When the plight of Margie and Lucy became known, they had so many offers of sandwiches, cake and other things that they could not have eaten it all if they had tried.
“My! We never had so many adventures before on any of our picnics,” said Mrs. Watson when lunch time was over. “What with Nellie falling in the brook and food mysteriously disappearing it was all quite exciting. What sort of an animal was it you think scared you, Nellie?”
“Well, I can’t be sure of that, but I think it was an elephant,” Nellie answered. And while the others laughed she said: “Well, it COULD be an elephant, couldn’t it?”
“Of course it could,” said Mrs. Watson. “For elephants have been known to escape from circuses. But I hardly think it was, Nellie. It might have been a cow or a dog.”
“Do dogs have horns?” asked Nellie, who was about seven years old.
“Not that I ever heard of,” laughed Mrs. Watson.
“Then it was a cow,” said Nellie. “’Cause I saw horns.”
“More likely it was a cow,” agreed Mrs. Watson. “But a cow wouldn’t hurt you.”
“It didn’t hurt me but it scared me,” stated the little girl. She was quite dry by this time, for Mrs. Watson had made her take off her outer garments which had dried in the sun and wind.
When Nellie spoke of a “cow,” Margie and Lucy looked quickly at each other. They felt sure the animal with horns, which had so frightened Nellie as to cause her to fall into the brook, was not a cow but the mysterious deer.