Everybody screamed with laughter.
“Yes, but——” began Nancy, and went off into another gale of merriment.
“Now please tell us just how you happened to fall, Martha,” said Miss Ashton, when they were all in the bus again, and on their way.
“I got awfully sleepy,” said Martha, rather sheepishly, “and I thought I’d go and sit in the back seat and take a little nap where nobody would disturb me. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in the road and the bus was going on without me. I did hope you’d discover that I was missing before you went very far.”
“But how on earth did you get out?” persisted Miss Ashton.
“That back door is almost never used, except in emergencies,” interrupted the driver. “It may not have been closed tightly; and she probably fell against it when she was asleep——”
“That was an emergency, all right,” commented Nancy.
“Now, Martha,” warned Jeanette, as they drew up before the hotel in Halifax, “you have had two falls. Do be careful during the rest of our trip.”
There was an hour to spare before it was time to dress for dinner, and the girls spent it wandering around the Public Gardens. A rambling stream, stone bridges, duck ponds filled with water fowl, immense trees, great flower beds of all shapes in which are blended, in striking color combinations, blossoms of all kinds, make it a most attractive place to spend hours; and the girls heartily regretted that time would not permit them to linger.
“But it is just as well we did not have any more time to walk about the gardens,” said Jeanette, as they were preparing for bed. “I am tired to death now.”