"What can ail her?" said Harry. "She surely did not mind going for the brush?"
"Why, no," answered Fred; "she seemed ready enough; but she came back the next moment in such a fume, and looking scared out of her wits."
"I'm going to see," said Maggie: "she'll tell me;" and she ran after Bessie.
But Maggie was mistaken.
She found Bessie in their mother's room, her angry mood passing away; but she still looked flushed and troubled, and to all Maggie's anxious questioning she would give no satisfactory answer.
"You must have seen something that frightened you, didn't you, Bessie?"
"I don't know," answered Bessie: "I was frightened; but I don't know if I saw what I saw,—I mean I don't know if I saw what I thought I saw,—and I didn't want to look again."
"Was it a robber?" asked Maggie.
"No," said Bessie. "If it had been a robber, I'd have said, 'Thou shalt not steal,' and then run for Patrick to take him to the policeman."
"I guess he wouldn't have waited till Patrick came," said Maggie. "But tell me about it, Bessie."