“Oh, de chillen, de chillen! Oh, my little Miss Belle! what I gone and done, and what dey faders say?”
But we must leave Daphne, and go in the cars with our three little girls.
For the first few moments they did not understand it, and even after the cars were in rapid motion, looked about them expecting to see their parents and nurses come in. The truth came first to Maggie, and her poor little heart almost stood still with terror and dismay.
“Why, we’re going!” exclaimed Belle. “Where’s papa?”
“And papa and mamma, and all our people?” cried Bessie in a terrified voice.
Then Maggie broke forth.
“Oh, we’re gone off with! They’re left behind! What shall we do? Oh! what shall we do? There’s nobody to take care of us: we’re gone off with.”
Belle immediately set up the most violent screams; and Maggie and Bessie were as much distressed, though they did not cry as loudly.
The people around them soon understood the cause of their trouble: indeed Maggie’s exclamations left no room for doubt, that they were really “gone off with;” though it was some time before either of the three could speak coherently enough to say how it had happened. In fact the poor little things hardly knew themselves: all they could tell was that Daphne had thought they were in the wrong train, had gone to see, and before she came back they were speeding away, they knew not where, without their natural protectors, and in the midst of perfect strangers.