The Mountain Girl by Emma Payne Erskine Chapter 14 Page 21

She held him with her small arms about his neck.

“Well, doggie can’t have me.” He unclinched her chubby hands, crossed them in her lap, and held them fast while he kissed her tanned and rosy cheek. “Good-by, you young rogue,” he said, and strode away.

“Come and lift me down,” she wailed. But he knew well she could scramble down by herself when she chose, and walked on. She continued to call after him; then, spying Frale in the wood yard, she imperatively summoned him to her aid, and trotted at his side back to the woodpile, where they sat comfortably upon a log and visited together.

They were the best of friends and chattered with each other as if both were children. In the slender shadow of a juniper tree that