Marilla cried as if her little heart had been broken. Miss Florence handed the note to her sister who had been listening in amaze.
“Marilla,” began Florence, “you have done the errand very well. Don’t cry, child. We shouldn’t have let Jack go with you.”
Mrs. Borden’s face turned very red. “A great fuss about sixty-seven cents. Accidents will happen.”
“But throwing them down and stamping on them was no accident, Amy. That child is dreadful. He doesn’t mind Marilla when he is out of our sight, hardly when he is in it. And I don’t know what the babies would do without her.”
They began to cry now. They always cried together and lustily.
“Where’s Jack?” asked his mother. 30
“He ran down the street.”
“Don’t worry about Jack, Marilla; you go down and get the babies’ bread and milk ready.”
Marilla went and of course told the mishap to Bridget.
“That young’un ’ll get in prison some day; you see! He’s a rascal through and through, a mean dirty spalpeen, a holy terror! And if they set to blaming you, I’ll threaten to leave; that I will.”