Floribel lifted Betsy in her arms and carried her the rest of the way, a very excited little girl proudly telling her story again and again.
“I ranned and I ranned and I ranned,” she kept repeating, “and he runned and he runned and he runned—”
The other children tried to help in the process by holding onto dangling legs and arms, by patting the little thickly-curly head and by reaching up to kiss the round rosy cheeks. All except Arthur, who carried the exhausted little fawn.
Once home, Betsy was the center of attention for only a moment. She was given her supper; a warm soothing bath and put immediately to bed. Then the fawn took the center of the stage.
The capable Arthur found a big basket which he filled with soft cloths; placed the exhausted little creature in it. He was exhausted; for when Arthur first put him on the floor, his legs gave out under him. He spraddled, all four legs flat, on the rug in front of the fireplace—as Rosie said, “exactly like a wet mosquito.” Then Arthur heated some milk; dipped a corner of a handkerchief into it; gave it to the fawn to suck. It was a slow process; for the fawn did not seem to understand this strange method of being fed. At length, Arthur thought of a better scheme. Procuring an eye-dropper from the medicine-chest, he poured the warm fluid, drop by drop, into the little creature’s mouth.
All the time the children knelt around the basket in a circle.
“How sweet it is,” Rosie who adored animals, kept saying. “Look at its big eyes and its beautiful head!”
“I’d love to take it in my arms,” Maida exclaimed, again and again, “only I know I would frighten it to death. See how it trembles if we get too near!”
The little children, who had been allowed one glimpse of the deer, went up-stairs chattering like little magpies. Betsy, tired with her long hunting, had fallen asleep the instant she struck the pillow. But the rest were in such a high state of excitement that it was almost an hour before the last of them calmed down. It was not easy that night to drive the Big Six to bed.