The plan was unfolded to Ted, and he, anxious to get back to his friends, willingly agreed to walk from the Corners, and there turn the cutter over to the charity workers.
“But Dorothy,” he objected, “I know they will all claim I should have insisted on your coming back with me. They will say you will kill yourself with charity, and all that sort of thing.”
“Then say I will be home within an hour,” Dorothy directed, as Ted jumped on the bob that a number of boys were dragging up the hill. “Good-bye, and thank you for the rig.”
“One hour, mind,” Ted called back. “You can drive Bess, I know.”
“Of course,” Dorothy shouted. Then Bess was headed for The Briars, the country home of the millionaire Wolters.
“Suppose he has already made his gift,” Dorothy demurred, as she wrapped the fur robe closely about her feet, “and says he can’t guarantee any more.”
“Then I guess he will have to make another,” said the doctor. “I would not be responsible for the life of that child out there in that shack.”
“If he agrees, how will you get Mrs. Tripp and Emily out to the sanitarium?” Dorothy asked.
“Have to ’phone to Lakeside, and see if we can get the ambulance,” he replied. “That’s the only way to move them safely.”
It seemed to Dorothy that her plan was more complicated than she had imagined it would be, but it was Christmas time, and doing good for others was in the very atmosphere.