These, and a dozen other wild questions like them fairly smothered poor Billie, and it was a long time before she could get a word in edgewise.
“Please keep still a minute,” she cried at last. “You’re making so much noise you’ll wake the children.”
“Goodness! who cares about the children?” cried Laura impatiently. “Billie, if you don’t say something, I’ll scream.”
“Well, give me a chance then,” retorted Billie.
“What did you mean by saying that you saw them in Miss Arbuckle’s album?” asked Connie.
Billie looked at her soberly and then said very quietly. “Just that!”
“But, Billie, when did this happen?” cried Laura, fairly shaking her in her impatience. “For goodness sake, tell us everything.”
“Why, I know!” Vi broke in excitedly. “Don’t you remember what Billie said about Miss Arbuckle’s crying over the pictures of three children in the album——”
“And said,” Connie took up the tale eagerly, “that she had lost her dear ones, but didn’t want to lose their pictures too? Oh, Billie, now it is a mystery!”
“But if you are sure these are the same children you saw in the album, Billie,” said Laura, walking up and down the room excitedly, “you will have to do something about it.”