In a very few minutes after that the carriage rolled away, stopped at Mrs. Merrivale's and took up Helen and her mother, then on to the park.
You needn't suppose Rollo's mother enjoyed it. She seemed to care nothing for the park; she hardly glanced at the swans, and did not go near the monkeys. All the time she missed a happy little face and eager voice that she had expected to have with her. Miss Helen Merrivale was another disappointed one. Had not she and Rollo planned together this ride to the park? Now, all she could learn from his mother was that Rollo was detained at the last minute. She did not intend to tell the Merrivales that her careless little boy seemed to grow more careless every day; and how she felt that she must shut her ears to his pitiful little explanations, which would amount to nothing more than he "didn't mean to at all," and was "so sorry."
The mother believed that she had done right nevertheless she was lonely and sad. They came home earlier than they had intended. As they passed Mrs. Sullivan's pretty cottage she was standing at the gate with Mamie in her arms, and out she came to speak to them.
"You haven't the dear little fellow with you," she said eagerly, her lips trembling. "I wanted to kiss him, the darling, brave boy. O, Mrs. Grey, I hope and trust that he did not get hurt in any way?"
"Who?" said Mrs. Grey wonderingly. "My Rollo! Oh, no, he isn't hurt. Why? Did you hear of any accident?"
"Didn't he tell you? Didn't anybody tell you? Why, Mrs. Grey, if it hadn't been for your brave little Rollo—I shiver and grow cold all over when I think where my baby would be now! She climbed into the boat; it was locked, but she tried to sit down at the farther end, and she lost her balance and pitched head first into the lake. Rollo saw her, your little Rollo, he was the only one around; and I don't know how he did it, and he such a little bit of a fellow. He climbed over the side of the boat and reached after her; he stepped right in that deep mud and got stuck, and the little man had sense enough to unbutton his shoe and leave it sticking there, and wade out after baby. He saved her, I'm sure I don't know how, nobody seems to know, but he tugged her out and laid her on the bank, all unconscious, you know, and we thought she was dead, but she is as well as ever, and O, Mrs. Grey, isn't there any thing I can do for the blessed boy?"
"John," said Mrs. Grey, "drive home as fast as possible."
Up the steps she ran, gave the bell a furious pull, and dashed past the little nurse-girl to her own room like a comet.
"Where is Rollo?" she said breathlessly to Hannah.
"He's asleep now, ma'am. He cried as though his heart would break, and was a long time getting, comforted; but finally I got him dressed and coaxed him to take a nap, and there's been half the town here this afternoon to inquire how he is."