Page:Mistress Madcap Surrenders (1926).pdf/231



OUNDS!" exclaimed Mehitable in bitter disappointment. "They be not home, Cherry! And I will not go swimming in the pond an Mistress Wright be not here to keep watch for us!"

She sighed and pushed her sunbonnet back on to her neck. Charity, seated upon the pillion behind her on old Dulcie, sighed, too. All the way across the Valley they had been anticipating their cool bath beneath the willows.

"Well, let us return home," Charity was commencing, when the other interrupted her.

"Cherry, there is a letter 'R' on their gatepost!"

Both girls stared, then looked at each other in alarm. "Think ye Moody is out?" exclaimed Mehitable uneasily. Tis plain that is why the poor Wrights have fled! Doubtless they are gone to hide on the Mountain!"

"Moody!" answered Charity. "Nay, not a stick would have been left standing, nor a stone, had Moody been here!"

James Moody, a peaceable enough man before