you know they didn't, Bessie? Didn't Maw Hoover get most of the
letters on the farm?"

"Yes, she did, Dolly. Paw Hoover couldn't read, so they all went to her,
no matter to whom they were addressed."

"Why, then," said Dolly, triumphantly, "maybe your father and mother
were writing and sending the money all the time!"

"But wouldn't she have told me so, Dolly?"

"Suppose she just kept the money, and pretended she never got it at all,
Bessie? I've heard of people doing even worse things than that when they
wanted money. It's possible, isn't it, now? Come on, own up!"

"I suppose it is," said Bessie, doubtfully. "Only it doesn't seem very
probable. Maw Hoover was pretty mean to me, but I don't think she'd ever
have done anything like that."

"Well, I wouldn't put it above her! She treated you badly enough about
other things, heaven knows!"

"I'd hate to think she had done anything quite as mean as that, though,
Dolly. I do think she had a pretty hard time herself, and I'm quite sure
that if it hadn't been for Jake she wouldn't have been so mean to me."

"Oh, I know just the sort he is. I've seen him, remember, Bessie! He's a
regular spoiled mother's boy. I don't know why it is, but the boys
whose mothers coddle them and act as if they were the best boys on earth
always seem to be the meanest."

"Yes, you did see him, Dolly. Still, Jake's very young, and he wouldn't
be so bad, either, if he'd been punished for the things he did at home.
As long as I was there, you see, they could blame everything that was
done onto me. He did, at least, and Maw believed him."

"Didn't his father ever see what a worthless scamp he was?"

"Oh, how could he, Dolly? He was his own son, you see, and then there
was Maw Hoover. She wouldn't let him believe anything against Jake, any
more than she would believe it herself."

"I'm sorry for Paw Hoover, Bessie. He seemed like a very nice old man."

"He certainly was. Do you remember how he found me with you girls the
day after Zara and I ran away? He could have told them where we were
then, but he didn't do it. Instead of that, he was mighty nice to me,
and he gave me ten dollars."

"He said you'd earned it, Bessie, and he was certainly right about that.
Why, in the city they can't get servants to do all the things you did,
even when they're well paid, and you never were paid at all!"

"Well, that doesn't make what he did any the less nice of him, Dolly.
And I'll be grateful to him,