Mrs. Hartwell-Jones and Letty were very silent at first as they drove along. Letty was quite overcome with shyness and Mrs. Hartwell-Jones was considering what it was best to say first. She was very anxious to have a long talk with Letty, which was the reason why she had not wished Jane and Christopher to come too. For Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s plan was nothing more nor less than to take Letty herself, to act as little errand girl and companion during the summer; then in the autumn when she returned to the city, to put the child in school and enable her to grow up well-taught and fitted to take her place in the working world. But there were a great many things to be thought about and talked over first.
“My dear, tell me something about yourself, will you?” she asked gently, after the gate had been passed and the ponies were trotting sedately over the smooth country road toward the village.
“About myself!” exclaimed Letty in astonishment. “Why, there isn’t anything to tell. I’m just Letty Grey.”
“How long have you been with Mr. and Mrs. Drake?”
“Three years this fall. My brother——” She stopped a moment to swallow hard and then went bravely on: “My brother was with the circus. He performed on the tight rope. Then after he fell and—and died, Mrs. Drake said I might stay on and help round. I had nowhere else to go. I am fond of Punch and Judy, and Mrs. Drake was always kind to me, but——”
“But what, dear child?”
“I hate a circus!”
“You poor child! Tell me how you happened to join a circus in the first place. Tell me more about it all. When did your parents die and where was your home when they were living?”
“In Philadelphia. But my father died when I was a tiny baby. I don’t remember him at all. We were very poor and my mother was not strong. My brother Ben was only sixteen years old when father died—he was fourteen years older than I. He ran errands at a theatre, ‘call boy’ I think it was called, and mother took in sewing. After a while Ben learned how to do tumbling from a man who had an act at the theatre and taught me how to spring up and balance on his head. Mr. Goldberg engaged us for his little theatre at Willow Grove. He was a very kind manager and used to give me big boxes of candy. But mother never liked my doing it. She was glad when, about the middle of the summer, a trained bear that had performed in the theatre went mad or something from the heat and they had to take him away; then Mr. Drake brought Punch and Judy and offered to teach me how to put them through their tricks instead of the trained bear. Mother was much happier because I did not have to jump with Ben any more.
“It was a very happy summer!” And Letty sighed. “It was the last my mother ever lived,” she added in a low, choked voice.