As Amy said, when she could keep from laughing, it was a great introduction to Henrietta’s home. They went ashore, and Henrietta, who seemed to have a good deal of influence with the children, ordered two of the boys to watch the canoe and allow nobody to touch it. Then she proudly led the way to one of the largest and certainly the most decrepit looking of all the hovels in Dogtown.
Mrs. Foley, however, was a cheerful disappointment. She was, as Amy whispered, a “bulgy” person, but her calico wrapper was fairly clean; and although she sat down and took up her youngest to rock to sleep while she talked (being too busy a woman to waste any time visiting) she impressed the girls from Roselawn rather favorably.
“That child is the best young one in the world,” Mrs. Foley confessed, referring to “Spotted Snake, the Witch.” “Sometimes I rant at her like a good one. But she saves me a good bit, and if ever a child earned her keep, Hen earns hers.”
Jessie asked about the missing cousin, Bertha.
“Bertha Blair. Yes. A good and capable girl. Was out at service when Hen’s mother died and left her to me. Something’s wrong with Bertha, or she surely would have come here to see Hen before this.”
“Did Bertha Blair work for a woman named Poole?” Jessie asked.
“That I couldn’t tell you, Miss. But you take Hen up to see your father, like you say you want to. The child’s as sharp as a steel knife. Maybe she’ll think of something that will put him on the trace of Bertha.”
So they bore Spotted Snake away with them in the canoe, while the Dogtown gang shrieked farewells from the old landing. Henrietta had been dressed in a clean slip and the smartest hair ribbon she owned. But she had no shoes and stockings, those being considered unnecessary at Dogtown.
“I believe Nell could help us find something better for this child to wear,” Amy observed, with more thoughtfulness than she usually displayed. “What do you think, Jess? Folks are always giving the Stanleys half-worn clothes for little Sally, more than Sally can ever make use of. And Hen is just about Sally Stanley’s size.”
“That might be arranged,” agreed Jessie. “I guess you’d like to have a new dress, wouldn’t you, Henrietta?”