"Good gracious, if Nina Edmonds and Fannie Mears aren't coming, too," whispered Bessie, glancing back over her shoulder. "Wonder why they want to tag along?"
If she had only known it, Nina and Fannie were feeling decidedly left out of things. They longed to go with the high school girls who persistently ignored them and they were not at all popular with their own classmates. When they found that they were to be left on the edge of the circle of crocheters, they determined to follow the wading party. Nina privately thought she was far too old to indulge in such a silly pastime, and Fannie hated walking anyway, but at the moment wading was better than doing nothing.
"Who's that shouting?" asked Rosemary, as they rounded a bend in the brook and heard a distant noise.
"Must be the boys," replied Bessie. "Yes, see, there they are—way over there; they're playing ball on the other side of the brook, a couple of fields further on."
The girls could see the running figures plainly, and from time to time a bellow of pure joy and excitement wafted down to them.
"Don't they have fun—" Rosemary was beginning, when a scream startled them all.
"I've cut my foot!" shrieked Fannie Mears. "Oh, the whole bottom of the brook must be covered with broken glass. Look how it bleeds!"
She lifted her foot from the water and Nina, who caught a glimpse of the widening gash, cried out in horror. Fannie let her foot fall and struck the glass again. She screamed even more loudly and began to beat the water with her hands.
"Look out, you won't be able to see the glass!" cried Rosemary, turning and dashing toward her. "Stand still, Fannie, just a minute."
Rosemary stooped and felt carefully down about Fannie's feet. Her hands struck a broken bottle and she lifted it out and tossed it on the bank.