“Yes, I did,” answered Tess slowly. “And when I was wet I thought I might as well stay in and be wetter and wash Clarissa’s dress. It was easier out here, and I found a rock just like a washboard.”
“Oh, you terrible child!” scolded Agnes. “You have frightened us all! How did it happen? If it hadn’t been for Dot’s calling that you had fallen in, we might never have known it.”
“Pooh! I was going to tell you, anyhow, so there!” said Tess.
“Yes, but when?” asked Ruth. “Why did you leave Dot?”
“Oh, she wouldn’t wash her Alice-doll’s dress, and I wanted to wash mine,” explained Tess. “So I came down here.”
“And left Dot alone? That wasn’t kind,” commented Ruth. “She heard you fall in.”
“She couldn’t have.”
“Yes, I did, too,” declared Dot, for she had been brought along by Nalbro and Agnes to the scene of the immersion. “I heard you splash.”
“Pooh! That wasn’t me; that was a rock,” laughed Tess, shaking her wet hair out of her eyes while Ruth endeavored to wring some water from her skirts. “I was leaning over a rock to wash Clarissa’s dress,” she proceeded, “and the rock splashed in. I guess that’s what you heard,” she said to Dot, “because I didn’t make any noise—that is, not much—when I slipped in.”
“Then you did fall in?” asked Agnes.