CHAPTER VIII
THE RUNAWAY
The excitement of the day had the effect of shortening the hours, and night came before the young folks at the Cedars realized that the day was done.
The matter of “doing something for Urania,” had been the all absorbing topic during the evening meal, when the various plans talked of during the day were brought up for final consideration.
Mrs. White agreed with Dorothy that the gypsy girl should be sent to some school, and the boys, Nat and Ned, had formed the committee that went to the camp to consult with the girl’s father about the matter.
As Urania had warned them, the trip was entirely unnecessary, for the man seemed to care very little where Urania went.
Such was the report brought back by the “committee.”
But to find a school where Urania would be received was not an easy task. Mrs. White, as well as Dorothy, had been telephoning to the city offices during the afternoon, and as Nat said, they had landed one school where girls would be taken in without reference, but they didn’t find a place where they would undertake to train circus riders, and Urania wanted a pony, she said, more than an education.
In fact the girl did not agree to go to school at all, in spite of all the efforts the others were making “to fix her up.”
Dorothy and Tavia had told her all about the good times she would have, and had even recalled some of the most exciting incidents that had marked their own school days at Glenwood, but Urania was not easily persuaded. Still, all the clothes that could be spared from the wardrobes of Dorothy and Tavia were taken out, and as only a few more days remained before the girls would start for Glenwood, it was necessary to arrange Urania’s affairs as quickly as possible, so that she would not be left behind when the others were not at the Cedars to keep track of her.
That night Urania was to stay with John’s wife in her rooms over the coach house. Dorothy brought her down to the house after supper, and even gave her one of her own sleeping gowns, besides a comb and brush, the first the poor girl had ever owned.