“I don’t see, though, how you did it.”
“I’ll tell you. It was a—an inspiration, I guess! You see, I didn’t mind you taking all the apples you wanted, because there are just bushels and bushels of them and my aunts would never miss them a tiny bit, but I did want to have some fun. At first I thought I’d wait for you at the hedge and threaten to tell if you didn’t take me along with you. But I didn’t know any of you, you see. Then I just decided that I’d have fun my own way. So I got a sheet out of the linen-closet and a broom from the kitchen. I did that before supper and hid them under the bed in my room. What made it very difficult was that they insist on my going to bed every night at half-past nine. At home I always stay up until ten. So I had to go to bed as usual, though, of course, I didn’t really take all my clothes off. Aunt Lydia always puts her head in my door and says good night to me. That’s my room on the side. See the two windows over the porch? That’s how I got out. I was afraid to go downstairs because my aunts would be certain sure to hear me. So after Aunt Lydia said good night I crept out of bed and dropped the broom and the sheet out of the window. Then I came down after them.”
“I don’t see how you did it,” said Cal with a trace of admiration. “You didn’t jump, did you?”
“No, there’s a rain-spout on the other side; you can’t see it from here. I got down by that and I got back the same way. It isn’t hard at all. You stand on the porch rail and then you put one foot on the thing that holds the spout up and the other on top of the dining-room window, and then you can get your knee over the edge of the roof and you’re all right. I made sure I could do it before supper, though. After I got down I took the sheet and the broom to the wagon-shed back there and got ready. I waited and waited and thought you weren’t coming after all. Then I could see you moving down by the hedge. So I crept out and went around through the blackberry patch until I was at the edge of the orchard. But you were all so busy you wouldn’t have seen me, anyway. When you did see me, though, it was just too funny for anything!”
Molly laughed merrily at the memory of it and Cal said “Huh!” in a disgusted tone and looked bored.
“It was a silly trick to play,” he said severely.
“Because you were fooled,” responded Molly serenely. “I guess I must have looked pretty—pretty ghastly! Anyway, you all yelled like anything and just ran! I was glad you got your apples, though. I suppose you were all too scared to drop them!”
“I didn’t get mine,” said Cal grimly. “Mine were under the tree.”
“Then it’s your pillow-case I found!” exclaimed Molly, clapping her hands gleefully. Cal nodded. Then he grinned.
“I was up in the tree,” he said. Molly frowned.