“Don’t you remember? Miss Gordon stitched in the Brownie troop name in one corner.”
“That’s right!” Eileen agreed. “Let’s get the girls together now, and hike over to the camp. We’ll find out if that quilt is ours. If it is, we’ll have all the Mexicans arrested.”
Pa Hooper had been listening to the conversation of the three girls.
“I hope you don’t have all the Mexicans arrested,” he said, speaking for the first time. “If you do, we’ll never get our fruit picked.”
“At least we’ll have the one who stole the quilt put in jail,” Ellen insisted. “I’ll bet it was Juan. I’ve seen him around here more than the others.”
Veve went quickly to the defense of her little friend.
“I’m sure it couldn’t have been Juan,” she declared. “He seemed very honest to me.”
“As long as I had Mexican pickers on my place, I never had anything taken,” Pa Hooper added. “This year, though, they seem more restless and dissatisfied. Can’t figure it out.”
While Eileen, Connie and Veve talked, Jane and Rosemary came into the shed with filled pails. They too heard about the quilt, and were all for taking action at once.