It was soon after this that I saw Aggie, who had made no complaint about Tish falling on her, furtively testing her own tissues to see if they crackled.
Leaving my injured there by the creek, I went back to the tree and secured my paling again. By covering it with straw from the barn I was quite sure I could make a comfortable splint for Tish’s arm. However, I had but just reached the barn and was preparing to crawl through a window by standing on a rain barrel when I saw Tish limping after me.
“Well?” she said. “What idiotic idea is in your head, Lizzie? Because if it is more eggs——”
“I am going to get some straw and make a splint.”
“Nonsense. What for?”
“What do you suppose I intend it for?” I demanded, tartly. “To trim a hat?”
“I won’t have a splint.”
“Very well,” I retorted. “Then I shall get some straw and start a fire to dry Aggie out.”
“You’ll stick in that window,” Tish said, in what, in a smaller woman, would have been a vicious tone.
“Look here, Tish,” I said, balancing on the edge of the rain barrel, “is there something in this barn you do not wish me to see?”