“I wonder if they didn’t save some of their animals—their cows and horses,” said Bessie. “It seems to me they might have been able to do that.”
“I hope so, Bessie. But we’ll find out when we have dinner. I didn’t want to bother them with a lot of questions at first. Look, they seem to be a little brighter already.”
The children of the family were already much brighter. It was natural enough for them to respond more quickly than their elders to the stimulus of the presence of these kind and helpful strangers, and they were running around, talking to the girls who were preparing dinner, and trying to find some way in which they could help.
And their mother began to forget herself and her troubles, and to watch them with brightening eyes. When she saw that the girls seemed to be fond of her children and to be anxious to make them happy, the maternal instinct in her responded, and was grateful.
“Oh, we’re going to be able to bring a lot of cheer and new happiness to these poor people,” said Eleanor, confidently. “And it will be splendid, wont it, girls? Could anything be better fun than doing good this way? It’s something we’ll always be able to remember, and look back at happily. And the strange part of it is that, no matter how much we do for them, we’ll be doing more for ourselves.”
“Isn’t it fine that we’ve got those blankets?” said Dolly. “If we camp out here to-night they’ll be very useful.”
“They certainly will. And we shall camp here, though not in tents. Later on this afternoon, we’ll have to fix up some sort of shelter. But that will be easy. I’ll show you how to do it when the time comes. Now we want to hurry with the dinner—that’s the main thing, because I think everyone is hungry.”