The girls caught their breath, looking out over the fields through the open doorway.
“This wind will snap the stems of our tulips even if the water did not ruin them,” Hanny said. “Uncle Peter will lose most of his investment.”
“The wind is dying down some now,” Vevi said. “Maybe the tulips will be all right.”
“I am especially worried about the north field,” Hanny went on. “If the prize tulip is lost, we will have nothing to enter in Mrs. Langley’s show.”
“The Golden Beauty?”
Hanny did not answer. She seemed to be thinking hard.
Suddenly, without explaining what she intended to do, she bolted out the open door of the mill.
Vevi saw the little girl run to the barn. She was inside a minute or two. Then out she came, carrying a large, empty orange crate.
“Where are you going, Hanny?” Vevi shouted across the yard.
In the high wind, Hanny could not hear. But Vevi saw her enter the north field and dart down the rows of tulips.