CHAPTER XVI
SPOTTED SNAKE, THE WITCH
"What are they trying to do to that poor child?" repeated JessieNorwood, as the crowd swept down to the shore.
"Spotted snake! Spotted Snake!" yelled the crowd, and spread out tokeep the pursued from running back. The hump-backed little figure withpoke-bonnet and cane was chased out upon the broken landing.
"She will go overboard!" shrieked Jessie, and drove in her paddleagain to reach the wharf. Amy, who was in the bow sheered off, butbrought the side of the canoe skillfully against the rough planks.
"What are they doing to you, child?" Amy cried.
"Goin' to drown the witch! Goin' to drown the witch!" shrieked therabble in the rear. "Spotted Snake! Spotted Snake!"
"It's little Henrietta!" screamed Jessie suddenly. "Oh, Amy!"
Amy, who was strong and quick, reached over the gunwale of the canoeand seized upon the crooked figure. She bore it inboard, knocking offthe old bonnet to reveal Henrietta's freckled little face. The cloakand the hump under it were likewise torn off and went sailing away onthe current.
"For pity's sake, Henrietta!" gasped Jessie.
"Yes'm," said the child composedly. "Did you come to see me?"
"Not expecting to see you in this--this shape," hesitated Jessie.
Amy went off into a gale of laughter. She could not speak for aminute. Jessie demanded:
"Who are those awful children, Henrietta?"
"Part Foleys, some McGuires, two Swansons, the Costeklo twins, andMontmorency Shannon," was the literal reply.
"What were they trying to do to you?"
"Drown me," said Henrietta composedly. "But they ain't ever done ityet. I always manage to get away. I'm cute, I am. But once they mostnearly burned me, and Mrs. Foley stopped _that_. So now they mostlytry to drown the witch."
"'The witch'?" murmured the amazed Jessie.
"Yep. That's me. Spotted Snake, the witch. That's cause I'm sofreckled. It's a great game."
"I should say it was," marveled Jessie, and immediately Amy began tolaugh again. "I don't see how you can, Amy," Jessie complained. "Ithink it is really terrible."
"I don't mind it," said Henrietta complacently. "It keeps 'em busyand out from under their mothers' feet."
"But they shriek and yell so."
"That don't hurt 'em. And there's plenty of outdoors here to yell in.Where we moved from in town, folks complained of the Foleys becausethey made so much noise. But nobody ever complains here in Dogtown."
As Amy said, when she could keep from laughing, it was a greatintroduction to Henrietta's home. They went ashore, and Henrietta, whoseemed to have a good deal of influence with the children, ordered twoof the boys to watch the canoe and allow nobody to touch it. Then sheproudly led the way to one of the largest and certainly the mostdecrepit looking of all the hovels in Dogtown.
Mrs. Foley, however, was a cheerful disappointment. She was, as Amywhispered, a "bulgy" person, but her calico wrapper was fairly clean;and although she sat down and took up her youngest to rock to sleepwhile she talked (being too busy a woman to waste any time visiting)she impressed the girls from Roselawn rather favorably.
"That child is the best young one in the world," Mrs. Foley confessed,referring to "Spotted Snake, the Witch." "Sometimes I rant at her likea good one. But she saves me a good bit, and if ever a child earnedher keep, Hen earns hers."
Jessie asked about the missing cousin, Bertha.
"Bertha Blair. Yes. A good and capable girl. Was out at service whenHen's mother died and left her to me. Something's wrong with Bertha,or she surely would have come here to see Hen before this."
"Did Bertha Blair work for a woman named Poole?" Jessie asked.
"That I couldn't tell you, Miss. But you take Hen up to see yourfather, like you say you want to. The child's as sharp as a steelknife. Maybe she'll think of something that will put him on the traceof Bertha."
So they bore Spotted Snake away with them in the canoe, while theDogtown gang shrieked farewells from the old landing. Henrietta hadbeen dressed in a clean slip and the smartest hair ribbon she owned.But she had no shoes and stockings, those being considered unnecessaryat Dogtown.
"I believe Nell could help us find something better for this child towear," Amy observed, with more thoughtfulness than she usuallydisplayed. "What do you think, Jess? Folks are always giving theStanleys half-worn clothes for little Sally, more than Sally can evermake use of. And Hen is just about Sally Stanley's size."
"That might be arranged," agreed Jessie. "I guess you'd like to have anew dress, wouldn't you, Henrietta?"
"Oh, my yes! I know just what I would like," sighed Henrietta,clasping her clawlike hands. "You've seen them cape-suits that's comeinto fashion this year, ain't you? _That's_ what I'd like."
"My dear!" gasped Amy explosively.
"I don't mind going barefooted," said Henrietta. "But if I could justhave _one_ dress in style! I expect you two girls wear lots of stylishthings when you ain't wearing sweaters and overall-pants like you didthe other day. I never had anything stylish in my life."
Amy burst into delighted giggles, but Jessie said:
"The poor little thing! There is a lot in that. How should we like towear nothing but second-hand clothes?"
"'Hand me downs'," giggled Amy. "But mind you! A cape-coat suit! Canyou beat it?"
"I saw pictures of 'em in a fashion book Mrs. McGuire sent for," wenton Henrietta. "They are awful taking."
Little Henrietta proved to be an interesting specimen for the Norwoodfamily that evening. Momsy took her wonted interest in so appealing achild. The serving people were curious and attentive. Mr. Norwoodconfessed that he was much amused by the young visitor.
A big dictionary placed in an armchair, raised little Henrietta to theproper height at the Norwood dinner table. Nothing seemed to troubleor astonish the visitor, either about the food or the service. AndJessie and Momsy wondered at the really good manners the childdisplayed.
Mrs. Foley had not wholly neglected her duty in Henrietta's case. Andthere seemed to be, too, a natural refinement possessed by the girlthat aided her through what would have seemed a trying experience.
Best of all, Henrietta could give a good description of her missingcousin. Her name was Bertha Blair, and that was the name of the girlMr. Norwood's clerk had interviewed before she had been whisked awayby Martha Poole and Sadie Bothwell.
In addition, Mr. Norwood had brought home photographs of the twowomen, and both Jessie and Amy identified them as the women they hadseen in Dogtown Lane, forcing the strange girl into the automobile.
"It is a pretty clear case," the lawyer admitted. "We know the dateand the place where the missing witness was. But the thing is now totrace the movements of those women and their prisoner after they droveaway from Dogtown Lane."
Nevertheless, he considered that every discovery, even a small one,was important. Detectives would be started on the trail. Jessie andAmy rode back to Dogtown in the Norwoods' car with the excitedHenrietta after dinner, leaving her at the Foleys' with the promisethat they would see her soon again.
"And if those folks you know have any clothes to give me," saidHenrietta, longingly, "I hope they'll be fashionable."