“Oh!” murmured Harmony, after the tree had stopped moving. “If—if Joe was under there now he’d be smashed to a—a jelly!” And she covered her face with her tier, or pinafore.
Harry had not stopped, but was on his way to the spring. Here he laid Joe down and washed his face with cold water. But it was several minutes ere Joe gave a gasp and sat up, staring around him.
“Oh, my neck!” were his first words, and then he added innocently: “Did the tree fall on me?”
“That it did,” answered Mrs. Parsons, who was kneeling beside him. “Thee can be thankful, Joseph, that thy life has been spared to thee.”
“Some—something feels as if it had—had me by the throat.”
“The tree had you by the throat,” said Harry, and then, while Mrs. Parsons and the girls attended to Joe, Harry bathed his bruised eye.
Fortunately for both boys neither was hurt much by the double accident, but Joe felt rather shaky when he got up on his legs.
“I reckon it was a narrow shave,” said he, and added: “Harry, it was brave of you to jump in and help me.”
“Pooh! you would have done the same for me,” was the light answer.
“I see both the trees are down.”