"Charity? You don"t need it, you only need friendly help, Mrs. Pratt, and if I didn"t give you that someone else would!"
"And eggs! They"ll be able to sell eggs, too, won"t they?" said Dolly, jumping up and down in her excitement.
"They certainly will! I was coming to that," said Eleanor. "You know, this new parcel post is just the thing for you, Mrs. Pratt! Just as soon as a letter I wrote is answered, you"ll get a couple of cases of new boxes that are meant especially for mailing b.u.t.ter and eggs and things like that from farmers to people in the city.
"You"ll be able to sell eggs and b.u.t.ter cheaper than people in the city can buy things that are anything like as good from the stores, because you won"t have to pay rent and lighting bills and all the other expensive things about a city store. I"m going to be your agent, and I do believe I"ll make some extra pocket money, too, because I"m going to charge you a commission."
Mrs. Pratt just laughed at that idea.
"Well, you wait and see!" said Eleanor. "I"m glad to be able to help, Mrs. Pratt, but I know you"ll feel better if you think I"m getting something out of it, and I"m going to. I think my running across you when you were in trouble is going to be a fine thing for both of us.
Why, before you get done with us, you"ll have to get more land, and a lot more cows and chickens, because we"re going to make it the fashionable thing to buy eggs and b.u.t.ter from you!"
Mrs. Pratt seemed to be overwhelmed, and Eleanor, in order to create a diversion, went over to inspect the lean-to.
"It"s just right," she said. "Having a floor made of those boards is a fine idea; I didn"t think of that at all. Good for you, Margery!"
"That was Dolly"s idea, not mine," said Margery.
"You were perfectly right, too. Well, it"s getting a little late and I think it"s time we were thinking about dinner. Margery, if you"ll go over to the buggy you"ll find quite a lot of things I bought in Cranford. We don"t want to use up the stores we brought with us before we get away from here. And--here"s a secret!"
"What?" said Margery, leaning toward her and smiling. And Eleanor laughed as she whispered in Margery"s ear.
"There are going to be some extra people--at least seven or eight, and perhaps more--for dinner, so we want to have plenty, because I think they"re going to be good and hungry when they sit down to eat!"
"Oh, do tell me who they are," cried Margery, eagerly. "I never saw you act so mysteriously before!"
"No, it"s a surprise. But you"ll enjoy it all the more when it comes for not knowing ahead of time. Don"t breathe a word, except to those who help you cook if they ask too many questions."
Dinner was soon under way, and those who were not called upon by Margery busied themselves about the lean-to, arranging blankets and making everything snug for the night.
The busy hands of the Camp Fire Girls had done much to rid the place of its look of desolation, and now everything spoke of hope and renewed activity instead of despair and inaction. A healthier spirit prevailed, and now the Pratts, encouraged as to their future, were able to join heartily in the laughter and singing with which the Camp Fire Girls made the work seem like play.
"Why, what"s this?" cried Bessie, suddenly. She had gone toward the road, and now she came running back.
"There are four or five big wagons, loaded with wood and shingles and all sorts of things like that coming in here from the road," she cried.
"Whatever are they doing here?"
"That"s my second surprise," laughed Eleanor. "It"s your neighbors from Cranford, Mrs. Pratt. Don"t you recognize Jud Harkness driving the first team there?"
"h.e.l.lo, folks!" bellowed Jud, from his seat. "How be you, Mis" Pratt?
Think we"d clean forgot you? We didn"t know you was in such an all-fired lot of trouble, or we"d ha" been here before. We"re come now, though, and we ain"t goin" away till you"ve got a new house. Brought it with us, by heck!"
He laughed as he descended, and stood before them, a huge, black-bearded man, but as gentle as a child. And soon everyone could see what he meant, for the wagons were loaded with timber, and one contained all the tools that would be needed.
"There"ll be twenty of us here to-morrow," he said, "and I guess we"ll show you how to build a house! Won"t be as grand as the hotel at Cranford, mebbe, but you can live in it, and we"ll come out when we get the time and put on the finishing touches. To-night we"ll clear away all this rubbish, and with sun-up in the morning we"ll be at work."
Eleanor"s eyes shone as she turned to Mrs. Pratt.
"Now you see what I meant when I told you there were plenty of good friends for you not far from here!" she cried. "As soon as I told Jud what trouble you were in he thought of this, and in half an hour he"d got promises from all the men to put in a day"s work fixing up a new house for you."
Mrs. Pratt seemed too dazed to speak.
"But they can"t finish a whole house in one day!" declared Margery.
"They can"t paint it, and put up wall paper and do everything, Margery,"
said Eleanor. "That"s true enough. But they can do a whole lot. You"re used to thinking of city buildings, and that"s different. In the country one or two men usually build a house, and build it well, and when there are twenty or thirty, why, the work just flies, especially when they"re doing the work for friendship, instead of because they"re hired to do it. Oh, just you wait!"
"Have you ever seen this before?"
"I certainly have! And you"re going to see sights to-morrow that will open your eyes, I can promise you. You know what it"s like, Bessie, don"t you? You"ve seen house raisings before?"
"I certainly have," said Bessie. "And it"s fine. Everyone helps and does the best he can, and it seems no time at all before it"s all done."
"Well, we"ll do our share," said Eleanor. "The men will be hungry, and I"ve promised that we"ll feed them."
CHAPTER VI
THE GOOD SAMARITANS
"Well, I certainly have got a better opinion of country people than I ever used to have, Bessie," said Dolly Ransom. "After the way those people in Hedgeville treated you and Zara, I"d made up my mind that they were a nasty lot, and I was glad I"d always lived in the city."
"Well, aren"t you still glad of it, Dolly? I really do think you"re better off in the city. There wouldn"t be enough excitement about living in the country for you, I"m afraid."
"Of course there wouldn"t! But I think maybe I was sort of unfair to all country people because the crowd at Hedgeville was so mean to you. And I like the country well enough, for a little while. I couldn"t bear living there all the time, though. I think that would drive me wild."
"The trouble was that Zara and I didn"t exactly belong, Dolly. They thought her father was doing something wrong because he was a foreigner and they couldn"t understand his ways."
"I suppose he didn"t like them much, either, Bessie."
"He didn"t. He thought they were stupid. And, of course, in a way, they were. But not as stupid as he thought they were. He was used to entirely different things, and--oh, well, I suppose in some places what he did wouldn"t have been talked about, even.
"But in the country everyone knows the business of everyone else, and when there is a mystery no one is happy until it"s solved. That"s why Zara and her father got themselves so disliked. There was a mystery about them, and the people in Hedgeville just made up their minds that something was wrong."
"I feel awfully sorry for Zara, Bessie. It must be dreadful for her to know that her father is in prison, and that they are saying that he was making bad money. You don"t think he did, do you?"
"I certainly do not! There"s something very strange about that whole business, and Miss Eleanor"s cousin, the lawyer, Mr. Jamieson, thinks so too. You know that Mr. Holmes is mighty interested in Zara and her father."
"He tried to help to get Zara back to that Farmer Weeks who would have been her guardian if she hadn"t come to join the Camp Fire, didn"t he?"
"Yes. You see, in the state where Hedgeville is, Farmer Weeks is her legal guardian, and he could make her work for him until she was twenty-one. He"s an old miser, and as mean as he can be. But once she is out of that state, he can"t touch her, and Mr. Jamieson has had Miss Eleanor appointed her guardian, and mine too, for that state. The state where Miss Eleanor and all of us live, I mean."
"Well, Mr. Holmes is trying to get hold of you, too, isn"t he?"
"Yes, he is. You ought to know, Dolly, after the way he tried to get us both to go off with him in his automobile that day, and the way he set those gypsies on to kidnapping us. And that"s the strangest thing of all."