“‘I am going to buy some fish, good woman, for my father’s breakfast,’ said Araminta Sophia, stopping just a moment. And before she could say another word, the old woman put her hand under her long brown cloak, and drawing it out, she bent over the little basket. ‘Look within! [Look within!’ she screamed.”]
[“Look within!” screamed the old woman.]
“What was it?” shouted Joel; and the others demanding to know the same thing, old Mr. King’s writing-room was presently the scene of great confusion. When it cleared away, Polly was saying, “And so Araminta Sophia peered into the basket; and the more she looked, she couldn’t see anything. And so she said pretty soon, ‘Good woman, I see nothing.’
“‘Give me the umbrella a minute, stupid creature,’ said the old woman; ‘I’ll hold it over your head, and do you tip up the basket with both of your hands, and then you will get the pretty gift I have thrown within it for you.’
“Now, Araminta Sophia wanted dreadfully the beautiful gift the old woman had put in the basket. ‘Hold the umbrella carefully over my head,’ she said, giving it into the skinny hand. And in a minute, as soon as the words had left her mouth, away flew the old woman, the green umbrella and all, into the sky.”
“Oh, dear me!” howled all the boys together. Phronsie snuggled down into Polly’s lap, and held tightly to her.
“‘Pretty creature with the shining eyes, look out for the birds!’ screamed the old woman in the brown cloak, mounting the sky, and holding the green umbrella tightly in her skinny hands. And then she laughed a dreadful laugh. And Araminta Sophia sat down on a big stone by the roadside, and put her face in her two hands, and cried as hard as she could.”
“Oh, dear me!” said the boys again; while Phronsie gave a long sigh, and crept within Polly’s arms closer than ever.