“I like dancing,” Mamie says.

“Rock-’n’-roll stuff?”

“Yes, but at school we only get folk-dancing. I’m learning the sword-dance. It’s historic in the Border country.”

All the rest of the week, she hurries home from school to see if Alice Long has been to see her mother about the missing dog.

I counted. One, two, three, four. But I had five when I left the wood. I brought five out of the wood, and up the hill. I had five at the Lodge. I must have had .

Alice Long will be up to ninety-nine. She will come to Mamie’s house to make enquiries:

“Hamilton says she only brought four.

“Hamilton says he didn’t count them, he just took the leads from her hand.

“Hamilton must have been drinking and let one of them slip out of the door.

“I’ve only just counted them. One must have been missing since Monday. When Mamie. . .“

By Friday, Alice Long has not come. Mamie’s mother says, “Alice Long hasn’t dropped in. I must take a pie up to the House on Monday and see what’s doing.”

On Sunday afternoon, Alice Long’s car stops at the door. “Come in, Miss Long, come in. Have you no family down this week-end?”

Mamie’s father shuts away the television, puts on his coat, says good afternoon, and goes upstairs.

Alice Long sits trembling on the sofa beside Mamie while her mother puts on the tea.

She says, “It’s Hamilton.”

“The same thing again?”

“No, worse. A tragedy.” Alice Long shuts her lips tight and pats Mamie’s hair. Her hand is shaking.

“Mamie, go out and play,” says her mother.

When Alice Long has driven her car away, Maxnie comes in with the ends of her skipping-rope twined around her gloves. Her father comes down, takes off his coat, and opens up the television. “Oh, don’t turn it on,” says her mother, in anguish.