It was several moments before she paid any attention to the older boy, and then it was to exclaim,—
"Mercy on us, Jack! I had entirely forgotten you! Run home as soon as possible, or you will catch your death a cold!"
"A wettin' won't hurt me on a warm day like this. I'm used to such things."
"But you must change your clothes at once, and there's no other way but to put on one of my dresses again."
Jack gave no heed to this suggestion, or command, whichever it might be called. He was trying to understand how the baby could have come so far without assistance, when Aunt Nancy said suddenly,—
"It doesn't take one loner to realize how the dear little fellow came here. Those wicked boys must have found him near the shed, and brought him to this place."
Several poles lying near by told how the raft was forced toward the centre of the pond, and the fact that three fellows had been seen running through the bushes was sufficient proof, at least to Aunt Nancy and Jack, that Bill Dean and his friends had done the mischief.
"I should forget everything I ought to remember if I had that Dean boy here this minute!" the little woman said angrily as she surveyed the evidences of the cruel work. "It is a burning shame that such as he should be allowed among decent people!"
"We don't know for certain that it was Bill Dean," Jack suggested.
"Yes, we do, for there is no other boy in this town who does such things. I shall see his father again, and when I do it will be very hard work to rule my spirit."