Upon the strength of this vague information Mrs. Carruth had ’phoned home that she was setting out for South Riveredge by the trolley and hoped to find the runaway.
But the search, naturally, was unavailing and she was forced to return in a most anxious state of mind. As she turned into Hillside street and began to mount the steep ascent, her limbs were trembling, partly from physical and partly from nervous exhaustion. Before she reached the top she saw the object of her quest bearing down upon her with arms outstretched and burnished hair flying all about her.
Jean had not paused for the hat or coat, which she had impatiently flung aside upon entering Eleanor’s room. Her one impulse after learning of the calamity which had overtaken them was to offer consolation to her mother. The impact when she met that weary woman came very near landing them both in the gutter, and nothing but the little fly-away’s agility saved them. Jean was wonderfully strong for her age, her outdoor life having developed her muscles to a most unusual degree.
“Oh, mother, mother. I’m so sorry I frightened you. I didn’t mean to; truly I didn’t. I only wanted to prove I could help, and now I can, ’cause I’ve got a lot of new customers and made most four dollars. I could have made more if some of the papers hadn’t bursted and spilt the candy in the road. We got some of it up, but it was all dirty and I couldn’t take any money for that, though the boys ate it after they’d washed if off at the hose faucet. It wasn’t so very dirty, you know. And now I’m going out there every single Saturday morning, and Connie and I—”
“Jean; Jean; stop for mercy’s sake. What are you talking about? Have you taken leave of your senses, child?” demanded poor Mrs. Carruth, wholly bewildered, for until this moment she had heard absolutely nothing of the candy-making, Mammy and Constance having guarded their secret well. It had never occurred to Jean that even her mother was in ignorance of the enterprise, and now she looked at her as though it had come her turn to question her mother’s sanity. They had now reached the house and were ascending the steps, Jean assisting her mother by pushing vigorously upon her elbow.
“Come right into the living-room with me, Jean, and let me learn where you’ve been this morning. You have alarmed me terribly, and Mammy has been nearly beside herself. She was sure you and Baltie were both killed.”
“Pooh! Fiddlesticks! She might have known better. She thinks Baltie is as fiery as Mr. Stuyvesant’s Comet, and that nobody can drive him but herself. I’ve been to East Riveredge with the candy—”
“What candy, Jean? I do not know what you mean.”
“Constance’s candy!” emphasized Jean, and then and there told the whole story so far as she herself knew the facts regarding it. Mrs. Carruth sat quite speechless during the recitation, wondering what new development upon the part of her offspring the present order of things would bring to light.
“And Mumsey, darling,” continued Jean, winding her arms about her mother’s neck and slipping upon her lap, “I’m going to help now; I really am, ’cause Nornie has told me about that horried old insurance and I know we haven’t much money and—”