“I want to go home,” repeated Eunice, still half-crying.
“Well, so you shall, an’ I’ll carry you right up there, myself. ’Course yer ma’s yer best friend when you’re hurt. Hi! there goes the doctor now! Hi! Hi!”
Dr. Ward, returning from his call, drew up his horse as he crossed the little bridge at the sound of the cry.
“Suthin’ happened, just the same as usual, doctor,” ’Manda said, as the party came up, with Mamie well in the rear.
The doctor sprang out of his buggy, looking rather anxious. There were certainly drawbacks to having a pair of romps for daughters.
He hastily took Eunice in his arms.
“What is the matter, dear. Did you fall?”
“Not—not exactly,” said Eunice. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but somehow Cricket flew over the fence, and fell on top of me, and—and I think my head knocked into a stone, and my back hurts too.”
“Flew over the fence? What do you mean?”
“That old cow hooked me over,” flashed out Cricket. “We were see-sawing, just peaceably, and the old thing came up behind me and boosted me right over the fence, and ’course I fell on Eunice pretty hard, and we got all mixed up with the end of the boards and some stones. Eunice is more hurt than I am, though.”