The next morning the girls woke up early. Soon after breakfast the station-wagon appeared, and in it was Uncle Dick, who said that he would drive Eva over to the orphanage, that she might say good-by to the matron and to the orphans.
Mrs. Friend, they were told upon arriving, was with a sick child, but would be down as soon as possible.
“You wait here in the office, Uncle Dick,” Eva said, “and I will go and find poor Amanda.”
How Eva dreaded telling her friend that she was going away to the Far West, for well she knew how deep and sincere the girl’s grief would be. It was Saturday morning, and the orphans were busy about their tasks, Amanda, as usual, cleaning the study-hall. When the door opened, she looked up, and then, with an exclamation of joy, fairly flew across the room, and, throwing her arms about Eva, she cried: “Oh, you dear, dear Eva! Have you come back to stay? Please say that you have! I can’t live here without you! I had made up my mind that if I couldn’t be with you any more, I would run away.”
“Oh, Mandy!” Eva exclaimed anxiously. “You mustn’t run away! Promise me that you will not. Mrs. Friend is so kind, and—and, I can’t stay with you, Mandy, because I am going far away to the West.”
Then Eva drew her friend to a bench and told her the story of her uncle’s coming.
“I’m so glad for you,” Amanda said, and then, putting her head down on her friend’s shoulder, she burst into a torrent of tears.
“Oh, Eva!” she sobbed. “Please don’t think I am selfish enough to want you to stay here now, but when I think that I am never, never to see you again, and there’s no one else in the whole world whom I love, I guess it’s more than I can bear.”
“Do try to be brave, Mandy,” Eva said, tears brimming her eyes. “I’ll write to you every week, and Adele said that she would be a friend to you. She likes you, really she does. But come; I want you to meet my dear Uncle Dick.”
Amanda dried her eyes and permitted her friend to lead her to the office. There she took Mr. Dearman’s offered hand, and, looking up into his face with a pitiful expression, she said brokenly, “I’m so glad that Eva has an own relation.”