. I guess if it hadn't been for her----"
"Yes," said Eva, and her look made further words unnecessary.
The three walked out to the car a few minutes later. The fire in the
picture theatre had been quickly put out, and already the crowd in the
street was melting away. Nancy looked up and down the wide avenue
brilliant with its many electric lights; then as she saw the car coming
she turned to Lena, her pale face crinkling into sudden laughter.
"I don't care--it was worth it!" she declared. "I've lived more to-night
than I have in twenty years before. I loved every minute of it--the
pictures an' the fire an' everything. But see here--" she leaned down
and whispered in the girl's ear,--"don't you let any feller put his arm
round you like the man did round that girl that set in front of
us--don't you do it!"
"I guess _not_!" retorted the girl sharply. "I ain't that kind."
"That's right, that's right! An'--an' do come an' see me again some
time--do, dearie!" the old woman added over her shoulder as the
conductor pulled her up the high step of the car.
Eva followed her. "I'm going to see she gets home all right," she said,
and Lena waved her hand as the car passed on.
"An' to think her sharp old eyes saw that!" Lena thought with a chuckle
as she turned away. "An' me all the time thinkin' she didn't see
anything but the pictures. Well, you never can tell. But she's a duck,
an' it's her gets my nickels--angel or no angel. And to think how she
kidnapped us--the old dear," and Lena went on laughing to herself.
At the next Camp Fire meeting, Lena, with a mischievous spark in her
eyes, called out to Frances Chapin, "Say, Frances, Eva and I took one of
your old ladies to the picture show the other night."
Frances looked distinctly disapproving. "I think you might have made a
better use of your money," she returned.
"I don't, then!" retorted Lena, and thereupon she told the story of
Nancy's Sunday kidnapping, and of what had happened at the picture show.
Her graphic wording held the girls breathless with interest.
"Well!" commented Louise Johnson, "I'd like to see that old lady of
yours, Lena."
"She's worth seeing." This from Eva.
A week later Louise announced that she had seen Lena's old lady. "Saw
her at the Home yesterday. I like her. She sure is a peach."
"Isn't she just?" Lena responded, her face lighting up. "And did you see
Frances' angel-all-but-the-wings old lady too?"
"Yes, and she's a peach
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