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.“I love dogs, so don’t send him away.”“You love – dogs?”He repeated the words in a voice that trembled and she told him,“I used to have a dog of my own when I lived in the country in England and I loved him very much.”There was silence.Then Danny said,“If Mr.Minister sees Columbus, he says he’ll shoot him!”Roberta sat down on the ground at Danny’s side.“I am sure he was only frightening you.”“He really will!” Danny declared.“That’s why I have to hide Columbus here.”He looked at her in sudden terror as he asked,“You won’t tell – Mr.Minister?”“No, of course, I will not tell him,” Roberta said.“It shall be our secret.Call your dog back and let me meet him.”Danny hesitated a moment as if he feared that she was tricking him.Then he gave a low whistle and Columbus came creeping out from beneath the bushes.He had a spaniel’s head, but was obviously a mongrel.His coat was very long besides being ragged and untidy from the rough way he was living and he also had a big curly tail.He had the liquid loving eyes of an English spaniel and he nuzzled his nose against Danny in a way that told Roberta without words how much they meant to each other.“This is Columbus,” Danny said proudly.“Why do you call him that?”“My Mama said Christopher Columbus discovered America, and Columbus discovered me!”“Then I think it’s a very good name you have given him.”“Mama let me keep him in the house and he used to sleep on my bed,” Danny said, “but Mr.Minister hates dogs and told Columbus to go away and not come back.”Roberta pressed her lips together to stop herself from saying how cruel she thought that was.Now, as she looked at Columbus, she could see that the dog was very thin and knew that, just as Danny was suffering from what was almost starvation, Columbus was suffering in the same way.“I tell you what we will do, Danny,” she said, “I will make a proper meal for Columbus every day and you can bring it out here to him, but we will have to be careful that ‘Mr.Minister,’ as you call him, does not find out.”“If he does find out,” Danny said, “he won’t allow you to feed Columbus and then he’ll die.”Roberta realised that this was a very real fear and she said,“I am sure he does not mean to do anything so wrong, but your father will be coming back soon.”“He said he would come back,” Danny said in a very small voice, “but perhaps he has walked for miles and miles and forgotten about me.”“I am sure he will not do that,” Roberta said.“In the meantime, I will see that you have more food to eat and that Columbus has a proper meal at least once a day.”She thought as she spoke she was quite certain if this was to happen she would have to pay for it and she was glad to think that she had plenty of money left even after her long journey.What was more, once she was settled, she could write to her father’s Bank in England and ask them to send her more money in America.But first she must be quite certain that she would still be there when the money arrived.“If you come back to the house now,” she said.“I will find something for Columbus to eat and tomorrow we will give him a big meal which he will really enjoy.”She knew as Danny put his arms around Columbus and hugged him how much this meant to him.When she walked back hand-in-hand with the small boy, she persuaded him to talk to her about her aunt whom he called his mother and Clint Dulaine whom he called his father.It was obvious he did not remember his real mother and father and she did not like to ask too many questions about them.After they had taken Columbus all the scraps there were in the kitchen and there were pitifully few of them, Roberta sent Danny up to bed and took him a hot drink she had made from some chocolate she had bought at one of the stations where she had stopped during her train journey.He drank every drop and, when he had finished, he said,“Now the pain in my tummy’s gone.”“Is that what you have been having every night?” Roberta asked.“And in the day.It’s a nasty pain.”“That is something we must stop you from having again,” Roberta sighed.She bent down to kiss him and he put his arms around her neck.He had grown sleepy, but he asked,“Did Mama send you from God?”“I think she must have done,” Roberta replied and she felt the tears prick her eyes.*She was to learn more about her aunt the next morning soon after the Minister had left.Danny was waiting for her and she was just going to ask him where she could go to buy some food for luncheon when, without knocking, a woman walked in through the back door.She was a middle-aged woman, rather gaunt-looking, and Roberta realised that she was staring at her in an extremely hostile manner.The woman did not speak, but merely glanced around the kitchen, then stood with her hands on her hips, staring at her.“Good morning!” Roberta said after a moment.“It may be a good mornin’ to you,” the woman replied, “but I’ve just come to see who’s done me out of me job!”“Done you out of your job!” Roberta exclaimed.“You know what I’m talking about!” the woman replied aggressively.“I’ve just met the Minister in the street and he tells me he’s got a new housekeeper and don’t require my services no longer.”The woman spoke the last words in an affected tone as if she were copying the Minister’s accent.“I am sorry,” Roberta said.“I had no idea anybody worked here.”“For three years,” the woman said.“Three years and never missed a day, except to have my last child.Now in you’ve come and out I go!”“Perhaps you will tell me your name,” Roberta said.“Mine is Roberta Worth and Mrs.Dulaine was my aunt.”“So that’s who you are! Everybody in the village was wonderin’ who you might be when you got off the train,” the woman said.“Well, all I can say is that Mrs.Dulaine would never have treated me in the way I’ve been treated now.”“I can quite believe that!” Roberta said
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