“Oh, that’s easy! There are a lot of farms a little way inland, and we get all sorts of fine things from them.”
“I wonder if Mr. Holmes will try to play any tricks on us down there, Dolly. He has about everywhere we’ve been since Zara and I joined the Camp Fire Girls, you know.”
“I’m hoping he won’t find out, Bessie. That would be fine. I certainly would like to know why he is so anxious to get hold of you and Zara. I bet it’s money, and that there’s some secret about you.”
“Money? Why, he’s got more than he can spend now! Even if there is a secret, I don’t see how money can have anything to do with it.”
“Well, you remember this, Bessie: the more money people have, the more they seem to want. They’re never content. It’s the people who only have a little who seem to be happy, and willing to get along with what they have. How about your old Farmer Weeks?”
“That’s so, Dolly. He certainly was that way. He had more money than anyone in Hedgeville or anywhere near it, and yet he was the stingiest, closest fisted old man in town.”
“There you are!”
“Still I think Mr. Holmes must be a whole lot richer than Farmer Weeks, or than all the other people in Hedgeville put together. And it doesn’t seem as if there was any money he could make out of Zara or me that would tempt him to do what he’s done.”
“Do you know what I’ve noticed most, Bessie, about the way he’s gone to work?”
“No. What?”