“Good-by, dear,” she said. “I’ll bring the other little children back with me. You’ll enjoy that. Good-by.”
“I’m comin’, too,” said Ardelia.
“Why—no, dear—you wait for us. You’d only turn around and come right back, you know,” urged Miss Forsythe, secretly touched by this devotion to herself.
“Come back nothin’,” said Ardelia doggedly. “I’m goin’ home.”
“Why—why, Ardelia! Don’t you really like it?”
“Naw, it’s too hot.”
Miss Forsythe stared.
“But Ardelia, you don’t want to go back to that horrible smelly street? Not truly?”
“Betcher life I do!” said Ardelia.
The train steamed in; Miss Forsythe mounted the steps uneasily, Ardelia clinging to her hand.