"Oh, you'd better not," Mabel said. "You might break some more eggs."
"I didn't break any eggs!" declared Henry.
"Yes, you did! Look at that bag," said Rose, and she pointed to one that had bounced from the basket, together with other bags and bundles. From this bag something yellow was running on the grass.
"Oh, dear! I guess I did bust some eggs!" exclaimed the grocery boy. "Your aunt'll be awful mad!" he went on. "I wish I hadn't jumped the rope."
Henry picked up the bag of eggs and looked inside.
"Only one's busted," he said, "and that's just partly cracked. I'll hurry into the house with it and she can put it in a dish and save it. 'Tisn't cracked very much."
"That's good," said Rose. "Parker is going to bake a cake, I heard her say, so she'll need some eggs right away, and she can use the cracked one first."
"I'm glad of that," observed Henry.
Then he hurried into Aunt Jo's house with the eggs and other groceries, and when he came out—not having been scolded a bit—the girls had gone with their jumping-rope, so Henry didn't have another chance to take a tumble.
On the shady porch of Aunt Jo's house Rose, Vi and their three little girl friends played with their dolls. They were having lots of fun, undressing and dressing them, sending them on "visits," one to another, and having play-parties.