“And Cricket?” said Mrs. Saunders, again, presently. “She is such a charming child—so original and interesting.”
“Oh!” groaned Cricket, in the arbour.
“Children,” said Mrs. Ward to the twins, “you may go, please, and see if you and Eliza can’t find Cricket and Eunice. Kenneth, you take Irene down to the flower-beds, and you may pick a big bunch of nasturtiums.”
The nasturtium bed was dangerously near the arbour. Cricket and Eunice scarcely breathed. The little ones picked the flowers and chatted together.
“What a pretty little house,” said Irene, presently, noticing the arbour. “Is it your house, Kenneth? What’s in it?” She pushed apart the vines and peeped through the lattice.
The next moment the grown people were startled by the little ones’ cries of terror. Frightened by the unexpected sight of the queer-looking creatures in the arbour, they ran screaming toward the house.
“There!” said Cricket, desperately. “We might as well go out. Children are the curiousest things.”
“There’s dretful things there!” screamed Irene, flying to her mother.
Dr. Ward came quickly down the steps to investigate.
Then he stopped and stared in astonishment; and so did everybody else, as the grotesque little figures came slowly out of the arbour.