quiet."

"But they didn't act that way before we got away from Hedgeville--clear
away, I mean," said Bessie. "Farmer Weeks caught her in the road, you
know, and locked her in that room the time that I followed her and
helped her to get away through the woods."

"Yes, but that was a very different matter, Bessie. In that state
Weeks had the law on his side. The court was ready to name him as her
guardian, and to bind her over to him until she was twenty-one. In this
state neither he nor anyone else, except her father, has any more right
to keep her from going where she likes than they have to tell me what I
must do--as long as we obey the law and don't do anything that is
wrong."

"Then you think she's well and happy?"

"I'm quite sure of it," said Jamieson heartily. "This isn't some foreign
country. It's America, where there are plenty of people to notice
anything that seems wrong or out of the ordinary; And if they were
treating Zara badly, she'd be pretty sure to find someone who would help
her to get away."

"Yes, this is America," said Bessie, thoughtfully. "But you see, Zara
has lived in countries where things are very different. And maybe she
doesn't know her rights. After all, you know, she thinks her father
hasn't done anything wrong, and still she's seen him put in prison and
kept there. What I'm afraid of is that she'll get to think that this is
just like the countries she knows best, and be afraid to do anything, or
try to get help, no matter what they do."