Eliza cried out in alarm at his appearance.
"You poor kid! You're a sight." She ran for hot water and soap, while Natalie said, warmly:
"You were perfectly splendid, Dan. I knew you'd do it."
"Did you?" He tried to smile his appreciation, but the effort resulted in a leer so repulsive that the girl looked dismayed. "You ought to have seen the shindy."
"Seen it! Maybe we didn't!"
"Honestly?"
"Did you think we could stay behind? We sneaked along with the cook-house gang, and one of them helped us up on the gravel-cars. He smelled of dish-water, but he was a hero. We screamed and cried, and Eliza threw stones until Mr. O'Neil discovered us and made us get down. He was awfully mean."
"He's a mean man."
"He isn't! He was jumping around on one leg like a crippled grasshopper."
"I made a thousand dollars," said Dan. "Guess what I'm going to do with it?"