By this time Hanny had come two-thirds awake. She saw Vevi sitting beside her, hay sticking in her mussed hair.
“Listen!” Vevi whispered.
The rain had ceased and Hanny no longer could hear the whistle of the wind around the corners of the barn. How long had she slept?
Hanny sat up, rubbing her eyes. Only then did she hear a strange murmuring sound from the lower floor of the barn.
“What is that?” she whispered.
“Someone is down there,” Vevi answered, very low. “When I woke up, I heard two people talking.”
“Maybe it is Peter come home.”
“I don’t think so Hanny. Besides, there are two people.”
Their curiosity aroused, the two girls crept to the edge of the hay loft. Peering down they saw a man and a woman standing in the doorway of the barn.
“It is Mrs. Mattox and her husband Joseph,” Hanny whispered. “But why are they here? They refuse me permission to walk on their property.”