“You must have been looking over into Carl Wingate’s orchard. What did you see, Veve?”
“Mr. Wingate struck Juan with a stick, Connie. I saw it plainly. He hit him hard too.”
The information worried Connie, even though she knew the Brownies never would pick cherries in the Wingate orchard.
“Mr. Wingate is a cruel man,” she declared. “I’m surprised that the Mexicans pick for him even if he does pay two cents a pound instead of only a cent and a half.”
“You see now why I fell out of the tree,” Veve defended herself. “I wasn’t awkward. You’d have tumbled too if you’d seen what I did!”
Connie told her little friend that she thought it would be wise not to alarm the Brownies by repeating the story. If they heard about Juan being whipped, they might refuse to pick for Pa Hooper.
“And he isn’t in the least like Carl Wingate,” she declared.
The bus now had reached a familiar street. Veve and Connie alighted to walk to their homes. However, because they were in such haste to tell Miss Gordon the good news, they stopped at a drugstore to telephone her.
Pa Hooper’s offer surprised the Brownie leader very much. At first, she hesitated and declared she hardly knew what to say about the girls taking on the picking job.
“Mr. Hooper really needs our help,” Veve urged. “And think how much money we will make for the troop.”