"Oh, Patty! is that you?" cried Doris, with great relief. "Ward has taken away the ladder and we can't come down. I wish you'd go and fetch him."
"He hasn't taken the ladder away; it's lying on the ground under the wall," replied Patty.
"Then put it up for us, that's a sweet girl," said Ella, in a far more civil tone than she generally used.
"I don't know, on the whole, that I will," answered Patty.
Her three companions gasped.
"Why not?" asked Doris.
"Don't tease, Patty! It's getting dark and cold," said May.
"Do be quick, Patty!" said Ella.
"It would be colder still if you spent the night there," said Patty. "Think how nice it would be for me, though, to have the bedroom all to myself!"
"Patty, you can't really mean to leave us here!"