“So we’ll end up in spending the summer together after all,” laughed Jo Ann.
Florence nodded so emphatically that Peggy’s face brightened again.
In a few more minutes Florence stopped the car in front of the little store, then leaped out and into the arms of a tall, distinguished, gray-haired man, crying, “Daddy! Oh, Daddy! I’m so glad to see you.”
Just then a tall thin man and a small black-eyed Mexican boy rode up on horses and leaped off.
At sight of them Carlitos shouted joyfully, “My uncle and Pepito! My Pepito!” He sprang out of the car, ran over and greeted his uncle hastily, then flew over to the grinning little Mexican and threw his arms affectionately about him.
“Who is that child?” Miss Prudence demanded of Jo Ann after they had all exchanged greetings with Mr. Eldridge.
“That’s Pepito, his foster brother—the son of the nurse who took care of Carlitos so many years. They love each other like real brothers.”
“We-ell, I suppose they should feel that way,” Miss Prudence said slowly. “After all, all the peoples of the earth are ‘of one blood’—so the Good Book says.”
“We believe that in theory but don’t always practice it, as Carlitos and Pepito do,” put in Mr. Eldridge, secretly amused at his sister’s inward struggle to accept this relationship between her nephew and the little Mexican.
“Where’re the horses we’re to ride?” Peggy asked curiously after looking about on all sides. “Or are we going to ride in that oxcart over there?”