Sandra was roughly pulled inside by the arm. Too panicked to cry, she began to think of how intense her beating would be.

But before she had a chance to try and move her mouth, her face was stinging by Mrs. Jensen's hand, ad NOW she cried. Her crying brought on baby William's crying, and the older girl, Molly, picked him up and cradled him as Mr. Jensen took Sandra by the ear.

"What's this now?" he said angrily, making it quite obvious that he already knew. "We clothe you! We give you a place to sleep at night! And what do you do!?" He slapped her face so hard that Sandra felt blood run down from her nose.

"Is this the thanks we get!?" he demanded, and Sandra cried harder. When Mr. Jenses let go of her ear, Sandra turned around to run. I'm tired of this, she though. I'll run away and be like Matthew!

But when she turned, Mrs. Jensen was there, hands on hips, glaring madly.

As her thoughts exploded into mixed emotions of surprise, fear, and hate, Mr. Jensen picked her up by her arm. Once again facing him, she began to cry hard again, as her tears had reduced at the previous thought of running away to become like Matthew.

Mr. Jenses squeezed Sandra's face with the hand that wasn't holding her suspended in the air, and turned it to face his. Sandra's fear turned into terror at the look of his face: red with anger and frustration, steaming with hate and malice.

Sandra, as her life fell to pieces, began to tell herself that any second Matthew would burst through the door and command them to drop "drop that lady!" and little by little, in the few seconds while Mr. Jensen was squeezing her face, she eventually completely convinced herself that she would be rescued.

At the very moment Matthew should have burst through the door, Mr. Jensen spoke up. It had seemed to Sandra like hours, but, in reality, it had only been a few moments that he held her face like that.

"Why, you little--"

Just then, baby William let out a thunderous cry, and Sandra heard Molly calling "Father, please come help!" Mr. Jensen looked in their direction, then back at Sandra. He dropped her and she fell to a lump on the floor.

"Watch this fiend," he said to his wife, and Sandra knew that she would.

As Mr. Jensen walked toward the room in which Molly was cradling baby William, Mrs. Jensen grabbed hold of Sandra's hair so tightly it hurt even if she didn't try to get away.

As Sandra began to doubt her rescuer, something knocked on the window of the room they were in. Hope sprung again in Sandra's heart, but was quickly extinguished when she saw it was just a crow. All at once three things went through Sandra's mind: How convenient, was one. Another, I can escape. This second thought seemed subconscious, and she didn't realize it was valid until the third thing was pulled into view: Mrs. Jensen was so shocked by the crow on the window that she let go of my hair! And with this thought, Sandra rushed past Mrs. Jensen and over to the door. The door had been slammed shut proceeding her arrival, but had not been locked, so she turned the knob and yanked it open, not bothering to close it after she left.

She ran as only a child could endure, and Mrs. Jensen could not try to come after her due to her long, expensive skirts. Mr. Jensen, having heard the knock on the window, came running out, but he, neither could run after Sandra, for muddied would his suit become.

And so, now free, Sandra ran, and how she ran. She ran past shops in buildings and shops in stalls on the street. She twisted and turned through the streets, now busier than ever, and soon Mr. Jensens' shouts were drowned out by the sounds of bartering, female chattering, and children playing.

She ran to the one place she could think of: the bridge. And she ran practically without thinking, as she had gone this way so many times. And when she arrived , she suddenly realized how much like a dream everything felt.

Matthew was sitting there, an end of rope wrapped a few times around his knuckles. Sandra did not have to follow the rope to know what was at its end.

"Oscar!" she shouted surprisedly, and Matthew grinned. Sandra ran to hug him.

Matthew explained that he had gotten the rope from farmer Hadley, at the price of going into town for chickenfeed. Of course, not wanting to look suspicious, he promised the feedstore owner he would bring him some of his mother's fresh apple pie in exchange for chickenfeed. Of course, Matthew had no mother, so he went to the bakery and promised sweet old Mrs. Burlow he would help wash dishes for a week.

All in all, he had told her, it was completely worth doing to be able to keep Oscar.

"How long was I gone?" Sandra asked, wondering how he could have run sp many errands in such a short amount of time.

"Not long," Matthew said, "but I have ways," and he winked. Sandra laughed and hugged him again.

Oscar started barking; slowly at first, and gradually louder, Sandra felt a cold sweat break out all over, even before she knew what she was beginning to hear in the distance: "Catch the girl! Catch the little girl!" She recognized Mr. Jensen's voice right away.

She had been certain that he wouldn't come after her in his fancy clothes, but perhaps Mrs. Jensen had nagged and badgered him enough to go after the little girl.

Sandra out a hand over her mouth so as not to cry out. Matthew, wide-eyed, grabbed Sandra's arm in the hand not occupied with Oscar's rope, dragged Sandra back to her feet, and ran.

They ran the opposite direction of town. They ran past trees, and Oscar was able to keep up, nimbly dodging the tree trunks, but one tree he went around the wrong side from which side Matthew, who held the rope, had gone, and the rope slipped from Matthew's hand. Sandra started to go back for Oscar, but Matthew tugged her and they kept running.

Eventually they came to a vegetable garden surrounded by a fence. They both assumed, of course, that they had come upon a farm, for the garden they had come to was very tall and wide. Matthew looked behind them, and Sandra followed. At first they couldn't see anyone, but a moment later, when their chasers became visible, Sandra had no time to turn back around before Matthew yanked her over to follow him over the fence.

They climbed over, and jumped into the tomato patch. Matthew signaled Sandra to be quiet, and they slowly crawled between rows. They crawled nimbly, not disturbing a single bush. They stopped when they came to the end of the tomatoes and saw a little cabin typical of a solitary farm. They stopped and remained perfectly still until they heard their pursuers' footsteps pass by.

Once the sound retreated, Matthew grabbed Sandra's hand once again and ran towards the little cabin.

Just then, the fence rattled, and Matthew began to panic, running harder toward the cabin. Sandra, however, knew by some sixth sense who it was.

"Oscar!" she cried. "Oh, Matthew, it's Oscar!" And so they paused, standing still as statues, until the rattling stopped and a canine sob grazed their ears; turning around, grins crossed both their faces, and they ran. This time they didn't bother to be carefully quiet, as they were just so glad to see Oscar.

Suddenly the sound of a door opening came from behind them, and instead of turning around they crouched behind the tomato plants.

Looking through the vines, Matthew saw an old man with overalls and a straw hat looking for anything suspicious. The man had a long white beard.

Before Matthew could even think what to do, Oscar growled his loudest. Matthew had time to surprisedly turn to Sandra and communicate through his eyes that it was time to run before he heard an elderly voice behind him say "You lookin' in my beautiful garden?"

Matthew whizzed around, amazed at how quickly such an old man could have gotten here from the cabin. But the old man expressed a kindly smile and reached out a hand to help them up.