“That will do, Jane; you don’t know what you are talking about. I didn’t mean a railroad station—I meant that if the Lord intended Alice to be a servant she should try to be contented.” Mrs. Morton spoke severely, pursing her lips up tight in a little way she had when annoyed.
But Jane was not to be suppressed.
“Yes, but it wasn’t the Lord—it was Mr. Gassett’s stealing their money. Alice said it would make her mother cry right up in Heaven if she knew she was a hired girl. And I just know the Lord wouldn’t do such a thing!”
“Steady, steady—don’t get so excited, Chicken Little Jane,” soothed her father, amused at the tempest. “Alice has one staunch friend evidently. Here are some peppermints—you can go and divide with Alice to even up for her hard luck. If we find anything can be done about that money, I’ll promise to help her. Will that content you, little daughter?”
Jane gave her father a grateful hug and departed to give Alice a decidedly garbled account of what Dr. Morton was going to do.
“Bless the child’s kind heart,” said the doctor, looking after her tenderly.
“You do spoil that child dreadfully, Father, the idea of her mixing up in a business matter like this. I’m afraid I’ve let her see too much of Alice, but she is an excellent servant.”
“Alice is a treasure, Mother, and she isn’t hurting Jane any—that is plain to be seen. Let them alone—the friendship is good for both of them.”
Chicken Little came home from school a few days later, bursting with news.
“Mrs. Gassett came out to the gate when I was going by this morning and said she heard we had found some papers along with the silver, and she said they’d lost some and maybe they was theirs. I just told her there was some papers with big red things on them but they belonged to Alice’s father and Alice was awful glad to find them ’cause her——”