“Oh, my!” cried Rowena. “Maybe those Gypsies are just waiting to grab you. Gypsies steal children sometimes. Don’t they, Rafe?”
“Course they do,” agreed her twin.
Dot looked rather frightened at this suggestion, but Tess scorned the possibility.
“Why, how foolish,” she declared. “Dot and I were lost once—all by ourselves. Even Tom Jonah wasn’t with us. Weren’t we, Dot? And we slept out under a tree all night, and a nice Gypsy woman found us in the morning and took us to her camp. Didn’t she, Dot?”
“Oh, yes! And an owl howled at us,” agreed the smaller girl. “And I’d much rather sleep in a Gypsy tent than have owls howl at me.”
“The owl hooted, Dot,” corrected Tess.
“Well, what’s the difference between a hoot and a howl?” demanded Dot, rather crossly. She did so hate to be corrected!
“Well, of course,” said Rowena Birdsall thoughtfully, “if you are acquainted with Gypsies maybe you wouldn’t be scared. But I don’t believe they gave you this bracelet for nothing.”
“No,” agreed Dot quickly. “For forty-five cents. And we still owe Sammy Pinkney twenty-five cents of it. And he’s run away.”
So they got around again to the first exciting piece of news Tess and Dot had brought, and were discussing that when Mr. Howbridge came out to speak to the little visitors, giving them his written answer to Ruth’s note. He heard about Sammy’s escapade and some mention of the Gypsies.