"Well, you wait and see what my wife says. Mrs. Snyder'll know what's best. 'Tain't much further; only a couple of miles. Here, get up, Pete. Get up, Morgan." And the horses quickened their trot soon bringing them up to a substantial white house standing back some distance from the road. "Here we are," said Mr. Snyder, lifting Eleanor down. "Whoa there, Pete! I'd better fasten that horse; he's dead set on getting to the stable. He knows it's his dinner time."
A rosy-faced woman came to the side door. "Here, mother," said Mr. Snyder, "I've got company for you; Mr. Dallas's little girl. Run in, honey, out of the cold. It's blowing up, mother. Take the little girl in where it's warm, and I'll come as soon as I've fed the stock."
Into a clean warm kitchen Eleanor was led. There was an odor of fried ham and potatoes, and from an iron pot, bubbling on the stove, came a spicy smell. "Take off your things, honey," said Mrs. Snyder in a matter-of-fact way, as if the coming of a strange little girl to dinner were an everyday occurrence, and Eleanor obeyed, glad of the warmth and the welcome.
Mr. Snyder was not long gone, and when he returned he remarked, "This young lady wants to go to Johnson's, Almiry. What do you think of that?"
"Not to stay!" said Mrs. Snyder, pausing in the act of taking a pan of biscuits from the oven. "You wasn't meaning to stay, was you?" she asked Eleanor.
"Yes, till my mother comes home. You see, Bubbles is there, at least, I suppose she is. Didn't she come with you about two weeks ago, Mr. Snyder?"
"With me? No, indeed. Do you mean the little darky girl that lives at your house? Haven't laid eyes on her."
"Oh!" Eleanor's eyes grew big with anxiety, and her chin began to quiver. "Then she's lost, unless she is at Sylvy's. Won't you please take me there?"
"Why, child," said Mrs. Snyder, "that ain't a fit place for you; just a little two-story cabin with a loft. What on earth possesses you to want to go there? Hear the child cough, Ben. Sounds to me like the whooping-cough; mighty like it. I shouldn't be surprised if the child had it. She oughtn't to be running wild around the country in this way."
"Oh, do you think I really have it? I am so glad," Eleanor exclaimed in a satisfied tone.