Somehow Molly was no longer giggling, as she had been at intervals ever since they reached the cottage. Things didn’t look as “funny” as they had a few minutes before; nor was she pleased to have the Judge stop short on the path and demand:
“Explain yourself, daughter.”
“Why it’s easy enough. When that Melvin boy, that bugler, saw us coming to that porch he was scared stiff. He just looked at us a second, then scrambled up that lattice-work to the top of that arbor or whatever it is, and—course he had to stay there. That’s why I sat down on those steps. Why I wanted my dinner out there. Oh! it was the funniest thing! A great big boy like him to stay up on such an uncomfortable place just because two girls whom he’ll never see again had sat down beneath him. Of course, he’d have to pass us to answer his mother’s call to dinner; and he’d rather go without that than do it. Oh! it was too funny for words! And when the leaves fell Dolly thought it was the ‘cat.’ She wondered if it was a ‘wildcat,’ and I said ‘yes, it was wild!’ Oh! dear! I was so amused!”
Dorothy laughed. To her the affair had also its “too funny” side, now that she understood it. But the Judge did not laugh. If he felt any secret amusement at the girlish prank he did not betray it in his expression, which was the sternest his daughter had ever seen when bent upon her idolized self.
“Well, Molly, you certainly have distinguished yourself. The joke which might have been harmless under some circumstances was an abominable rudeness under these. I am ashamed of you. I shall expect you to write a note of apology to Mrs. Cook, before you leave Yarmouth. And as for never seeing Melvin again, let me set you right. I have invited the lad to join us for our entire summer vacation. Understand?”
Alas! She understood but too well. Yet if a bomb had exploded at her feet she could hardly have been more astonished.