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Page 62
Molly squeezed her friend's hand. "I think so, too," she
whispered. "The thunder and lightning were terrible, and I was
almost scared to death; but now that everything's all right, I
can't help feeling gay and glad!"
And so these two reprehensible young madcaps smiled at each other,
and trudged merrily along across soaking fields, in a drenching
rain, and rescued from what had been a very real danger indeed.
During all this, Grandma Sherwood had been sitting placidly in her
room, assuming that Marjorie was safely under shelter next door.
Molly's mother had, of course, thought the same, and Stella's
mother, finding the girls nowhere about, had concluded they were
either at Molly's or Marjorie's.
Owing to the condition of the party he was bringing, Carter deemed
it best to make an entrance by the kitchen door.
"There!" he said, as he landed the dripping Stella on a wooden
chair, "for mercy's sake, Eliza, get the little lady into dry
clothes as quick as you can!"
"The saints presarve us!" exclaimed Eliza, for before she had time
to realize Stella's presence, Midge and Molly bounded in,
scattering spray all over the kitchen and dripping little pools of
water from their wet dresses.
Stella had ceased crying, but looked weak and ill. The other two,
on the contrary, were capering about, unable to repress their
enjoyment of this novel game.
Hearing the commotion, Grandma Sherwood came to the kitchen, and
not unnaturally supposed it all the result of some new prank.
"What HAVE you been doing?" she exclaimed. "Why didn't you stay at
Stella's and not try to come home through this rain?"
Marjorie, drenched as she was, threw herself into her
grandmother's arms.
"Oh, if you only knew!" she cried; "you came near not having your
bad little Mopsy any more! And Stella's mother came nearer yet!
Why, Grandma, we were in the tree-house, and it was struck by
lightning, and Stella was killed, at least for a little while, and
the ladder broke down, and we couldn't get down ourselves, and so
we sent off rockets of distress, I mean firecrackers, and then
Carter came and rescued us all!"
As Marjorie went on with her narrative, Grandma Sherwood began to
understand that the children had been in real danger, and she
clasped her little grandchild closer until her own dress was
nearly as wet as the rest of them.
"And so you see, Grandma," she proceeded, somewhat triumphantly,
"it wasn't mischief a bit! It was a--an accident that might have
happened to anybody; and, oh, Grandma dear, wasn't it a narrow
squeak for Stella!"
"Howly saints!" ejaculated Eliza; "to think of them dear childer
bein' shtruck be thunder, an' mighty near killed! Och, but ye're
the chrazy wans! Whyever did ye go to yer tree-top shanty in such
a shtorm? Bad luck to the botherin' little house!"
"Of course it didn't rain when we went there," said Marjorie, who
was now dancing around Eliza, and flirting her wet ruffles at her,
in an endeavor to tease the good-natured cook.
But even as they talked, Mrs. Sherwood and Eliza were taking
precautions against ill effects of the storm.
Mrs. Sherwood devoted her attention to Stella, as the one needing
it most, while Eliza looked after the other two.
The three children were treated to a hot bath and vigorous
rubbings, and dry clothes, and in a short time, attired in various
kimonos and dressing-gowns from Marjorie's wardrobe, the three
victims sat in front of the kitchen range, drinking hot lemonade
and eating ginger cookies.
As Marjorie had said, there had been no wrongdoing; not even a
mischievous prank, except, perhaps, the breaking down of the
ladder, and yet it seemed a pity that Stella should have suffered
the most, when she never would have dreamed of staying at the
tree-house after it began to look like rain, had it not been for
the others.
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