Mr. Snyder laughed. "Funny thing to be glad about."
"Why, you see, they have all got it at my aunt's in the city and that is why I couldn't go there when mamma went away, and now maybe I can."
"But what put it into your head to come so far from home to-day?" Mrs. Snyder asked.
Eleanor hung her head. "Because—because, Don hung my doll, and I can't bear him, and they don't believe anything I say, and nobody loves me, and I was so lonely I just couldn't stand it."
Mrs. Snyder looked at her husband and then gathered Eleanor into her motherly arms. "Poor little thing! Homesick in her own home; mother sick, I reckon. Let us keep her here a bit, Ben. You told me a month ago that Mrs. Dallas had gone off to them Hot Springs and left the child with kinfolks. I remember, because you said you'd never had no complaint of your butter and eggs from that house in all these years, and you reckoned Mrs. Murdoch was kind of fussy. Ain't her name Murdoch?"
"Yes, that's it; Murdoch. She did say the butter was too salt and couldn't I bring her bigger eggs; these was too small; and I told her I'd call the hen's attention to it, and tell them they must keep their tape-measures in their pockets. She didn't half like that. Fact is, she told me she'd get some one else to serve her."
"And that house has been supplied by you ever since Mrs. Dallas went there a bride. Well, child, I guess your mother didn't know who she was leaving you with. I reckon you haven't been very well looked after. Here, set right up here and eat some dinner. She looks kind of blue around the mouth, Ben. I don't think she'd ought to go back to-day, in this cold wind."
"Then, I'll send word to Mrs. Murdoch by Lem. He can go some time before night; I'd as lief let her worry for a while. He can go 'round by Johnson's and see if the little darky is there. Very likely she's all snug with them. Some one else probably gave her a lift. I remember, now, I didn't go to town on Wednesday week. I went to that sale over by the crossroads, and I got Nat Gilam to go for me. No doubt she went with him to Johnson's. Don't you worry about her, honey. What you got bilin' in that pot, mother?"
"Suet puddin'. Seemed like the day for it. I'd as lief let her fuss for a while, that Mrs. Murdoch, I mean. Butter too salt, indeed."
"Give the child somethin' to eat, mother; she ain't scarcely touched anything."