“She was feeling too ill,” Connie said. “But I’m sure she expected us to go on to the Mexican camp the way we planned.”
“Is it too far to walk?” asked Veve.
Eileen was certain that the camp was not more than a mile away.
“Let’s ask my mother to take us there now,” she urged, climbing down from her low step ladder. “It’s late and we can’t pick many more cherries anyway.”
The other Brownies were tired from their work and so favored the proposal.
Seeking Eileen’s mother, who also had driven a car to the orchard, they asked her if she would take them to the Mexican camp.
“Without Miss Gordon?” she asked reluctantly. “I hardly think—”
“We don’t dare wait until tomorrow!” Eileen cut in. “The quilt may be gone if we do.”
“But dear, you might have been mistaken. If the quilt shouldn’t belong to the Brownies, I would feel so embarrassed.”
“Miss Gordon said she wouldn’t want us to accuse anyone wrongfully,” Connie recalled. “We could be real careful though! Couldn’t we sneak up on the camp and look around without letting the pickers know what we were doing?”