This thought was not at all troubling to the strange girl. “You see,” she began seriously, “I am not subject to the rules governing the other pupils.”
Then, noting the puzzled expression in the listener’s eyes, she leaned back against the tree as she laughingly continued: “Suppose I begin at the beginning and then you will understand about me once for all.”
“We don’t even know each other’s names,” Jenny put in. “Mine is Jeanette Warner. I have always lived with my grandparents on Rocky Point farm, which belongs to the estate of the Poindexter-Jones family.” A shadow passed over the speaker’s face, which, a moment before, had been so bright. “I want to be real honest before we begin a friendship. We are not farmers in our own right. We are hired to run a farm, therefore we are servants in the employ of the mother of one of your classmates. At least that is what Gwynette Poindexter-Jones calls us.”
The observant listener saw the flush mounting to her new friend’s cheeks, and, impulsively, she reached out a hand and placed it on the one near her. “What does that matter? I mean so far as our friendship is concerned,” she asked.
Jenny was relieved. “Doesn’t it really? Well, then I’m glad. Now please tell me all about yourself from the very beginning.”
Jenny noticed that her companion looked frail and so she was not surprised to hear her say that she had been very ill. “Lenora Gale is my name,” she began, “and my family consists of an unequalled father, and of a brother who is just as nice only younger. My dearest mother died of lung trouble years ago, and every time since then when I have caught cold, it has taken my vitality to an alarming extent, and last fall, when the bitter winter weather set in, and oh, how cold our northern winters are, father wanted me sent to California, but he could not come himself. Brother Charles wished to attend an agricultural college near Berkeley and so I was put in a boarding school up there, just as a place to stay and be well cared for. I was not to attend classes unless I desired. But the rainy season continued for so long that Brother thought best to bring me farther south, and that is why I am now in the Granger Place Seminary.”
Jenny rose and held out a hand. “Lenora Gale,” she said seriously, “the damp coolness of this canyon will not do at all for you. I’m going to walk back with you to the top of the trail. I can see quite plainly that you need a friend to look after you.” And evidently Jenny was right, for the rough upward climb was hard for the girl who had not been well, and she scarcely spoke until they said good-bye at the side door of the seminary. Then she turned and clung to the hand of her new friend as she said imploringly, “You won’t just disappear and forget me, will you? I do so want to see you again.”
“Indeed not,” Jenny assured her. “I’ll come up and get you tomorrow, if I may have Dobbin, and take you home to supper. I want you to meet Grandma Sue and Grandpa Si.”
Lenora’s pale face brightened. “Oh, how wonderful that will be. I wish today were tomorrow.”
Again Jenny descended the Sycamore Canyon brook trail, but this time she skipped along that she need not be late to help get supper. At the bridge, though, she stopped for one moment as at a shrine. “Here,” she said aloud, “is where I met my first girl friend.” A lizard on a stone near lifted its gray head and looked at her with bright black eyes, but Jenny, with a song of gladness, passed on down the trail, for once without noticing the wild life about her.