"All right," agreed Anna. "I wonder how Chouse and the guard have been getting along."
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MARKET PLACE IN COPENHAGEN]
The guard looked extremely worried when the girls appeared. Chouse was nowhere in sight.
"I turned my back for just a minute," he said, "but when I turned around again your little dog was gone. He must have run outside, for you can see that he isn"t here in the entrance hall."
Greta was so upset that she couldn"t say a word.
"Come on, Greta. We shall have to go and hunt for him," said the practical Anna. "You go in one direction and I"ll go in the other, and we"ll meet here at Christiansborg in one hour."
There wasn"t anything for Greta to do but to start looking. There was no use in telling Anna that she didn"t know one street from another. There was no use in saying that she didn"t have the faintest idea of where to look. Anna had already started in the other direction and Greta heard her calling, every now and then, "Here, Chouse. Come, Chouse."
So Greta started off bravely by herself. Christiansborg was built on a small island, so she crossed the Marble Bridge to the mainland and began walking slowly along the street by the side of the water. The sh.o.r.e was lined with fishing boats and on the sidewalk there were hundreds of little stands where the women were selling fresh fish which they took right out of the boats. Now and then Greta stopped to ask one of them if she had seen a little black and white dog. Not a one of them had seen him.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FRESH FISH FOR SALE]
[Ill.u.s.tration: WEIGHING A LOAD OF FISH]
Greta decided that Chouse had not come along this street, so she walked back to the bridge and started down another street. Soon she came into a large open square filled with fruit and vegetable stands. The housewives of Copenhagen came here every morning during the summer to get the finest of fresh foods. Greta went from one stand to another, asking if they had seen her dog. Surely _someone_ had seen him. Finally she came to the very last stand, where a pretty girl was selling flowers. By this time tears had filled Greta"s eyes and there was such a lump in her throat that she could hardly speak.
"Why, yes," said the pretty girl. "I did see a little black and white dog not very long ago, but I don"t know which way he went from here."
Greta smiled happily at this news. At last she was on the right trail.
She left the market and took one of the narrow, winding streets that led through the main business district. Every little while she called, "Here, Chouse. Come, Chouse." But no little dog came in answer to her call. Maybe she had taken the wrong street after all.
Half blinded with tears she started across one of the large open squares. When part way across she saw Chouse trotting down the street ahead of her. Greta started to run and almost b.u.mped into a bicycle. She was not used to city streets, crowded with bicycles and automobiles. By the time she had crossed the square, Chouse had disappeared.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FISHING BOATS CROWD THE Ca.n.a.lS]
Greta was tired and hungry, but she didn"t stop to think about that. She was very much afraid that she couldn"t find her way back to Christiansborg, but she didn"t dare to think about that. Chouse was somewhere on the street in front of her, and she must find him. So the little girl kept on walking. The street had many curves, like all the older streets in Copenhagen. In some places the sidewalk was so narrow that Greta had to step out in the street to pa.s.s the people who stood looking in the shop windows.
Suddenly a terrible fear came over Greta. What if she _never_ found Chouse? But she simply _must_ find him--and keep him. She knew now just how dear he was to her. As she walked along, the tears which filled her eyes spilled over on her cheeks. She had never been in this part of the city before, and now she was lost just as completely as Chouse was. Oh, if only she could find him, nothing else would matter. In some way she would get back to Christiansborg and Anna. In some way she would persuade her father not to send Chouse away. She looked at her watch.
Goodness, she had already been walking an hour and a half! Anna would be worried about her. But Greta felt that she must keep on looking for her dog. She knew now that she was on the right street, at least.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SAILBOATS IN THE HEART OF COPENHAGEN]
Suddenly Greta came into a large open square that seemed familiar. She stopped a minute to look around. Maybe she wasn"t really lost, after all. What was that large building over to the left? Then the tears stopped and her face broke into a happy smile. Why, it was the railroad station, where she had first come into Copenhagen. She lost all her fears about being lost, but a great wave of homesickness came over the little girl. Without quite knowing why, she crossed the busy square and went into the station.
She would sit down in the station and rest a little bit before going on with her search. Just as she found a seat on one of the long benches a familiar little black and white figure caught her eye. Tired as she was, Greta ran down the long station. Everyone turned to watch the excited little girl who was running so desperately. At last she reached him, and it really was her beloved Chouse.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A BUSY SQUARE IN COPENHAGEN]
He jumped up at her and barked joyously. "Oh, Chouse, _why_ did you run away?" Greta took him in her arms and hugged him close. Then all of a sudden she understood why he had gone away. Right in front of her was the gate to the very train that she would take back home. Chouse was homesick, too. That was why he had come straight to the railroad station.
"Everything is all right, Chouse. We will be going home soon," said Greta, as a single happy tear fell on his black and white fur.
CHAPTER XIII
"GOODBYE"
That evening at dinner the two girls told all about their adventures.
"How did you finally get back to Christiansborg, Greta?" asked her aunt.
"I asked a policeman to show me the way, and he was kind enough to go all the way back there with me. I don"t think I could ever have found it by myself."
"Oh, Greta, I almost forgot," said her aunt. "Here is a letter that came for you today."
It was a letter from Hans, and Greta opened it eagerly.
_"Dear Greta:_
_I have some very good news for you. Father has decided that you may keep Chouse after all. He found that it was the rabbits, and not Chouse, who had been killing the chickens. Every time we saw Chouse running after chickens he was really trying to get the rabbits._
_We all miss you, Greta, and I think the kittens miss you as much as we do. They are getting so fat that you won"t know them unless you come home pretty soon. Give Chouse three pats for me._
_Your loving brother, Hans."_
Greta showed the letter to Anna, saying, "I think it"s time for me to go home, Anna. The kittens need me, and you can see that Chouse is very homesick."
"I"m afraid that Chouse isn"t the only one who is homesick," teased Tante Elsie. "But we do understand, Greta. We want you to stay as long as you can, but if you should be at home with your pets, then you do what you think is best."
[Ill.u.s.tration: GRETA AND ANNA]
"Thank you, Tante Elsie. You have all been so wonderful to me and you have given me such a very good time. I shall never forget it."
Greta decided that she would go home the next day, so her uncle sent a telegram to her father. Anna helped her to pack, while Chouse stood by and watched.
"Of course it is really Chouse who is homesick, Anna," insisted Greta.
"I could stay away all summer."
"Certainly you could," agreed Anna. "But I expect the kittens really do need you to look after them."
When Anna and Tante Elsie put Greta on the train the next day she was very brave. She had never before been on the train by herself, but she was not going to let anyone know that she was just a wee bit frightened.
After all, Chouse was with her, and this time he would not get away from her. He seemed just as happy as she was to be going back home.
Greta kissed Anna and Tante Elsie goodbye. "This has been such a lovely summer," she said. "I hope Anna can come to visit me again next summer."
"And we want you to come back to Copenhagen next year," said Anna.
Greta waved to them until she could no longer see their handkerchiefs waving to her in answer. Then she leaned back in her seat, with Chouse on her lap.
"Chouse, this _has_ been the grandest summer we have ever had," said Greta, giving her pet a loving hug. Then she took a withered rosebud from her purse and looked at it dreamily. "And I know that I am the happiest girl in all Denmark."