Rose let go of the string, by which she was holding the basket that had Lily in it, and up it shot, high in the air, pulled by the gas-filled toy balloons. There were six of them, extra big ten-cent ones, and they could easily lift the small doll in the basket.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Rose, three times. "Look what you made me do, Alexis! Oh! Oh!"
And yet, afterward, Rose said it wasn't the dog's fault.
"I oughtn't to have taken anybody's balloon but mine, and then they wouldn't be lost," said the little girl sadly.
For that is what happened.
Up and up into the air, high above Rose's head, shot the six balloons—red, green and blue—carrying the doll. When she first felt the string pulling out of her hand Rose did not know what to do. Then, as she saw the balloons sailing away, she jumped up into the air and tried to grab them. But it was too late. Away over the trees sailed the airship Rose had made, carrying her doll on an unknown voyage.
"Oh, dear!" cried the little girl again, as she saw that, no matter how high she jumped, she could not get hold of the string again. "Oh, dear!"
She looked at the six floating balloons, hoping they might get caught in a tree, as once one did that Mun Bun had.
But no such good luck as this happened. The balloons sailed clear of the trees and went on and on and up and up, becoming smaller and smaller.
"Oh, my poor, dear Lily!" sobbed Rose, and she was really crying now. "My dear, darling Lily!"