"When we get old," said Mabel, tearfully, "we'll take 'em out and tell our grandchildren all about 'The Accident.'"
But even this prospect did not quite console the girls for the loss of their treasure.
For the next few days, Laura remained contented with doing on the sly whatever she could to annoy the girls. One evening, when the girls had gone home for the night and while her mother was away from home, Laura threw a brick at one of the cottage windows, breaking a pane of glass. Reaching in through the hole, she scattered handfuls of sand on the clean floor that the girls had scrubbed that morning. Another night she emptied a basketful of potato parings on their neat front porch and daubed molasses on their doorknob—mean little tricks prompted by a mean little nature.
It wasn't much fun, however, to annoy persons who refused to show any sign of being annoyed, and Laura presently changed her tactics. Taking a large bone from the pantry one day, when the girls were sitting on their doorstep, she first showed it to Towser, the Milligan dog, and then threw it over the fence into the very middle of the pansy bed. Of course, the big clumsy dog bounded over the low fence after the bone, crushing many of the delicate pansy plants. After that at regular intervals, Laura threw sticks and other bones into the other beds with very much the same result.
The next time Rob cut the grass he noticed the untidy appearance of the beds and asked the reason. The girls explained.
"I'll shoot that dog if you say so," offered Rob, with honest indignation.
"No, no," said Bettie, "it isn't the dog's fault."
"No," said Jean, "we're not sure that the dog isn't the least objectionable member of the Milligan family."
"How would it do if I licked the boy?" asked Rob.
"It wouldn't do at all," replied Bettie. "He works somewhere in the daytime and never even looks in this direction when he's home. He's afraid of girls."