Adelle drew away, and as if seeking protection, crowded close beside Mr. McGuire.
“I’m never going back, even if I freeze and starve!” she announced. “I’ll find me a cave and live on berries. It would be more fun than being an orphan.”
Penny gazed despairingly at the old bell maker. With a chuckle, he took the child by the hand and led her toward the cottage.
“We’ll have lunch and talk things over,” he proposed. “How will that be?”
“I’m awful hungry,” Adelle admitted, smiling up at him. “But you won’t give me any old boiled potatoes, will you? We have ’em every single day at the Home.”
“No potatoes,” he laughed. “We’ll have the very nicest things I can find in the icebox, and maybe a stick of candy to top it off.”
While Mr. McGuire pottered about the kitchen preparing a warm meal, Penny washed Adelle and combed her tangled hair. Afterwards, she telephoned officials of the Home, telling them that the child had been found.
“I’ll bring her there within an hour,” she promised. “Just as soon as she has had her lunch.”
Adelle was ravenous. She was not a pretty child, but her face had an elfin quality when she smiled. Her brown eyes, roving about the spick and span little dinette, took in every detail.
“This is almost as nice as it was at our home,” she remarked. “I mean my real home, when Daddy and Mother were alive.”