THE BENEFIT DANCE
"Those there are whose hearts have a slope southward,
and are open to the whole noon of Nature."
NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that calamities seldom come singly, it was not until the Fourth of July that the Cabbage Patch was again the scene of an accident.
Mrs. Wiggs had been hanging out clothes, and was turning to pick up the empty basket, when Billy precipitated himself into the yard, yelling wildly:
"Chris Hazy's broke his leg!"
Mrs. Wiggs threw up her hands in horror. "Good lands, Billy! Where's he at?"
"They 're bringin' him up the railroad track."
Mrs. Wiggs rushed into the house. "Don't let on to Miss Hazy till we git him in," she cautioned, snatching up a bundle of rags and a bottle of liniment. "Pore chile! How it must hurt him! I'll run down the track an' meet 'em."
She was breathless and trembling from excitement as she turned the corner at Mrs. Schultz's. A crowd of boys were coming up the track, trundling a wheelbarrow, in which sat Chris Hazy, the merriest of the lot, waving a piece of his wooden leg in the air.
Mrs. Wiggs turned upon Billy;