“If my sister goes West I surely ought to escort her,” Jack exclaimed, “and protect her from train-robbers and scalping Indians!”
“Oh-h!” sighed Adele. “It will be nine whole months before next summer. It doesn’t seem as though I could wait so long.”
“Time flies,” her mother smilingly assured her. “Before you realize it, you will be packing your trunk and buying a ticket for—where, Mr. Dearman?” she inquired, turning to their guest.
“Douglas is the nearest station, although some of the trains stop at Silver Creek,” he replied. Then they all arose, and soon were seated in the big touring-car, with Jack driving them to the station.
Adele was almost as excited as were Eva and Amanda when the shrill whistle of the approaching engine was heard, and when the train slowed up and stopped, there were tears in their eyes as they kissed each other good-by, promising to write often.
“Oh, Adele,” Eva whispered in a last embrace. “You have been so good to me, and you will never know what it has meant, because you have not lost your mother.”
Then Uncle Dick helped the two girls into the car nearest, and they waved from the window while the train was slowly leaving the station.
Adele turned away with a sense of loneliness, but through her tears she saw her mother waiting for her, and, nestling close to that loved one on the back seat of the car, she said softly, “Mumsie, dear, I feel as if I were living in a story-book, and that one chapter was finished, and now I am so eager to know what the next chapter will be.”
If you are also interested, you can learn the “next chapter” by reading “Adele Doring on a Ranch.”
THE END