little creetur without so many airs as some the girl-towerists put on. If so be ’t you stop a spell in Digby just tip me the wink²⁸ and I’ll haul you with any load I happen to have on my ‘Mobile.’ Or, if so be we never meet again on earth, be sure, little Sissy, ’t you meet me in Heaven. Good-by, till then.”
 
Off he went and left Dorothy standing²⁹ looking after him with something very like tears in her brown eyes. Such a quaint³⁰ figure he looked in his long blue smock, his worn hat pushed to the back of his head, his sandy beard sweeping³¹ his breast; jogging beside his beloved team, doing his duty simply as he found it “in that state of life to which it had pleased God to call him.”
 
“He’s a very religious man, Joel Snackenberg, and never loses a chance to ‘pass the word.’ My mother sets great store by him and I must write her [Pg 150]about our meeting him. Shall we go to the Battery or back to the hotel? Your friends don’t—aren’t anywhere in sight, so I suppose they’ve gone there,” remarked Melvin.
 
“Then we ought. Indeed, I feel afraid we’ve stayed too long; and yet I can’t be sorry, since we’ve met that dear old man.”
 
Melvin had promptly³² recovered his “glibness” upon the departure of the teamster; and though he looked at her in some surprise he answered:
 
“I don’t believe many girls would call him ‘dear.’ I shouldn’t have thought of doing so myself. That Molly wouldn&rsquo............