"What do you mean?" he asked, the blood rushing to his face.
"Why the teacher sent here to know where you'd been!"
"Who did she send by?" asked Jimmy, though he knew very well already.
"Ralph Lane. He said the teacher was afraid you were sick."
"Oh, that was some of Ralph's nonsense! He knew I was there just as well as you do."
"Nonsense or not; he'd have given your mother a pretty fright if she had been here," exclaimed Ellen laughing heartily as she went on moulding her biscuit and getting it ready for the oven.
A minute more and she had forgotten all about it. "Oh dear!" she said, "I do wish I had some short wood. My biscuit will never bake with this long stuff."
Jimmy was immensely relieved; or he thought he was, by this favorable turn in his affairs, and was very glad to do Ellen a favor.
"I'll get you some wood," he said cheerfully; and he ran to the shed where she presently heard him chopping with a will.
"I'll tell your mother what a good boy you've been," said the girl running out for an armful. "Now I'll have supper ready in a jiffy."