The boy plunged at once into his errand. Had she chanced to see a cap lying on her lawn, and did she know what had become of it?
Mrs. Benton nodded vivaciously. A cap—a boy’s cap? Of course, she remembered.
“When I looked out of my window that morning, there it was in plain sight,” she said. “And I must say it looked awfully careless and shiftless—I don’t know what strangers would have thought of the folks living in this house. So I went right out and brought the cap in.”
“And—and—and that was in the morning?” Sam faltered.
“In the morning—early.”
“Somebody came to claim it?”
“Nobody came. I declare! I don’t see how young folks get so regardless of things these days! And that was a perfectly good cap—that is, it would have been perfectly good if it hadn’t been left out in the damp all night.”
“Is it still here, ma’am?”
“Bless you, no, child! It’s gone.”
Sam leaned forward in his eagerness. “Gone where, ma’am?”