“Ho!” said Royal; “you need not be afraid. There’s nothing there. It was only Thomas and I that made that noise.”
But Jenny was afraid to go; and so Royal said that he would go, and come back with Jenny’s basket in a minute.
“And you finish picking these up, Thomas,” said he. “Pick ’em up very carefully.”
So Royal went away. When he was gone, Mary, who had thus far stood looking upon the scene in a sort of silent despair, now began to help Thomas gather up the blueberries from the grass. Many of them had rolled down into the dust, and got spoiled; but there was a large portion which was not injured. These the children were rapidly putting back into the basket again, when Marielle and Lucy, who had seen them returning there, came over with Rollo from where they had been, to see what was going on.
As soon as she, and Rollo, and Lucy, saw what they were doing, they went to work too, to help gather up the blueberries; and they soon got back into the baskets all that were fit to go. Before long, Royal came back, too, with Jenny’s basket. He had waited to pick up her blueberries, which had been spilled as well as the rest.
They found that so many of the berries had been lost or spoiled that the baskets were not nearly as full as they were before. So Marielle proposed to Rollo and Lucy that they should give Mary theirs. Rollo and Lucy said that they should like to do that very much. Mary at first refused to receive them; but Marielle insisted upon it, for she said, “We have not got to go home yet, and we can gather plenty more.” So they poured in the blueberries into the other children’s baskets, and filled them full. And when they went away, Marielle went up to Mary, and said to her in a low tone,—
“If you can’t sell your blueberries easily, come to our house, and perhaps my mother will buy them.”
Then Royal, and Marielle, and their party, began again to gather blueberries for themselves; but the occurrences of the afternoon had shed such a gloom over the party, that they did not feel inclined to stay very long. They gathered a few, and then they went home. Royal did not say much; but he seemed really sorry for the mischief he had done. Though he had spoiled the pleasure of the party, yet Marielle did not reproach him. In fact, he seemed so sorry for it, and so disposed to do all he could to make reparation, that in her heart she forgave him.