“I was just coming over to see if we could get some of your strawberries,” Molly said. “Ours are about gone. I’ve often driven this horse before; father thought him perfectly safe.”
“Any horse would be scared at seeing such a thing as a baby carriage with a flapping parasol, in the road. Those pickers bring all sorts of things with them, and have so little discretion about where they leave things. You shall not drive that horse home; we will send you with one of our horses,” said Mrs. Bentley.
And then Benny, with his aching head, was sent up to his quiet little room, while Mrs. Bentley and Molly had a long talk.
“That is one of the nicest little fellows I ever saw,” Molly remarked. “We took such a fancy to him at our house, with his homely, freckled little face. And his little sister Kitty is the dearest child. They have been very well brought up, and must have a very good mother.”
“Ben has been a great comfort to me,” returned Mrs. Bentley. “I don’t know what I should have done without him while Roy has been sick. He is always so quick and cheerful, and his dear little round face is always so sunny. And—” here the tears came to her eyes—“I know Mr. Bentley will think he can’t do enough for him, for Alice is the apple of his eye.”
“And my father, I’m sure, will feel the same,” Molly returned. “What can we do for him? They must be poor, or he wouldn’t have come here as a picker.”
That evening Mr. Welch made his appearance. He and Mr. Bentley stood out by the fence a long time before they came to the house. Then they came and sat down one on each side of Benny, where he was on the doorstep listening to the whippoorwills.
“Benny, my lad,” said Mr. Welch, “you don’t know what you’ve done for us two men. You must let us do something for you.”
“You have done ever so much for me. Oh, Mr. Welch, just think how kind you have been, you and Mr. Bentley, too. And do you think I could have let little Alice and Miss Molly get hurt without trying to do that? I only did what my father and mother would want me to, sir.”
“You like the country very much, don’t you, Benny?” Mr. Welch continued. “You told me so in the boat, and you said your mother was a country girl before she was married, and that your father was brought up on a farm.”