"He's a good worker," said Mr. Sanders, as he always asserted, "but I reckon he ain't no church member."
Jack had carried herself well through her visit and had no worse mishaps than a fall or two, a tumble into an irrigating ditch, and an attack of indigestion from eating too many raisins and too much honey, therefore Mary Lee considered that the visit had been unusually successful, and that in a week one could not expect much less to happen to Jack.
Bessie looked mournful as she waved good-bye and the tears stood in her eyes. Never before in her life had she been through so many exciting adventures as Jack had devised, and never had she had such an entertaining and lively companion.
"Never mind," said Mrs. Sanders as the carriage disappeared from sight, "some of these days you will be going to school and will have little girls with you all day long."
"There won't any of them be like Jack," returned Bessie, and it is safe to say that she spoke truthfully. But with no Jack to turn to she possessed herself of her favorite cat, and found solace in a quiet corner where she could suck her finger and mourn unobserved.
CHAPTER XVI
NAN'S NEW FRIEND
The telephone bell rang just after breakfast on the morning following the departure of Mary Lee and Jack for the Sanders ranch. Nan answered it. "Who is it?" she asked. "Oh, yes, Mrs. Roberts. It's Nan. You want to speak to me? Well, here I am. Lovely. I'm so glad. How old is she? That's nice. How long is she going to stay? Why, yes. I'll ask mother. Just hold the line, please." She rushed off to Mrs. Corner. "Mother, mother," she cried, "Mrs. Roberts wants me to come over there to spend the day. Mr. Roberts' niece from Boston is there. She came last night to stay a week while her mother and father go somewhere else. She's just my age, Mrs. Roberts says. May I go?"
"What about your practicing and your lessons?"
"I'll practice this evening, and I'll do double lessons to-morrow, if you say so. Mary Lee and Jack aren't having lessons this week and I don't see why I should."