“You are out all night?” asked the puzzled woman. “Is it so?”
“We—we got lost from our folks,” Tess said, at last.
“You leeve near here, eh?”
“Oh, no,” said Tess, now more communicative, “We live in Milton. We were riding in an automobile——”
“No, we weren’t!” interposed Dot, rather impolite in her eagerness to get the story perfectly straight. “We were stopping for lunch. Right beside the road. And Tess and I came to pick flowers.”
“So you wandered from your friends?” asked the Gypsy. “I see. I see.”
“And,” added Dot, confidently, “we’re hungry.”
“Oh, Dot!” exclaimed the scandalized Tess. “Not now! Not after eating all these berries!”
“Huh! what’s berries?” demanded the smallest Corner House girl. “I want an egg—and milk—and hot muffins—and——”
The Gypsy woman laughed merrily. Although she did not speak English quite like other people, she seemed to understand the language well enough.