“Ain’t she in the house?” Seth asked nervously.
He feared Aunt Hannah might die, and even though she was in no real danger, to stand idly by not knowing how to aid her was terrible.
He failed to observe that Snip was no longer in the room; but just at that moment his shrill barking was heard in an adjoining apartment, and Seth knew the dog had gone to find his little playmate.
“You mustn’t get frightened after the danger is all over, my dear,” Aunt Hannah said soothingly. “But for you the house would have been destroyed, and now we have nothing to fear.”
“But you can’t get up!” Seth wailed.
“That wouldn’t be a great misfortune compared with losing our home, even if I never got up again,” the little woman said quietly. “But I’m not going to lie here. Surely you can help me on to the couch.”
“Tell me how to do it,” Seth cried eagerly, and at that moment Gladys appeared in the doorway.
“Lean over so that I may put my arms around your neck,” Aunt Hannah said, giving no heed to the girl’s cry of alarm.
“She fell an’ hurt herself,” Seth said hurriedly to Gladys, as he obeyed the little woman’s injunction. And then, as the latter put her uninjured arm over his neck, he tried to aid the movement by clasping her waist.
“If you can help me just a little bit we’ll soon have her on the couch,” he cried to Gladys, who by this time was standing at his side.