The tavern-keeper interested himself; the chamber
maids were sympathetic. Two hostlers and a bartender went different
ways through the town making inquiries. The landlady thought the
children might have wandered off to the movers' encampment, where
there were other children to play with. Grandma Padgett bade Zene put
himself on one of the carriage horses and post to camp. When he came
back he reported that Thrusty Ellen and Jonathan were asleep in the
tents, and nobody had seen Robert and Corinne.
While searching the streets earlier in the evening, Grandma Padgett
observed the pig-headed man's pavilion, and this she also explored
with Zene. A crowd was making the canvas stifling, and the pig-headed
man's performances were being varied by an untidy woman who screamed
and played on a portable bellows which had ivory keys, after
explaining that Fairy Carrie, the Wonderful Musical Child, had been
taken suddenly ill and could appear no more that night.
Grandma Padgett remained only long enough to scan twice over every
face in the tent. She went out, telling Zene she was at her wits' end.
"Oh, they ain't gone far, marm," reassured Zene. "You'll find out
they'll come back to the tavern all right; mebby before we get there.
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