“Now don’t you worry about that, Mr. Stone,” she reassured him. “We’ll manage.”
Although Mrs. Gordon felt grateful to the man for feeding the stock and shoveling so much snow, she had not changed her mind one whit about Mrs. Stone. However, she could not bear to think of the family going hungry.
After Mr. Stone had gone, the Brownies had luncheon. Though the meal was a rather skimpy one, no one complained. Nevertheless, the Brownies felt increasingly blue, knowing that with the roads blocked they were unlikely to see their parents on Christmas.
“Do you suppose they’ll come to Deerford and just wait there?” Connie speculated. “Or will they decide not to leave Rosedale?”
Miss Gordon had no satisfactory answer for either of the questions. With the telephone still out of service, it was impossible to call the Deerford station or Mr. Gordon, who had remained at Goshen.
After the luncheon dishes were washed and put away, the Brownies, for the first time since they had arrived at the farm, did not know how to occupy their time.
It was too cold to play outside. In any case, the only place they could go was through the long trench of snow to the barn and the woodpile.
“If the attic isn’t too chilly, why not explore there again?” suggested Miss Gordon.
“Oh, yes, let’s!” cried Eileen. “May we dress up in the old clothes?”
“Use anything you like,” replied Grandmother Gordon.