Suddenly the old servant reached out and patted her mistress gently upon the shoulder, her black face filled with a great tenderness as she said, "You' Mammy done say, ef er pusson try to do right, dey ain' nothin' else wot mek no diffe'nce. Dat's jes wot Miss Elinor she say. "Yas'm, she done say dat right befo' ma eyes," explained Serena, and then she hastened away to answer the door bell, leaving Virginia gazing dreamily out of a window, wonderfully comforted. The shrill voice of a woman uplifted in excitement sounded in the hall. "We must see some one. We have come a long distance and Mr. Dale is not at his office." "Dey ain' nobody heah fo' yo'all to talk no business to. You might jes as well go 'long," Serena answered with firmness. "Mr. Dale has a daughter," the voice suggested. "She ain' gwine be 'sturbed. She jes er chil' an' ain' know nothin' a tall 'bout her pappy's business. Bettah gwan away f'om heah." "What is it, Serena?" asked Virginia, hurrying into the hall. "Jes some pussons dat ain' know whar dey 'long," snarled the old negress, beginning to vibrate under the stress of anger as she glared at three highly indignant women waiting without. Virginia felt that it was necessary to interfere in the tense situation. "I am Miss Dale. I shall be glad to talk to you if you wish to come in," she told the strangers, to Serena's disgust. The hostility of these visitors melted in a degree at this display of hospitality; but their manner was cool as they followed the girl into the living room. "We are a committee from the Women's Civic Club of Amity, a town situated ten miles below here on the river," explained Mrs. Duncan, a stern faced female, after they had introduced themselves. "We ask that you inform your father of our call." "I shall be glad to do that," Virginia promised. "Am I to explain the purpose of your visit to him?" Mrs. Duncan gazed questioningly at the girl. "We ask you to do that, and if you have a heart we hope that you will use your influence in our behalf. You may tell him--" her eyes blazed--"that we come on the part of the women of Amity to protest against his killing us by putting poison in our drinking water." "What?" gasped an astonished Virginia. "We don't propose to sit quiet and allow Obadiah Dale to murder our children." "I don't understand." The very evident amazement and horror of the mill owner's daughter at her words caused Mrs. Duncan to expand upon them in the cause of clearness. "Amity gets its water supply from the Lame Moose River," she explained. "The waste from your father's mill has made the water unfit for human consumption. It has been getting worse for years and now we have much sickness, especially among children, which the doctors trace to this cause." "Why, that is terrible. I am sure that my father knows nothing about it," cried Virginia with great earnestness.