“Ah, you think you’re smart!” jeered Christopher in a vexed tone.
But pride always has a fall. As Perk reached the bottom of the hill he glanced back to see how much of a gain he had made, and the wheel of his bicycle struck a large stone in the road. Over toppled Perk on his head, tumbling into a heap by the roadside. Jane screamed and even Joshua was startled. He urged the horse into a trot again.
“Oh, Perk’s not hurt!” declared Christopher scornfully. “A fellow can stand lots worse croppers than that.”
And Perk was not hurt. By the time they reached him he had scrambled to his feet and was examining his bicycle to see if any harm had come to it. But he rode quietly behind the wagon all the rest of the way into the village.
Billy Carpenter was standing in front of his gate, watching for them, and the impatient Christopher could hardly wait while Perk stowed his bicycle in Mr. Carpenter’s barn and Joshua escorted Jane to Mrs. Parsons’ front door.
“You’re in an awful hurry to have me go,” Jane exclaimed to Christopher, a bit jealously.
For a moment she forgot Sally’s birthday party, and wished she was going on the picnic too. It hurt to think that perhaps Christopher did not want her—was glad she was not going. He really acted as if he were!
But her disappointment soon vanished—vanished the moment she set foot in Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s sitting-room. The party planned was so perfect! In the first place, there was the present for Sally—a dainty little bed in which to take her rest when visiting the lady who wrote books. Mr. Carpenter had found the small wooden bedstead stowed away in a loft over the post-office, left over from a stock of Christmas toys. Letty, with deft fingers, had painted the dingy, dust-grimed wood white with tiny pink rosebuds (difficult to recognize, perhaps, as rosebuds, but very pretty) and had made, with Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s help, a dainty white canopy, tied back with pink ribbons. There were sheets and pillow-cases and even a little kimono made of a scrap of white cashmere and edged with pink ribbon.
“Where is Christopher?” exclaimed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones as Jane mounted the stairs alone. “I had a surprise for you all.”
“Kit has gone on a picnic with the boys. He didn’t want to come to Sally’s birthday,” replied Jane with a catch in her voice.