CHAPTER XXVII . INFORMATION THAT IS TOO LATE
During the days immediately succeeding the fire and theCarringford's poignant trouble, Janice Day had a mental problemto solve which occupied her thoughts a good part of the time.
Daddy's broken leg was getting along nicely. With the aid ofcrutches he could get around very well indeed. He had even gonedown to the bank in an automobile.
So Janice did not have to give him quite the close care andattention that she previously had. Daddy declared she was makinga mollycoddle of him, anyway--that she babied him too much.
She had more freedom of action, therefore, and now she proceededto put a certain plan she had made into effect. Janice had notforgotten what Bertha Warring had said regarding the informationStella Latham had hidden from her, Janice, at the time schoolclosed.
Could it be that, after all was said and done, the Olga who hadbroken Mrs. Latham's dish was the same Olga that had run awaywith the Day's treasure-box? Was it Olga Cedarstrom, with hername changed, and Stella had known it to be so, all the time?
Really, when Janice thought of this she felt exceedingly angrywith Stella. She had intended, after Stella had acted so meanlytoward Amy Carringford, to let the farmer's daughter strictlyalone in the future. She would have as little to do with her asit was possible, considering that she had to go to school withher. That was at first. Then her anger had cooled. Now it wasaflame again.
But if Stella knew positively that the Swedish girl who hadvisited Mrs. Johnson had been married, and therefore her name wasno longer Cedarstrom, Janice was determined to find it out.Unpleasant as might be to ask Stella, Janice would do just this.
She knew Stella had returned from her visit to the lake shoreresort. Janice had seen her flying past in the Latham car morethan once within the week. Janice could not stop her at suchtimes; she could not expect Stella to put herself out at all togive her any information. So she set forth one August morning totrudge through the heat and dust out to the Latham farm. Therewas no interurban car that would take her near there; and how shedid wish daddy could afford an automobile!
Indeed, just as she turned up the road leading to the door of theLatham house a motor-car turned, too, into the road, powderingJanice with dust. The latter saw the malicious smile of StellaLatham, driving the car herself, as the farmer's daughter lookedback over her shoulder at the pedestrian.
Janice kept grimly on; nor would she show Stella that she washurt or ruffled in temper. Stella waited on the porch for herschoolmate to approach. A man came to take the car around to thegarage.
"Well, what do you want?" asked Stella, when Janice came withinhearing. "Are you begging more old clothes for that protegee ofyours, Amy Carringford?"
"I have come on my own business, Stella," said Janice gently."It is something that I want to know, and you can tell me."
Stella was smiling broadly; but it was by no means a pleasantsmile. She was spiteful. She had found since coming back fromher summer vacation that the girls had not forgotten her behaviortoward Amy Carringford and some of them still resented it. Shewas nowhere near as popular as she had been; and even herfather's motorcar could not regain the friendship of many of herschoolmates whom she wished to be chums with.
Stella laid all this to "that sly Janice Day." She dared not sospeak of Janice before her mother; for Mrs. Latham liked Janice.Just now, however, Stella's mother was not at home, and she feltfree treat Janice in any way she chose.
"Of course, you expect me to tell you everything you want toknow, Janice Day," said Stella. "But I don't know why I should."
"You will tell me, won't you, Stella, if you really know that theSwedish girl who broke your mother's dish is the same girl whoused to work for daddy and me?"
"Why should I?"
"Because it is the right thing to do, isn't it? You do not knowwhat it means to us if we can find thatgirl--"
"And why should I care?" snapped Stella "You never did anythingfor me, Janice Day."
"I think I tried to--at least once," her schoolmate said mildly.
"Nothing of the kind! You did something for Amy Carringford--thepauper! You were spoons with her then, and you wanted to get herto my party. You begged an invitation for her and then dressedher up. like a freak so she could come, and--"
"That is not so, Stella," Janice interrupted with some spirit."But I want to talk about Olga, not about Amy."
"Go along with your old Olga!" cried the other angrily. "Iwouldn't tell you anything about her if I knew."
"I shall go to Mrs. Johnson again then. And if Mrs. Johnson isnot willing to tell me, I shall come back and see your mother."
"Oh! you will?" sneered Stella. "So you think the Johnsons willtell you about Olga's last name do you?"
"I will ask them."
"Good luck to you!" jeered Stella, as Janice went on through theLatham's yard. "You can ask anybody you like, but you'll getnothing out of me I assure you!"
Janice made no further reply. She was hurt to the quick, for shedid not believe she deserved any such treatment from herschoolmate. And it did, too, worry Janice Day when she knew shehad an enemy.
"Friends are so much nicer to make than enemies," was one ofdaddy's sayings; and his little daughter always bore that fact inmind when in contact with her schoolmates.
But really, one could do nothing with Stella Latham, once thatsubborn person had made up her mind to be "mad." Stella gloriedin showing all the perversity with which she was cursed; soJanice sighed and gave it up.
"No use. I hope I won't have to ask Mrs. Latham. Then there willbe trouble, I fear."
The walk over the hill and down the lane, crossing the brookGummy Carringford had once spoken of, was a pleasant walk, afterall. It was not dusty, and there were shade trees part of theway. By the time Janice came to the little house which herfather and she had once visited to look for Olga, she was quitecool and collected again.
But as soon as she drew near to the tenant house the girl wasstartled. There was not a sign of life about it. There were nowagons or farm tools about the sheds or barnyard. There were nocattle in the stable, nor pigs in the pen, nor poultry in thewired run.
"Goodness me! have the Johnsons gone, too?" cried Janice.
She hurried to the little house. There were no curtains at thewindows, and she could see right through the empty house.
"That's what Stella meant!" exclaimed Janice. "Oh, the mean,mean thing! To let me walk away over here without telling methat they had gone! And now she is waiting back there to laughat me when I return!" Janice Day did not like to be laughed atany more than other people. And she particularly shrank fromfacing the sarcastic Stella on this occasion.
"At least, I will make some inquiries elsewhere, first," shethought, and set forth along the public highway, on which thelittle house fronted, toward another dwelling that was in sight.
There were people in this house, that was sure. There werechildren playing in the yard and a pleasant-faced woman on thefront porch, sewing and keeping an eye on the children.
She did put out a somewhat forbidding air when Janice turned inat the gate; but then she saw the girl had no bag or sample case,so she brightened up again.
"You haven't anything to sell, I guess?" the woman began, evenbefore Janice uttered a word.
"Oh, no," answered the girl.
"Come up and sit down," said the woman. Then she added: "Dearme, you are only a little girl. It's hot walking. Will you havea drink of water?"
"No, thank you. I got a drink at the well back there," andJanice pointed at the tenant house on Mr. Latham's place.
"Oh, yes; Latham's cottage."
"The Johnsons used to live there, did they not? asked the caller.
"Swedes--yes," said the woman.
"I was looking for them."
"But goodness, you're not a Swede!" exclaimed the woman.
"Oh, no," laughed Janice. "But I wanted to see them about afriend of theirs--a girl who used to work
for us."
"Oh! I thought you couldn't be a foreigner," said the woman."Well," she added, "I'm afraid you'll have to go a long way tofind out anything from the Johnsons."
"You don't mean--"
"I mean they've left the country," said the woman.
"Left this part of the country?"
"They have gone back to Sweden," said Janice's informant, noddingover her sewing. "Yes. They had a stroke of luck. Mrs. Johnsontold me herself in her broken talk. Near's I could find out hergrandfather had died and left her a bit of property, and she andher family were going back to the place they came from ten yearsago, to attend to it. Lucky folks, some of them foreigners. Idon't see for the life of me why they ever leave their homes andcome over here, when they've got money and land comin' to them athome."
The woman talked on, even faster than Miss Peckham was wont totalk. But her volubility gave Janice a chance to recover herself-possession. She saw quite clearly that her errand had cometo naught. Even if the Lathams positively knew the missing Olgahad been named Cedarstrom before her marriage they probably didnot know where Olga now was.
The people who were the more likely to know, these Johnsons, hadgone back to their native land. Janice wondered, despairingly,if Olga had gone back to Sweden too.
But the girl was able to hide her trouble from this newacquaintance. The woman was glad to have her stay-- and talk.Rather, the hostess did the talking. It was evident that she gotlittle chance for conversation, living as she did on this ratherlonely road.
Janice planned what she would do, however, while she listened.Rather than go back and perhaps have another quarrel with Stella,she decided she would go home and tell her father what she hadfound out. He might write to Mrs. Latham for information--if thefarmer's wife had any--regarding Olga.
At least, it was one sure thing, that such information as Janicehad obtained was much too late. An ocean separated her now fromthe Johnsons, Olga's friends.