Adele Doring of the Sunnyside Club

The next morning the girls woke up early. Soon after breakfast the station-wagon appeared, and in it was Uncle Dick, who said that he would drive Eva over to the orphanage, that she might say good-by to the matron and to the orphans.

Mrs. Friend, they were told upon arriving, was with a sick child, but would be down as soon as possible.

“You wait here in the office, Uncle Dick,” Eva said, “and I will go and find poor Amanda.”

How Eva dreaded telling her friend that she was going away to the Far West, for well she knew how deep and sincere the girl’s grief would be. It was Saturday morning, and the orphans were busy about their tasks, Amanda, as usual, cleaning the study-hall. When the door opened, she looked up, and then, with an exclamation of joy, fairly flew across the room, and, throwing her arms about Eva, she cried: “Oh, you dear, dear Eva! Have you come back to stay? Please say that you have! I can’t live here without you! I had made up my mind that if I couldn’t be with you any more, I would run away.”

“Oh, Mandy!” Eva exclaimed anxiously. “You mustn’t run away! Promise me that you will not. Mrs. Friend is so kind, and—and, I can’t stay with you, Mandy, because I am going far away to the West.”

Then Eva drew her friend to a bench and told her the story of her uncle’s coming.

“I’m so glad for you,” Amanda said, and then, putting her head down on her friend’s shoulder, she burst into a torrent of tears.

“Oh, Eva!” she sobbed. “Please don’t think I am selfish enough to want you to stay here now, but when I think that I am never, never to see you again, and there’s no one else in the whole world whom I love, I guess it’s more than I can bear.”

“Do try to be brave, Mandy,” Eva said, tears brimming her eyes. “I’ll write to you every week, and Adele said that she would be a friend to you. She likes you, really she does. But come; I want you to meet my dear Uncle Dick.”

Amanda dried her eyes and permitted her friend to lead her to the office. There she took Mr. Dearman’s offered hand, and, looking up into his face with a pitiful expression, she said brokenly, “I’m so glad that Eva has an own relation.”

Then the tears came with a rush, and the girl hurried out of the room. Going to the dormitory, she threw herself on her cot and sobbed and sobbed.

Eva looked at her uncle with brimming eyes. “I’m the only friend Amanda has,” she said simply, and then she told the story of the lonely orphan’s life. “It doesn’t seem right for me to go and leave her,” Eva added sadly.

Then all of a sudden a bright smile lighted the face of Uncle Dick, and he exclaimed, “We won’t leave her, Eva. We’ll take her with us! The ranch-house is big, and it will be splendid for you to have a girl companion, for our nearest neighbor is eight miles away.”

“Uncle Dick,” Eva cried, scarcely able to believe her ears. “Do you really mean that? Truly, may Amanda go with us? Oh, you can’t guess how happy she will be!”

Then Eva, entirely forgetting that Mrs. Friend ought first to be consulted, flew up-stairs to the dormitory, where she felt sure she would find the heart-broken orphan. “Amanda!” she called joyously. “Don’t you cry another tear. Something wonderful has happened. Uncle Dick is going to take you, too. He suggested it all himself.”

Amanda, springing to her feet, caught her friend’s hands as she exclaimed, “Eva Dearman, am I dreaming, or is it really true?”

“It’s really true,” the other replied. “And do hurry, dear, for we are to take the noon train.”

Hastily Amanda washed, combed her hair, and donned her best blue alpaca dress, and then, all of a sudden, she thought of something. “Why, Eva,” she said, “won’t I have to ask Mrs. Friend if I may go?”

Before the other girl could reply, the matron herself appeared with such a bright smile that the girls knew that everything must be all right.

“Eva and Amanda!” she said as she kissed one and then the other. “I am so happy for you both. It is not customary to dismiss a child from the Home without the approval of the board of directors, but this time I myself will assume the responsibility.”

A few moments later the station-wagon drove away, and Eva and Amanda waved to the matron and her remaining children until they were out of sight. They were beginning a new life.

Adele, at the Doring gate, was surprised to see Amanda’s shining face. Then, all at once, the truth dawned upon her, and, with a cry of joy, she ran forward and caught the orphan’s hand as she stepped from the carriage. “Oh, Mandy!” she cried. “You are going, too. I just know that you are, and I’m so glad for you.”

Mrs. Doring came out, and she, too, rejoiced to hear the wonderful good news. Then, turning to Mr. Dearman, she said: “I want you all three to come in and have a good dinner before you start on your journey. It is only eleven, two full hours before your train leaves. My son Jack is here, and he will take you to the station in our car.”

Mr. Dearman, knowing that this had been planned to give Eva pleasure, readily consented, and, paying the driver of the station-wagon generously, with a pleasant word he dismissed him.

Jack Doring was eager to meet this man from the West about whom he had heard so much.

Eva and Adele visited merrily as they ate the good dinner which Kate had prepared, but Amanda was so overcome with her new joy that she could hardly eat at all, but her black eyes were shining like stars at midnight. Mrs. Doring, noticing this, slipped out and asked Kate to put up a bountiful lunch that the girls might eat later on the train.

“Do tell that kind Madge Peterson all about our great good fortune,” Eva was saying to Adele. “She was so nice to us, and I am sure that she will be glad to hear about it. Tell her that I hope, some day, she will be in the West and that we may meet her again.”

“Eva,” Jack said solemnly, “here you are inviting everybody else to visit you and leaving me out. Haven’t I been nice to you? Why, the very first evening I ever met you, I invited you to a fudge party.”

“So you did,” Eva laughingly replied. “And if it were my house, I would surely invite you to visit us when Adele comes next summer.”

“Then you may consider yourself invited, Master Jack,” Mr. Dearman exclaimed, “for Eva is going to be the mistress of the Bar-X Ranch, and she may invite there whomever she pleases. Indeed, we shall be able to find bunks for any number of young people.”

“If my sister goes West I surely ought to escort her,” Jack exclaimed, “and protect her from train-robbers and scalping Indians!”

“Oh-h!” sighed Adele. “It will be nine whole months before next summer. It doesn’t seem as though I could wait so long.”

“Time flies,” her mother smilingly assured her. “Before you realize it, you will be packing your trunk and buying a ticket for—where, Mr. Dearman?” she inquired, turning to their guest.

“Douglas is the nearest station, although some of the trains stop at Silver Creek,” he replied. Then they all arose, and soon were seated in the big touring-car, with Jack driving them to the station.

Adele was almost as excited as were Eva and Amanda when the shrill whistle of the approaching engine was heard, and when the train slowed up and stopped, there were tears in their eyes as they kissed each other good-by, promising to write often.

“Oh, Adele,” Eva whispered in a last embrace. “You have been so good to me, and you will never know what it has meant, because you have not lost your mother.”

Then Uncle Dick helped the two girls into the car nearest, and they waved from the window while the train was slowly leaving the station.

Adele turned away with a sense of loneliness, but through her tears she saw her mother waiting for her, and, nestling close to that loved one on the back seat of the car, she said softly, “Mumsie, dear, I feel as if I were living in a story-book, and that one chapter was finished, and now I am so eager to know what the next chapter will be.”

If you are also interested, you can learn the “next chapter” by reading “Adele Doring on a Ranch.”