Berry listened, hardly believing it possible that all her well-laid plans could be so overturned; for she knew that unless Lily could go and come without interference that she might easily fail to secure the spy’s message in time for it to be of any use to General Grant; and as her mother turned back to the kitchen Berry ran after her.
“Oh, Mother! I’ll do Lily’s work. Please, please, do not say she must stay in!” Berry pleaded so earnestly that Mrs. Arnold looked at her wonderingly. But she shook her head.
“No, Berry, you have your own work to do. And nothing could do Lily more harm than to let her run wild. After this I mean to have her learn more about household work, so that when she leaves us she can find a good home.”
Berry stared at her mother in amazement. “But Lily isn’t going to leave us, ever! I promised she should always stay with me,” she responded, nearly ready to cry at these new possibilities; if Lily could not run about, if she was to be kept indoors, Berry knew that she must give up her effort to defeat the spy.
If Mrs. Arnold wondered at her little daughter’s excitement over her decision she did not speak of it. “We will always befriend Lily, my dear, you know that,” she said. But Berry would not be satisfied with this promise.
“Mother! Say that Lily shall always, always, always stay with us,” she urged. “I have told her over and over that she should; and, Mother, it will be dreadful if Lily cannot go and come as she wants to. Why, she will think that you are displeased with her.”
“I am displeased with her,” responded Mrs. Arnold. “She has neglected her work and is wandering about for her own pleasure. Look! There she comes!” And Berry turned to see Lily coming up the path, swinging the clumsy ash bow in one hand and smiling radiantly as if very well pleased with herself. Berry started to run to meet her, feeling sure that Lily had important news; but Mrs. Arnold quickly prevented this. “Stop, Berry! Go back to Mollie. I want to speak to Lily. You can see that I was quite right; she has been making a bow and arrows and playing about in the woods.”
“Please, Mother, don’t——” Berry began; but Mrs. Arnold only shook her head, and Berry had only time to wave a welcoming hand toward her faithful messenger before Lily reached the porch.
Lily at once realized that her fears in regard to Mrs. Arnold’s disapproval were justified. She made no effort to explain her absence, but stood with bowed head and downcast eyes while Mrs. Arnold told her that all the work expected of her had been delayed, and added that henceforth she was not to go out of sight of the cabin without permission. Lily listened silently. When Mrs. Arnold had finished the colored girl dropped the weapon she had so cleverly made and turned diligently toward the work of the cabin. It was nightfall before she found an opportunity to tell Berry of her successful shot at the spy, and of his flight along the trail. But Berry was too anxious about the fact that Lily was no longer to be free to go and come to praise her for her clever shot; and poor Lily, who was quite willing to bear Mrs. Arnold’s blame, hard as that might be, if Berry was only pleased, went about her usual duties with so solemn an air that Mrs. Arnold became sorry for the girl, and feared that she had been too severe with her.
It was toward sunset when Mollie started for home. It had been rather an unhappy day for the little girl, for, after Mrs. Arnold’s decision in regard to Lily, Berry’s interest in Mollie’s lesson vanished; she became impatient with all Mollie’s attempts to write, and all Mollie’s efforts to please her were of no avail; nor did Berry notice the tears in Mollie’s eyes as the little girl bade her good-bye.