Eunice and Cricket walked along rather slowly, swinging hands. Each had a library book under the outside arm. Cricket was describing very vividly something she had seen on the street, the day before.
“It was the funniest thing! Those two ladies, all dressed to kill, came flying out of the house and down the steps, signalling to the street-car to stop; and just at the same time a cart was going by, with some long planks on it that waved way out behind. And the lady was looking so hard at the car that she never noticed the planks out behind, and as soon as the cart itself was past her, she rushed for the car, and then she struck the planks just plump, and went right over them, and hung there. Her head and arms were waving on one side—just waving—and her legs on the other, and she hung over it; and the cart man didn’t know it, and just went on serenely. I felt awfully sorry for her, but oh, she looked so funny! just like a turtle.”
“Didn’t she hurt herself dreadfully?” asked Eunice, with interest.
“I don’t know. Well, the car stopped, and then it went on, for I suppose the conductor saw that the lady couldn’t get unhitched from the cart right off, and the cart trundled on, and the other lady ran after it, calling the man to stop, and he thought they were calling to the car all the time, and he waved too, and called out, ‘Hi, there! lady wants yer to stop!’ and the conductor called back, ‘Stop yourself, you old lummox, and let off your passenger,’ and all this time the poor lady just sprawled over those planks. I was so sorry for her! but the sorrier I got, the more I laughed, but I ran after the cart, too, and called it to stop, and some small boys ran after it, and called to the man, too, and the other lady kept calling—”
But just here, without a word of warning, Cricket suddenly went down with a thump on her knees, to her intense surprise. It was not icy just there, and there was no apparent reason for Cricket’s sudden humility.
“Upon my word, wasn’t that queer?” she said, getting up slowly, and ruefully rubbing her knees.
Eunice had gone off into fits of laughter, after a glance behind her.
“I never saw anything funnier,” she gasped. “Talk of your lady! she isn’t a circumstance to you. Oh, dear!” and Eunice fairly doubled up.
“What could have been the matter? I went down as quick as a wink, and it isn’t icy here, either,” said bewildered Cricket. “Somehow my knees just went forward. I should think they had hinges on them. I just—”
