'"
"To whom?" asked Mrs. Henderson, raising her head suddenly.
"Rag--that's the only name the child says she has. But Mrs. Fisher writes
they call her Rachel now. You didn't notice that when you read the letter,
did you, Almira?"
"No," said his wife, "I didn't have time to read more than part of it.
Don't you remember, I hurried over to Grandma Bascom's with the little
Pepper letters, and you said you'd talk it over with me when I got home?
And then Peletiah came after me, and I ran back here to poor Jerusha."
"Oh, I remember. I shouldn't have asked you." He nodded remorsefully.
"Well, then, I'll tell you the rest. You read the first part--how they ran
across the girl, and all that?"
"Yes. Oh, dear me! it gives me a shiver now to think what an awful risk
that blessed child, Phronsie, ran," cried Mrs. Henderson.
"I know it; I cannot bear to think of it even in the light of her safety,"
said Mr. Henderson. "Well, now, Mr. King has taken upon himself to support
and to educate Rag--Rachel, I mean--and the best place, at first, at any
rate, to put her is Badgertown. Now what do you say, Almira, to her coming
here to us?"
The parson's wife hesitated, then said, "Jerusha--" and paused.
"Will she be made unhappy by Jerusha, you mean?" asked the parson.
"Yes."
"No, I don't believe she will," he said decidedly.
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