It was a very subdued and a very tired little trio of girls who went up-stairs and attended to their rooms. It was an even more subdued—though a less tired—trio of boys who put the barn in order and then trailing the turtle at the end of his rope, walked down to the Magic Mirror, and tied him to a tree, and deposited him in the water there for the night.
CHAPTER XVIII EXPIATION
A very quiet group of children gathered at breakfast the next morning. Conversation was intermittent and devoted mainly to piling offers of assistance in the housework on Granny and Mrs. Dore.
“When you have finished your own work, we’ll see,” Mrs. Dore steadily answered all these suggestions.
The children finished their work in record time and with the utmost care. The girls swept and dusted their chambers. They washed the furniture, the paint and the windows. Everything was taken out of closets and bureau-drawers, shaken and carefully put back. They shook rugs. The boys in a frenzy of emulation followed a program equally detailed. Having accomplished all this, the Big Six again begged for more work and Granny and Mrs. Dore, taking pity on the penitent little sinners, thought up all kinds of odd jobs for them to perform.
At length, Maida said, “Now we’ve done all the work we can do, there’s one other thing I’d like to see attended to. I woke up in the middle of the night—I don’t know what woke me—but I began at once to think of that turtle—that poor, horrid turtle. And it suddenly came into my head that it was a very cruel thing to put a creature in fresh water who is accustomed to salt water. I suppose it’ll kill him in time, won’t it?” she appealed to Arthur.
“Gee whillikins,” Arthur answered, “I never thought of that! Of course he’ll die. But what are we going to do about it?”
“I thought,” Maida began very falteringly, “if you would let us, Granny, we’d ask Zeke to drive us over to the beach and we’d take the turtle and put him back in the water where he came from. We won’t stay there but a moment.”