Elizabeth Ann and Doris looked at each other. They were glad they had bunks instead of hammocks—a hammock was all very well to sleep in for an hour or two on a warm afternoon, but they didn’t care to sleep in one.
Gardner was a pretty little town, about four miles from the farm. There was one main store, where almost everything was sold that you could mention. Uncle Hiram drove directly to this store and he said Elizabeth Ann and Doris might come in with him while he bought the things he had come for—knives for cutting corn, and gloves for the men who were to cut it.
“Hello,” said Uncle Hiram as soon as he went into the store. “Elizabeth Ann—Doris—here’s one of your neighbors. Catherine, this is Elizabeth Ann Loring and Doris Mason, my nieces. They’re going to school to-morrow, and Aunt Grace was saying she hoped you’d stop for them as you go past the house. Catherine Gould lives near us,” Uncle Hiram added.
Elizabeth Ann and Doris saw a pretty girl, about their own age, very beautifully dressed. She didn’t look as though she could have much fun in her pink silk frock, but it certainly was pretty. And she smiled at Elizabeth Ann and Doris and was about to say something when suddenly she frowned and looked so cross Elizabeth Ann was startled.
“Hello, Cathy!” said a boy’s voice, and a lad in faded overalls, with a large package under his arm, pulled off his cap and smiled as he passed the three girls.
“Hello, Roger!” Uncle Hiram boomed in his deep voice.
“I’m surprised your uncle speaks to him,” said Catherine, looking crosser than ever. “Roger Calendar is only a taken boy.”
CHAPTER VIII
ROGER CALENDAR
Elizabeth Ann—the famous little question mark, as Uncle Doctor had once jokingly called her—thought of several things she wanted to know. She remembered the taken boy the man had been hunting for when he met Uncle Hiram the day before. She wondered whether Roger Calendar could be that boy. She wanted to know if people called him a “varmint.” She wanted to know——