Promised
In the neighbor’s house Judy did find her father. Only his eyes showed
surprise at seeing her.
“How’s Meta?” she asked in a whisper. “You did come to see her, didn’t
you?”
He nodded. “She’s sleeping. She’ll be all right when she wakes up.”
“And the orphans? Are any of them here?”
He opened the door to an adjoining room. Four babies, all under two
years old, romped on a quilt spread on the floor.
“It will make a hard bed, but it was the best we could do unless you
want to take them home. There’s an older child helping Mrs. Alberts in
the kitchen.”
“Of course I’ll take them—all five of them,” declared Judy in her
impulsive way. “Holly will help me take care of them. Her sister’s baby
has outgrown his crib, and I can put two more in the old trundle bed
stored in the attic, and two in the big spare bed—”
“Now wait a minute,” Dr. Bolton stopped her. “Your mother and I have
room for a baby or two in our house.”
Judy laughed. “There won’t be enough babies to go around!” she said.
On her way home in her father’s car Judy had her hands full. She was so
busy with the babies that there was no time to wonder what had become of
Blackberry. Two of her small charges slept, and two of them cried. The
older child wouldn’t talk. She just sat in a far corner of the car
holding her baby brother and looking frightened. She wouldn’t even tell
Judy her name.
“I forgot it,” she confessed at last. “You can just call me Sister.”
“I’d better go inside and prepare your mother for a shock,” Dr. Bolton
said when they reached Farringdon. “She isn’t expecting company for
dinner. You’ll help her with the babies, won’t you, Judy girl?”
“I’ll help too,” Sister spoke up. She wanted to give her baby brother
his bottle and explained his formula very carefully to Judy.
Mrs. Bolton made the children welcome, as Judy had known she would, and
Horace was there eager to hear more about the orphanage fire. Now Judy
could give him the latest news.
“Two boys started it by accident. Peter questioned them, but he won’t
want his name mentioned. Neither will I. You see,” Judy explained,
“we’re working on something else. I’m not sure, but I think we’ve found
Holly’s typewriter in that house with the boarded-up windows. And you’ll
never guess what else was there!”
“What was it? How did you get in? Is that where the beavers got all that
stuff they used to build their dam? You didn’t find any more of those
lady table legs, did you?”
Horace was asking questions too fast for Judy to answer, but she did her
best. When she told him they’d found the whole lady table refinished and
looking like new, he was really surprised.
“Only one leg is missing. It must be the one that was in the beaver dam.
I’m sorry now that you didn’t take it,” declared Judy. “It must have
been stolen right after you and I left to take Danny back to the
orphanage. It was his father who let us into the house. He said the
orphans could stay there, but that was before he saw all that loot from
the Roulsville flood.”
“It was his own house. He must have known the stuff was there.”
“No, Horace, I don’t think he did. Danny knew it, though. He watched the
beavers drag some of that stolen furniture out of the house and build it
into their dam. Then, when he saw a man open the door with a key, it was
easy for him to believe his father might be the thief.”
“That sounds logical,” Horace commented when Judy stopped to spoon
cereal into the mouth of one of the babies. “What do you think?”
“Well, six years ago, Mr. Anderson gave a key to the carpenter he hired
to board up the windows. I guessed the carpenter’s name was John Beer.
You know he was doing business with Sammis, or trying to. It all hangs
together, but Danny’s father can’t see it. He chased us out and called
the police the minute I mentioned John Beer’s name. Peter went back
there with them, and that’s all I can tell you until I see him,” Judy
finished.
All the time she had been talking she had been busy feeding the baby.
Its mouth opened and closed as if it were a hungry baby robin. Sister
fed her own baby brother, holding the bottle so carefully that he drank
every drop. The other two babies already were sleeping.
“What about that picture you took?” Horace questioned when they finally
sat down to a late dinner. “You told me over the telephone that I’d have
to see it to believe it.”
“Well, here it is,” Judy said, handing him the print. “Peter’s having
the film blown up and separated—”
“Holy cow!” Horace interrupted. “I’ve seen the picture, but I still
don’t believe it. The beaver dam shows right through this man’s body. Or
is it a man? He has a lady’s face. Did our lady table leg come to life
and decapitate him?”
“It must have,” Judy giggled. “Seriously,” she added, “it didn’t come to
life, and it didn’t walk away, either. We’ll find it when we find the
man in the picture.”
“I could write up a whale of a story with a mystery angle,” Horace
began, but Judy stopped him.
“Just wait, and you’ll have your story. We’re not sure of anything, but
there may be something released for publication when Peter gets home. It
may be late but I want to be there—”
“With all these babies?” Horace questioned.
Two of them had slept right through dinner. These were the two that had
been crying in the car.
“They were just tired, poor dears,” Mrs. Bolton sympathized. “I have
milk and cereal ready for them when they wake up. Just leave them here,
Judy girl. You’ll have enough to do, taking care of the other three
children.”
“I will take care of Little Brother,” Sister spoke up. “They won’t take
him away from me, will they?”
“I’ll see that they don’t,” Judy promised. “You’re both going to stay
with me.”
Horace offered to take them in his car. He wanted to stop and ask Honey
to go along for the ride.
“She’ll be a help with the babies,” he began, but Judy objected.
“You may as well know it, Horace,” she told him, “Holly is jealous of
you and Honey. She has a crush on you herself. If Honey is with us,
Holly may not want to lend me Bobby’s outgrown crib, and this baby I’m
holding is so lively she’ll need it.”
“So that’s it!” Horace was teasing again as they started off. “Suppose
Holly isn’t in the mood for baby-sitting? You’ll really be in a jam
then.”
Judy couldn’t see her brother’s face from the back seat of his car where
she was minding the three children. But she knew he must be smiling.
“We’ll take all three of them to my house,” she decided, ignoring his
teasing. “Then you can drive over and borrow the crib and see if Holly
is free to come and help me.”
“Right,” agreed Horace as he turned in the long driveway that led to the
house Judy had inherited from her grandmother.
“This used to be a farm,” Judy explained to Sister as the little girl
gazed about her in wide-eyed wonder. “I still have a horse and a cow and
a few chickens—”
“And a pussycat?”
“And a pussycat,” Judy agreed quickly. “He isn’t here right now. He’s
probably off hunting somewhere in the woods.”