Now Jessie and Amy moved the child to a less conspicuous spot and questioned her concerning her presence there.
“You surely did not come to New Melford all alone, Hen,” said Jessie, in concern, for she really would not have been greatly surprised at anything the wild child might do. “Isn’t somebody with you?”
“Well, Bertha come with me,” said the child, complacently; “but I left her.”
“I left her,” repeated Hen, patiently. “We was comin’ along, and all of a sudden I looks over and sees you and Miss Jessie and I just run through the crowd and left Bertha. I didn’t knock over more than one person, either,” she finished proudly. “And he was a little fat boy it didn’t hurt none.”
“It only goes to show there is good in everything, even fat,” cried Amy, in a strangled voice, and even Jessie had to smile.
“And you haven’t the least idea where Bertha is now?” questioned Jessie, searching the passing crowds for a familiar face.
“Oh, she’ll turn up, Miss Jessie. She always does,” said the child, confidently, adding with the first trace of anxiety she had exhibited: “But I hope she don’t take too long. I got an awful ache where my tummy is. I’m gettin’ hungry, I guess.”
Amy went off into a fresh paroxysm of mirth while Jessie questioned the child closely as to the exact location of Bertha and herself when the little girl had first seen the two Radio Girls. Being able to extract but the vaguest information from Hen, Jessie came to the conclusion that the only sensible thing to do was to wait just where they were until Bertha found them.
“It was very naughty of you to run away so, Henrietta,” she scolded gently. “I hope you will never do a thing like that again.”
“But, Miss Jessie!” the child protested, with wide-eyed surprise, “if I hadn’t run away from Bertha I couldn’t have caught you. I just had to run away.”
At this logic Jessie shook her head helplessly while Amy regarded the remarkable child with unfeigned delight. As a matter of fact, Henrietta Haney was a perpetual joy to the fun-loving Amy—“better than a box seat at the circus,” she herself expressed it.
“There’s Bertha now!” shrieked the child, suddenly, and made another wild dash through the crowd, bumping into half a dozen indignant pedestrians as she went.