“Me, I got it in my head that mebbe somebody would remember pa and mom in Darrowtown, and would give me a chance. That’s another reason I come hiking clear over here,” said Sadie.
“We’ll hunt your friends up—if there are any,” Mr. Steele assured her.
Sadie looked at him shrewdly. “Say!” said she, “you treat me a whole lot nicer than you did a while ago. Do folks have to do somethin’ for your family before you forget to be cross with them?”
It certainly was a facer! Mr. Steele flushed a little and scarcely knew what to say in reply to this frank criticism. But at that moment the two-wheel cart came into sight with the pony on the trot, and Ruth and the twins waving their hands and shouting.
The meeting of the little chaps with their runaway sister was touching. The three Raby orphans were very popular indeed at Sunrise Farm just then.
Mr. Steele frankly admitted that this might be a case where custom could be over-ridden, and the orphanage authorities ignored.
“Whether those Perkins people she was farmed out to, were as harsh as she says——” he began, when Ruth interrupted eagerly:
“Oh, sir! I can vouch for that. The man was an awful brute. He struck me with his whip, and I don’t believe Sadie told a story when she says he beat her.”
“I wish I’d been there,” ejaculated Tom Cameron, in a low voice, “when the scoundrel struck you, Ruth. I would have done something to him!”
“However,” pursued Mr. Steele, “the girl is here now and near to Darrowtown, which she says is her old home. We may find somebody there who knew the Rabys. At any rate, they shall be cared for—I promise you.”