"Gone home!" I repeated in surprise.
"Yes," said William, looking very boldly at his uncle, "and I think she was very right to go. I would not stay where I was scolded just for breaking a flower."
"William!" said Mrs. Temple, in surprise at his violence, for he was usually very gentle in his temper. Mr. Dickinson folded his arms and looked at him without speaking, as if he wished to hear all he had to say before answering him.
"Well, mother," said William, still trying to speak boldly, though tears were in his eyes, and he could not prevent the quivering of his lip, "I do think it was very hard that Jessie should be scolded just for saving my little sister from being hurt, or maybe killed. I am sure our little Flora is worth a great deal more than any grand Flora."
"Saved little Flora!" repeated Mr. Dickinson, "what does the child mean?" looking at me, while I turned to Mrs. Temple for an explanation.
"William is right," she answered, "in what he says, though very wrong in his manner of saying it. I am sorry Jessie has gone without my thanks, for, from the account given both by William and the nurse, she has evinced extraordinary presence of mind for so young a child, and has saved Flora from a very dangerous fall."
"Fall from what?"
"From the large flower-stand which stood near the Cactus, on a shelf of which William seated her while he came to the house for her nurse. Flora climbed to the top, and would have fallen on the flower, or worse, on the stake which supported it, had not Jessie saved her."
"And in saving her broke the flower. I see it all now," said Mr. Dickinson; "but why did not the child tell me so?"
"I tried to tell you, sir," said Mary, "in the dairy, but you would not let me."