"Come, girls," Mrs. Morton called from the other room. "Come right in and lay off your things—do. You are pretty dears—both of you. City girls, I'spect?"
"No, ma'am," Nan replied. "We live in a small town when we are at home.
But we've been to boarding school and are on our way home for Christmas."
"And after that," Bess added briskly, "we're going to Chicago for two—whole—weeks!"
"You air? Well, well! D'you hear that, Peke?" as her husband came heavily into the room.
"What is it, Maw?"
"These girls are going to Chicago. If our Sallie and Si's Celia have gone there, mebbe these girls might come across them."
"Oh, Mrs. Morton!" cried Nan. "If we do, we will surely send them home to you. Or, if they are foolish enough not to want to come, we'll let you know at once where they are."
"Of course we will," agreed Bess.
"If you only had a picture of your daughter?" suggested Nan.
"Of Sallie? Why, we have," said Mrs. Morton. "She's some bigger now; but she had her photographt took in several 'poses', as they call 'em, when she was playin' in that 'Rural Beauty'. I got the prints myself from the man that took 'em."