“Your wife took very good care of Jenny, and I want to thank her when I see her,” said the old woman. “Now I will be as short as I can.
“My name,” she said, “is Sarah Martin. I have been a widow for a number of years. Several months ago my cousin, Mrs. Henry Watson, came to me and said her husband had to go to South America on a business trip, and she felt that she ought to go with him, as he was not in very good health.
“They did not think it would be safe to take the baby to South America with them, so I agreed to look after little Jenny—that’s her real name—Jenny Watson.”
“We called her May Washington Bobbsey,” said Bert.
“We did that,” explained his father, “because we found her on the first day of May, and we understood from the railroad men that you had given a name that sounded like Washington.”
“Wassingham was my name before I was married,” explained Mrs. Martin. “Very likely I gave that name when I was out of my mind—partly crazy, I guess I must have been—and they understood me to say Washington.”
“Was that on account of the baby?” asked the constable.
“No, not exactly. But the fact that I had lost Jenny made me feel worse,” replied Mrs. Martin. “Well, as I was telling you, my cousin and her husband went to South America and left Jenny with me. They were to be gone about six months, and they are now on their way home. If I hadn’t been able to get Jenny for them before they arrived, I don’t know what I would have done!
“Everything went along nicely for the first month. I kept Jenny with me in my home at Blakeville, and she grew and thrived. Then, one day, when I was cleaning a closet, some dishes fell on my head. I was knocked unconscious, and when I was able to get up I had a queer feeling. I wasn’t myself. I seemed to have forgotten my name, and all I could remember about the baby was a feeling that I ought to get rid of her.
“So, not really knowing what I was doing, I put her in a basket, wrapped a shawl around myself, and, taking a green umbrella, I set out. I had only one idea in mind—to leave the baby at some house where there were other children. I must have felt that in such a place she would be well taken care of.