So they cheered each other as best they could till Winnie suddenly exclaimed: "Oh, yes, Myrrh, and I'd nearly forgotten. I thought of such a good plan for Theresa to do while she has to stay there. You know her mother's ill with compunction, or some name like that, and she ought to be kept very warm; so I thought supposing Theresa made her some flannel jackets while she's up there. I know how to cut one out, and we can get the needles and thread and things out of Donnie's basket."
"Where are you going to get your flannel?" asked Murtagh, laughing. "Because they'll be rather queer jackets if they're made of needles and thread."
"I've thought of that, too," replied Winnie, triumphantly. "Come along;" and she jumped up from the staircase where she was sitting and danced into the boys' room.
"We'll have two of your flannel shirts," she explained, as she went down on her knees before a great chest of drawers and began to pull at the handles of the linen drawer.
"Well done, Winnie, you are a brick; I never knew any one like you for thinking of things!" exclaimed Murtagh, heartily, helping her to get the drawer open. "Here, take these two new scarlet ones; they're the biggest; and besides, all the others are in rags. Now for the needles; you fetch them, and I'll run out with these for fear Donnie catches us. Won't she be in a temper when she finds out they're gone?"
"Oh, she'll never miss them," replied Winnie; "and besides, we're only taking them for a poor person, so of course it's all right."
Right or wrong the shirts were speedily conveyed to the hut; and, busy with her work, Theresa was happier when the children left her for the night than she had been since the day of their meeting.
Thus another day went by. In vain the children hung round the Red House; Mr. Plunkett did not appear. But the end of their adventure came upon them more suddenly than they expected. On Wednesday morning they had for very idleness sauntered into the drawing-room where Nessa was engaged in rearranging the flowers, and, congregated round a little table by the window, they were watching her operations, when Donnie appeared in the doorway.
"I've brought you up the drop of soup I promised you, Miss Nessa. But the poor woman won't care much about soup this day, for it's all out about the child. The police have gone up now to search the place."
The words fell like a bomb among the children.