The dear old lady smiled when she saw them coming so, and, returning
their cheery greeting happily, added: "Have you children seen Judy
anywhere? The child is not in her room, and the fire is not even made in
the kitchen-stove yet."
CHAPTER XVIII.
BETTY JO FACES HERSELF.
All that day Auntie Sue wondered about Judy, while Brian and Betty Jo
exhausted their inventive faculties in efforts to satisfy the dear old
lady with plausible reasons for the mountain girl's disappearance.
During the forenoon, Brian canvassed the immediate neighborhood, and
returned with the true information that Judy had stopped at the first
house below Elbow Rock for breakfast, where she had told the people
that she was going back to her father, because she was "doggone tired of
working for them there city folks what was a-livin' at Auntie Sue's."
This was, in a way, satisfactory to Auntie Sue, because it assured her
that the girl had met with no serious accident and because she knew very
well the mountain-bred girl's ability to take care of herself in the
hills. But, still, the gentle mistress of the log house by the river was
troubled to think that Judy would leave her so without a word.
Betty Jo was so occupied during the day by her efforts to relieve Auntie
Sue that she had but little time left for thought of herself or for
reflecting on the situation revealed in her encounter with Judy.
Pages:
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179