CHAPTER VIII.
IS YOUR NAME SOLOMON?
All this while, Mr. Parlin, doing business in the city, and his wife, sewing by her cheerful fire, had neither of them felt any anxiety about their children. Why should they? They supposed them safe at school.
At one o’clock, as the storm was still increasing, Mr. Parlin went after them with a horse and sleigh. Susy and Prudy muffled themselves and danced down stairs in high glee, for such a fearful storm as this was an event in their lives. But where was Dotty? Their father came out of the primary room with a pale face, and Miss Parker followed him, repeating,—
“I am sure, Mr. Parlin, there is nothing to fear. She only went to Mrs. Penny’s with Sarah—not an eighth of a mile. You turn down —— street, and it is the first house you see on the right,—brown, with green blinds.”
“Yes, yes, I understand, Miss Parker; but I wonder you dared let such little ones go out of the yard. I trust it is all right; but if I were in your place, I would not allow it again.”
Mr. Parlin told Susy and Prudy to wait while he went to Mrs. Penny’s with the sleigh. Of course, when he got there, the Pennys knew nothing about the children, and were in a great fright on being informed that, more than an hour ago, Tate had started for home with Dotty.
Mrs. Penny was a widow; she had no one to send in search of her missing child but her son Ben, a lad of fourteen, who was just recovering from a slow fever.
“I must go, mother,” pleaded Ben; “I can’t stand it to sit here and do nothing.”