“All aboard for Pa Hooper’s orchard!” she called, herding the girls into her car. “Time to get started if we’re to arrive there by seven o’clock.”
During the ride to the orchard, the Brownies asked Veve and Connie dozens of questions about the work they were to do. Everyone except Eileen thought it would be great fun.
When Miss Gordon was less than a half mile from Pa Hooper’s place, her car was passed by a truck. Mexican workers were leaning over the high sideboards. Seeing the Brownies, they laughed and shouted, and waved their hands.
“They must be pickers for the Wingate place,” Connie declared. She had glimpsed Juan, the little Mexican boy, among the group.
A few minutes later, the Brownies saw the truck turn in at the orchard.
Miss Gordon drove her own car into Pa Hooper’s place. As the girls tumbled out, they noticed only a few persons picking cherries some distance from the packing shed.
“Well, you did come after all!” Pa Hooper exclaimed, walking over to the group. “I need pickers. Ready to start in?”
“Oh, yes!” Veve agreed. “We want to earn a lot of money.”
The orchard owner laughed and said that would depend entirely upon how steadily the girls kept at their picking.