ore than shout his useless warning--the man
threw the net, and old Tom Jonah was entangled in its meshes.

The little girls screamed. Sammy roared a protest. The men paid no
attention to the uproar.

"Got a big fish this time, Harry," said Bill, dragging the struggling,
growling Tom Jonah to the back of the van. "Give us a hand."

For the big dog, his temper roused, would have done his captor some
injury had he been able. The driver of the dog catchers' van drove the
other dogs back from the door with a long pole, and then between them he
and his mate heaved Tom Jonah into the vehicle.

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, pushing 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