“Don’t be frightened, sweetheart,”
called Alice comfortingly, “we’re getting
you!”
Alice grabbed her shoulders and Ruth took her feet
and together they scrambled up the bank and handed
her into mother’s out-reaching arms.
[Illustration: She sat down on the biggest rock
close by the edge of the creek.]
Then there was a hurrying for surely! Virginia
and Ruth and Jane rushed around for more sticks to
build up the almost burned out fire. Frances and
Alice made a curtain of sweaters to keep off the winds
while Mrs. Merrill pulled off Mary Jane’s wet
clothes and rubbed her briskly with the old tablecloth.
Then Mary Jane sat in state, wrapped up in four sweaters,
while the “rescue girls,” as Alice and
Ruth were called, dried their shoes and wet skirts.
“You brave girls!” said Mrs. Merrill as
soon as she had time for a word. “I am
so proud of you!”
“Pooh!” exclaimed Alice, “it wasn’t
deep a bit! See, mother, I’m not wet above
my knees!”
“All the same,” said Mary Jane firmly,
and it was the first word she had said since they
pulled her out, “water’s wet! And
it’s lots colder than I thought it would be
and the bottom of the water’s hard—so
there!”
Everybody laughed at that, and then they all felt
better—the scare was over.
By the time Mary Jane’s clothes were dry, everybody
had a basketful of flowers. Alice and Ruth straightened
them all out neatly and tied them into bunches while
their shoes and stockings were drying. As the
girls all lived in the neighborhood, they decided
to put the bunches in a tub in Alice’s basement.
“Then we can come over at eight o’clock
in the morning and put them in the gift basket and
take them to Miss Heath’s before breakfast,”
said Frances. And so it was planned.
Alice and Ruth put on their shoes and stockings and
Mrs. Merrill dressed Mary Jane in her dried out clothes—and
how funny they did look too—and then the
picnic started for home.
Mr. Merrill was just driving up to the house when
they got back home and he stared in amazement when
he saw Mary Jane.
“What have they done to your dress and your
hair ribbon?” he asked.
“They didn’t do anything but just
dry it,” explained Mary Jane. “I doned
it myself. I bent over to look at the fishies
and the water hit me and the bottom was hard and I
got wet and Alice and Ruth pulled me out and everybody
dried me and will you please put my flowers on the
train for Aunt Effie?”
“Well, I’d call all that enough for one
day,” replied father. “It’s
lucky the water wasn’t deep—it’s
better to feel a hard bottom than none at all, little
girl.”
“And will you mail my flowers?” asked
Mary Jane.
“As soon as they’re ready,” promised
father. And so the picnic ended.
“Well, what are we doing to-day?” asked
Mr. Merrill as he finished his breakfast. “This
is a fine enough day to be doing something big and
important.”
