“Perhaps they will come back?” Berry suggested, wishing she had not been so quick to blame Mollie for what it was plainly evident the little girl could not help.
“I do not think so,” said Mr. Arnold; “but what do you suppose has become of your black Lily?” and her father’s eyes rested questioningly on the sober face of his little daughter. Berry made no reply. She was beginning to be ashamed of her anger toward Lily, and to be sorry for her hasty words.
CHAPTER VIII
LILY’S STORY
Mr. Arnold had been right in thinking that Steve Bragg had removed to a location that he believed safer than the neighborhood of the Tennessee River in the late winter of 1862, and it was a long time before the Arnolds had any news of their former neighbors. But in her anxiety about Lily, Berry forgot, for the moment, that her playmate Mollie would not be on hand for their walks and games, and that henceforth she would be the only little girl on Shiloh Ridge.
Noonday passed, and the winter afternoon drew to a close, and Berry now became sure that they would never see Lily again. She thought of the friendless negro girl again wandering about without food or shelter, and trembling at every noise, and earnestly wished she had not driven her away.
Just at nightfall the outer door was cautiously pushed open, and Lily, her arms filled with wood, appeared on the threshold. Without a word, or a look toward the astonished Mrs. Arnold and the surprised Berry, she quietly filled the wood-box, and taking the milking-pail from its accustomed place started toward the door. Before she could reach it Berry called “Lily!” and started toward her.
“I knows yo’ don’ wan’ me h’ar, Missie, an’ soon’s I do de chores fer yo’ Ma I’ll get my ole dress an’ go,” the girl said humbly, not raising her eyes to look at the little girl who had promised to be her friend, and who had then ordered her never to return to the cabin.
“Berry does not want you to go, Lily. Whatever made you think that?” questioned Mrs. Arnold. “We have all been troubled and anxious about you.”
At the sound of Mrs. Arnold’s friendly voice Lily looked up, and her eyes sought Berry’s questioningly.
“Don’t go away, Lily,” exclaimed the little girl. “I don’t want you to go.”