“Oh, dear!” sighed Marie, as the first spasm passed. “I just happened to think how dreadful it would be, if, when Nat was pulling on the raccoon’s tail, it had come loose instead of his head coming out of the vase. Oh, dear!”
“Silly!” exclaimed Natalie. “It couldn’t happen. Anyhow if it had the tail would have made a lovely dusting brush!”
And then there was more laughter.
“We’d better bring in all the clay vases,” suggested Natalie, when quiet had been somewhat restored. “Some other night prowler may come along and get caught in the same way.”
“I don’t believe that raccoon will,” was Marie’s opinion as she went off in another fit of laughter. “The idea of pulling him out by the tail!”
“It’s the only way I could grab him,” explained Natalie. “I didn’t want to get scratched. Bur-r-r-r! It’s chilly!” and she crept back into bed, while the other girls made hurried trips out to bring in their handiwork.
There were no more disturbances that night, though Marie kept them all awake for some time, with her fits of laughter and her murmurings of:
“Suppose his tail had come off!”
“Suppose you go to sleep,” directed Mrs. Bonnell, trying not to laugh.
The clay ornaments were found hard enough by morning to harden in the fire, and while the girls were making a larger pit than the one Natalie had originally dug, the boys strolled over.