By this time the maid had picked up the tray and begun to clear away the dishes, but tender-hearted little Dorothy noticed that, as she came and went during the meal, her eyelids were red and her face was tear-stained.
“What’s the matter, Freda?” she asked kindly, as she ran into the kitchen after the meal was over, but she stopped short in alarm at the sight of Freda with her face buried in the roller-towel.
“Leave us alone for a little while, Dorothy,” said Mrs. Edgecombe, thinking that she knew the cause of the trouble. Poor Freda was homesick, she thought, and the knowledge that her employers were going to the dear homeland while she remained in strange America was more than she could bear.
“Would you really like to go back to Sweden?” inquired Mrs. Edgecombe, thoughtfully. “We are going to keep house there and I suppose I must find a maid.” But Freda shook her head while smiles broke through her tears and she blushed very red. Then she explained that she had promised to marry Eric, who had been her suitor for some time, but she had dreaded to “give her notice” to kind Mrs. Edgecombe, who had so patiently trained her, since she came into her kitchen, a bewildered little emigrant, two years previous.
“Then it wasn’t all homesickness,” asked Mrs. Edgecombe slyly when she had congratulated the blushing Freda. But Freda’s eyes filled again. “No, ma’am, I wouldn’t go back to the old country to stay,” she said, “but I would like to see my old mother and little brothers and sisters again.”
“Where do they live, Freda?” inquired Mrs. Edgecombe. “Perhaps we can go to see them and tell them about your happiness.”
“Oh, could you, ma’am, wouldn’t it be too far?” cried Freda hopefully.
“If your home is near Upsala, I think we can arrange to see your people,” said Mrs. Edgecombe, “for my husband is going to study some of the old manuscripts in the University there.” It appeared that she had lived near the old city and Freda began to plan joyfully about the presents which she would send to her dear ones.
It seemed to the children as if the weeks would never pass, but, at length, the great day came when the Edgecombe family stood on the deck of the big steamship which was to carry them across the ocean. Many of their friends had come to bid them “Bon Voyage,” so they were surrounded by a merry party. The warning whistle had just sounded for all visitors to go ashore and Dorothy was beginning to realize with a queer little lump in her throat that a year was a long, long time to be parted among the passengers and saw many amused glances turned from her favorite cousin, when she noticed a sudden commotion towards their own party.
Her father and mother also turned, attracted by the noise, and the whole family was amazed at the sight of Freda and Eric, their faces red and determined as they pushed their way among the passengers, followed by an angry steward. The officer thought that the young foreigners, coming to see their friends in the steerage, had mistaken their way; but, although both Freda and Eric had themselves crossed in the steerage and were a little awed by the splendors of the first-class part of the ship, they were determined to get a last glimpse of the Edgecombes.