“Many littles make a mickle.”—Scotch Proverb.
She was awakened the next morning by trampling noises in the stable below, and starting up could not at first make out where she was. The sun was shining through a rift in the loft door, Tib was gone, cocks were crowing outside, all the world was up and busy. She could hear Ben’s gruff voice and the clanking of chains and harness, and soon he and the three horses had left the stable and gone out to their day’s work. It must be late, therefore, and she must lose no time in presenting herself at the house. Perhaps it might be possible, she thought, to get up to her attic without seeing anyone, and tidy herself a bit first; she should then have more courage to face her aunt, for at present with her rough hair and pieces of hay and straw clinging to her clothes, she felt like some little stray wanderer. She approached the house cautiously and peeped in at the back door before entering, to see who was in the kitchen. Bella was there talking to Molly, whose broad red face was thrust eagerly forward as though she were listening to something interesting. They were indeed so deeply engaged that Lilac felt sure they would not notice her, and she took courage and went in.
“It’s a mercy she wasn’t killed,” Molly was saying. “She’s no light weight to fall, isn’t the missus.”
“It’s completely upset me,” said Bella in a faint voice, with one hand on her heart. “I tremble all over still.”
“And to think,” said Molly, “as it was only yesterday I said to myself, ‘I’ll darn that carpet before I’m an hour older’.”
“Well, it’s a pity you didn’t,” said Bella sharply; “just like your careless ways.”
Molly shook her head.
“’Twasn’t to be,” she said. “’Twasn’t for nothing that I spilt the salt twice, and dreamt of water.”
“The doctor says it’s a bad sprain,” continued Bella; “and it’s likely she’ll be laid up for a month. Perfect rest’s the only thing.”
“I had a cousin,” said Molly triumphantly, “what had a similar accident. A heavy woman she was, like the missus in build. Information set in with her and she died almost immediate.”