, down, at every step.

Poor child! It was hard enough to get lost; it was harder still to be
drowned!

"O, papa!" she screamed; "O, mamma! O, Prudy! can't you come? I don't
want to drown, and not have _you_ drown, Prudy. Can't you come, somebody
come!"

But there were no human ears near enough to hear her piteous cries. She
must have drowned--there is no doubt of it--if Zip had not been close at
hand. The moment he saw her sinking, he gave a low bark and swam after
her.

Before he could reach the unfortunate child the water was up to her
waist, and she was wringing her little helpless hands, and saying, "Now
I lay me down to sleep!"

Faithful old Zip lost not a moment, but seized her skirts and dragged
her to the bank, laying her on the ground as tenderly as her own mother
could have done.

Now you see why it is that God had put it into Zip's loving heart to
"want to come with his little sister."

Abner, who arrived a few minutes later, in order to cut some young
birches for his fence, said,--

"Wasn't it lucky, that that dog _happened_ to be right on the spot? And
lucky, too, that I _happened_ along in the nick of time, to carry the
poor little girl home in my arms?"

But the truth is, in this world which our Heavenly Father watches over,
nothing ever comes by chance, and events do not _happen_.

Abby shed many bitter tears, but they were not so much tears of sorrow
for her sin, as of shame for being found out. Such weeping does no good.
Indeed I am afraid it only hardened Abby's heart.

But the day ended gloriously for Dotty. She was handed about to be
kissed by everybody, and was, after all, allowed to sit up till nine
o'clock, and actually ate a "bubbled cream," sitting as close as she
could beside Colonel Allen's elbow.

CHAPTER X.

DR. PRUDY.

The next day Dotty had a severe cold, and her mother, fearing the croup,
did not allow her to go out of doors. This was hard for the child. She
felt very restless, because she had to give up "housekeeping" with
Prudy, a very fascinating game, which could only be played on the
river-bank. She looked out of the kitchen window, and saw some
carpenters shingling the barn.

"O, hum!" she murmured, "I wish grandpa wouldn't mend his barn!"

A white mist was creeping slowly over the river and the distant hills.

"There, now," she sighed, "I wish the earth wouldn't _breave_ so hard!"

Then she went into the parlor, like a little gray cloud.

"O, dea