She asked these harrowing questions and many others of her sympathizing friends.
"Don't worry," soothed Henrietta. "It's a good four months since I've heard a single word from _my_ father. If he isn't lost on one of his exploring expeditions in the heart of India or Africa or Asia, he's been arrested for digging up somebody's old tomb. That's why I live with my grandmother, you know. Whenever Father hears of anything interesting to dig, no matter where it is, he just rushes off to dig it. And of course he couldn't do that if he had me tied to his--his suspenders."
"But you have your grandmother and so much money of your own that you wouldn't _need_ to be a school orphan like--like Abbie."
"Mabel, before I'd let you be like Abbie--and you'd have to shrink an awful lot to do it and change color besides--I'd adopt you myself. It's a promise. If anything _should_ happen to your people, I'll adopt you, so there! But don't worry. Nothing _is_ going to happen."
While these assurances were cheering, Mabel still looked disconsolately at Abbie and at Sallie.
Mabel, with a long afternoon before her and tempted by the pleasant day, decided to take a walk in the grove. Perhaps she could find a hickory nut. On the veranda she overtook little Lillian Thwaite, obviously waiting for some one to walk with.
"Come on, Lill," said Mabel. "Let's go down to the grove."
"Can't," returned Lillian, shrugging her small shoulders. "I'm going in to practise my duet."
"Then why did you put your things on?" demanded Mabel, suspiciously.
"Just for instance," returned Lillian, pertly.
Mabel discovered Grace Allen poking among the leaves in the grove.
"Hello, Grace!" said she, hopefully. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing. I'm going back to the house in a minute."
"Don't care to," returned Grace, snippishly.
Mabel found the deserted grove rather gloomy and uninteresting. Beyond it the sunny prairie stretched for miles and miles with just one visible break--a small house with a tumble-down fence far off toward the south. It was out of bounds of course. Still, the girls _had_ wandered out on the prairie and not one of the Rhodes family had said a word. It looked like an entirely safe and harmless place. Mabel looked speculatively at the faraway little house.