"I am very sorry you are hurt," said Mr. Parlin. "Is your mother at
home?"

"No, sir, she isn't; her trunk came, but she didn't."

There was no information to be obtained at the Prossers'; so Mr. Parlin
went to Mr. Lawrence's, the nearest neighbor on the right, making the
same inquiries; but all he learned was, that a carriage had been seen
standing at Mr. Parlin's door; who had gone away in it nobody could tell.

Dotty paced the pavement with restless steps, her mind agitated by a
thousand wild fancies: Grandma Read never went anywhere; perhaps she was
locked up in the house, and Zip too. Norah was at Cape Elizabeth; she had
walked out to see her friend Bridget, the girl with red hair; and, just
as likely as not, she didn't ever mean to come back again. Mother, and
Susy, and Prudy had gone to Willowbrook, to grandpa Parlin's--of course
they had,--and left grandma Bead all alone in the house, with nothing to
eat. How strange! How unkind!

"Grandma!" she called out under Mrs. Read's window.

There was no answer. Dotty fancied the white curtain moved just a little;
but that was because a fly was balancing himself on its folds. Grandma
was not there, or, if she was, she must be very sound asleep. O, dear,
dear! And here were Dotty and her father come home a day earlier than
they were expected; and instead of giving the family a joyful surprise,
they had a surprise themselves, only not a joyful one, by any means. How
impolite it was in everybody, how unkind, to go away! At first, Dotty had
been alarmed; but now her indignation got the better of her fears. When