CHAPTER VIII
TROUBLE FOR RHODA
“Oh, it’s Rhoda,” Laura admitted when the door was closed. “Nan, something terrible’s happened and Rhoda is in her room crying her eyes out. Won’t you come and see if you can’t do something for her.”
“Of course,” Nan started for the door at once. “But what’s happened?” She and Bess asked this last together.
“Rhoda just received a telegram from her father asking her to come home at once.”
“Why?”
“Oh, girls,” Laura herself was almost in tears, “Rhoda’s mother is seriously ill and they don’t know whether or not she will live until Rhoda gets there.”
“Go downstairs,” Nan took command of the situation at once, “and find cousin Adair. Tell him what’s happened and ask him what to do. I’ll go to Rhoda. Bess, you had better come too,” she continued. “Somebody will have to fix her bags so that she can leave at once. Now, don’t any of you cry in front of Rhoda, we’ve got to help her to be as brave as possible. Maybe it isn’t as bad as it seems.” With this Nan and Bess and Laura set about to help their friend and, for the time, all thoughts of their Mexican journey were forgotten.
Mrs. Hammond, Rhoda’s mother, had entertained the girls a couple of years previous to the present story, on the Hammond ranch in the West. They all remembered her as a beautifully graceful, sweet woman. Blind for many years, she had not let her affliction crush her spirit and was, perhaps, one of the happiest, nicest people they had ever known.