“It’s taught me a lesson, too,” Danny put in. “I shouldn’t have gone off by myself all the time. I should have taken my friends with me. Next time I will.”
He smiled at the two shamefaced boys Peter had been questioning. They didn’t smile back. They were too close to tears.
“It’s all right, fellows,” Danny told them. “Ma will see that we have another place to live.”
The barn had been saved, and the fire had not spread to the woods. Firemen were still busy wetting down the brick skeleton of what used to be the orphanage when the Jewell sisters drove up in an ancient car. Dorcas was at the wheel.
“We’ll take six boys home with us, these three and these three younger ones,” she began in the commanding voice she often used when speaking to her sister. “Tell Meta, will you, Judy?”
“Poor Meta!” Violetta put in. “She has so much on her mind, we won’t wait to ask. She’s sure to appreciate anything we can do to help. We saw the smoke from our house and came right over. All the children are safe? Thank heaven!”
“All right, boys, get in the back seat,” Dorcas ordered, and the six children scrambled in.
“Good-bye! Tell Ma where we went!” they shouted from the car, as Dorcas started off with a jerk.
Judy turned to Peter, laughing. “My, that was fast! I didn’t want Danny to leave until he’d seen his father. But they do have a big house with all those unused bedrooms upstairs and that wonderful telescope in the cupola. The boys may not want to leave.”
“They may not have to,” Peter replied. “The Jewell sisters could keep a couple of them. Foster homes may be the answer to this emergency.”