So supposing the colored girl might appear at any moment, Mrs. Arnold did not question Berry further. Berry brought her slate to the porch steps, and began to show Mollie how to trace letters, and for a time no more was said in regard to Lily’s absence. But as the hour of noon drew near and there was no sign of her, and when Mrs. Arnold had several times come to the cabin door and looked down the path in search of the missing girl, Berry began to feel uneasy. Suppose after all the stranger was in search of runaway slaves and had recognized Lily, she thought fearfully, and had captured the negro girl and taken her away! And Berry found it difficult to sit quietly beside Mollie on the porch step instead of rushing off to search for Lily.
Dinner-time came and as they gathered at the table Lily was still missing, and now Mrs. Arnold also began to feel anxious. She wondered if it might not be possible that Lily had tired of living with them; or, perhaps becoming frightened by the rumors of advancing armies, had again started on her wanderings, and she questioned Berry very closely as to probable reasons for Lily’s absence, and finally said:
“After this Lily must remain in the cabin, or near at hand, unless I give her permission to go with you, Berry. Now that Mollie is once more at home you can have her for a companion, and will not need Lily with you so constantly.”
Berry listened, hardly believing it possible that all her well-laid plans could be so overturned; for she knew that unless Lily could go and come without interference that she might easily fail to secure the spy’s message in time for it to be of any use to General Grant; and as her mother turned back to the kitchen Berry ran after her.
“Oh, Mother! I’ll do Lily’s work. Please, _please_, do not say she must stay in!” Berry pleaded so earnestly that Mrs. Arnold looked at her wonderingly. But she shook her head.
“No, Berry, you have your own work to do. And nothing could do Lily more harm than to let her run wild. After this I mean to have her learn more about household work, so that when she leaves us she can find a good home.”
Berry stared at her mother in amazement. “But Lily isn’t going to leave us, ever! I promised she should always stay with me,” she responded, nearly ready to cry at these new possibilities; if Lily could not run about, if she was to be kept indoors, Berry knew that she must give up her effort to defeat the spy.