“Hey! Stop that!” shouted Nellie, “or I’ll let them go!”
Instantly every boy stood still.
“Come on,” called Cora to the other two girls, “we must help Nellie.”
As quickly as they could trudge along the rough pathway, Cora, Bess and Belle hurried to where Nellie stood with the dogs.
“Call the boys back to the shed,” shouted the girl, “then I can take the dogs to their kennels.”
“Come here, boys!” called Cora. “Come back to the shed, and we will see fair play!”
The words “fair play” had a magical effect on the strikers. They now jumped between the rows, and it would be safe to say that not one of them, in the return, stepped on a single berry.
“All right, miss,” answered the lad called Narrow. “We goes back to the field, if Andy gets his tally-sticks.”
“Does this woman own the patch?” asked Cora.
“Never!” replied one of the boys. “She’s only the manager. The boss comes up every night to pay us our coin.”