"Nobody ever comes along this road at this time of night," said Grandfather. "I'll just get the car out into the middle of the road where you can get in easier." So he pulled it away from the fence where he had left it, and ran it out into the middle of the road. "Here, Pussy," he added, "run around on the other side of the car and hand me that basket."
Mary Jane did as she was told and after he had taken the basket from her she waited in the middle of the road, by the car, till he should be ready to help her in.
No one ever knew quite how it happened—it was all so sudden. Perhaps the other driver, too, thought that no one was ever on that road at that time of the evening. Out of the shadows and the moonshine, around the curve of the road, came a roadster moving so fast that before its driver could realize that some one stood in the center of the road, he had hit Mary Jane squarely and had tossed her over the fence on the opposite side of the road.
Grandfather jumped over the fence after her as quickly as he could out of the car, but, quick as he was, Mary Jane's father was quicker. He picked up the little girl, carried her back to her mother and together they ran their hands over her—no bones seemed to be broken; her heart was beating and she was breathing. But just breathing, that was all. She lay in her mother's arms as still and quiet—so still and so quiet that she didn't seem like Mary Jane—the Mary Jane who was always running and talking and lively. Without more than a half-dozen necessary words Grandfather and Grandmother, Father, Mother and Alice got into the car and Grandfather put on all speed. The one thought in every one's mind was to get to Dr. Smith as quickly as ever they could. Grandfather was thankful for the moonlight that made the way so plain and he drove home the fastest he had ever driven.
And so they came back from the picnic at Flatrock.
HOME AGAIN
"Would you speak to her, doctor?" asked Mrs. Merrill anxiously.
It was eight o'clock the next morning. They had reached home about an hour after they left Flatrock and fortunately had found Dr. Smith at home. He came at once in answer to their telephone call and was there even before they had Mary Jane undressed and put to bed. He examined her carefully and could find no broken bones and no injury, but still Mary Jane slept on, breathing, but so quietly and unnaturally that she didn't seem like herself. Her mother and father had stayed by her all the night long; Grandmother, Grandfather and Alice had with difficulty been sent to bed after midnight and Dr. Smith had stayed most of the time.
But when she still didn't stir the next morning Mrs. Merrill grew more and more anxious.