"S'posin' he says the same thing he did this forenoon?"
"Tell him to go back to the city, or I'll make it my business to send a reg'lar detective here to fix things up."
"If he gets mad, Joe, there's no knowin' what he might do."
"He sha'n't stay 'round here, an' that settles it; tell him I said so, an' I mean it."
Plums stole softly out of the kitchen, but aunt Dorcas was so intent on her thoughts that he might have made very much noise without attracting her attention.
Looking through the window, Joe could see Plums as he performed his mission, and, judging from the gestures in which the amateur detective indulged, it was quite evident he was displeased at receiving such a command.
After conversing together a short time, the two climbed over the fence, and disappeared in the orchard, going, as Joe believed, towards the barn.
The threat had failed of immediate effect, and there came into Joe's mind the thought that it was necessary he go out to make it more emphatic, when aunt Dorcas, having finished the work in hand, seated herself by the boy's side as if for a chat.
"Where is George?" she asked, and Joe looked about him in astonishment, not recognising the name for an instant. Then, finally understanding to whom she referred, he explained that Plums had gone out for a few moments, and proposed to summon him.
"There is no need of that, for it is with you I want to talk. I've been thinking about that little child, Joseph, and wondering what you could do with her. You said the German woman had promised to keep her only a week."