"Then we must both sleep, and be strong. Tomorrow we will be very good to every one. I will be well, and if I cannot eat I will pretend to. Lately I have almost choked on my food." Cora sipped the milk and then fell back exhausted.
"I nearly forgot your illness, I became so excited with our plans. Do you know when you fainted they were all very much frightened? They would not like to have you die!"
"But they might easily bury me. I should think that would be safer."
"No, it is very hard to bury one. Somehow they find the dead more difficult to hide than they do the living. I guess the good spirits take care of the dead."
"And we must take care of ourselves! Well, that may be. At any rate,
I am glad I did not die. Oh, Helka, if you only could know my brother
Jack. He is the noblest boy! And our girls! You know, we are called
the motor girls, don't you?"
"And you all own automobiles! I have never been in an automobile in my life," sighed Helka.
"But you are going to ride in mine—in the Whirlwind! Doesn't that name suit you? It sounds so like your gypsy names. Why did you say they call you Helka?"
"Well, I wanted something Polish. Holka means girl, so I changed it a little. My father called me his Holka."
"How do you know that?"
"From my mother's old letters. She told me as much as she wanted me to know. She said I was not all a gypsy, but I might choose my life when I grew up. She left me with a very kind gypsy nurse, but when she died—they took me to that horrible Mother Hull."