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Page 56
"It lightened, that's why we hid. Mammy Chloe thed if you go get in a
dark plathe on a pile of featheths, no lightnin' can hurt you. Mammy
Chloe always puth uth in the middle of her feather-bed. Tho me and
thithter took a thofa pillow and got under the thofa and shut our eyeth
tight. We wath hot," she added, gravely, "and tho wath the puppieth, but
the lightnin' couldn't get uth."
The laugh that went up from the amused listeners aroused both the twins
so thoroughly that they joined in without knowing what they were
laughing about. Then Alec and Walker carried them triumphantly on their
shoulders to the wagonette, and once more the party started homeward.
This time they moved off without singing, but from the gate came back
three cheers for the twins, then three cheers for the Little Colonel,
who had found them. Once started to cheering, somebody proposed three
for the pillow-case party, and so lustily did they give them, that an
old rooster, awakening from sleep as the wheels creaked by, thought it
the call of some giant chanticleer, and promptly crowed an answering
challenge, that was echoed by every cock in the Valley.
CHAPTER XIII.
MORE MEASLES.
It seemed to Betty that that night would never end. It was after
midnight before the house grew quiet. Then, whenever she closed her
eyes, she could see those ghostly figures dancing before her in a long,
white wavering line. After awhile she gave up the attempt to sleep, and
lay with her eyes wide open, staring into the darkness, alert, and
quivering at the slightest sound.
"I don't know what makes me so nervous," she thought. "I feel as if I
should fly, and the dark seems so horrible, as if it was full of creepy,
crawling things, with horns and claws."
A beetle boomed against the window, striking the pane with a heavy thud.
She drew the sheet over her head and shivered. "Maybe if I'd read awhile
it would make me sleepy," she thought, and, slipping softly out of bed,
she groped her way across the room in the dark to the dressing-table.
Lighting a candle in one of the crystal candlesticks that always
reminded her of twisted icicles, she put it on a stand beside her bed.
The light flickered unsteadily, but she piled the pillows up behind her
and settled herself to read.
It was a new book that she was greatly interested in, and before long
she was so deep in the story that she never noticed how the time was
flying. Instead of bringing sleep to her eyes, it seemed to drive it
farther and farther away. The candle burned lower and lower, but she
never noticed it, and read on by its unsteady light until she heard the
hall clock strike four. The candle was flickering in its socket, and the
June dawn was beginning to streak the sky. Her eyes smarted and burned,
and ached with a dull throbbing pain.
She turned over and went to sleep then, and slept so heavily that she
did not hear the noises of the awakening household. Once Mrs. Sherman
came to the door and peeped in, but, finding her asleep, tiptoed out
again. It was nearly noon when she awoke, feeling as tired as when she
went to bed. She dressed languidly and went down-stairs, but was so
unlike her usually sunny self, that Mrs. Sherman watched her anxiously.
Late in the afternoon she sent for Doctor Fuller, and a general wail
went up when he announced what was the matter with her.
"More measles, Mrs. Sherman," he said, cheerfully. "Well, this is the
most extraordinary house party I ever heard of. You seem to be
exceedingly partial to this one line of amusements."
"It isn't fair for Betty to have it," exclaimed Joyce, "when she
wouldn't go to the camp, and she's had it before! It's just too bad!"
"We'll all have to be mighty good to her," said the Little Colonel, "for
she was so sweet about amusing us. We'll take turns reading to her and
entertaining her, for she stayed hours with us in that dark room when
she could have been outdoors enjoying herself."
"That is probably the reason she is laid up now," answered the doctor.
"She should have kept entirely away from you."
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