"I didn't do it a-purpose," indignantly denied her twin. "Stop your jumping and suck it off."
Irene obediently thrust the smarting wound into her mouth, and immediately let out another howl of anguish, for the sticky mass had burned the little tongue sadly, and the tears rained down the rosy cheeks unchecked while the dismayed sisters racked their brains for some soothing remedy to deaden the pain.
"Try this," suggested Susie, hurrying out of the pantry with a can of baking powder in her hand, vaguely recalling that some kind of white powder used in cooking was good for burns.
"I will not," sobbed Irene angrily. "You don't know what it will do. You're just guessing."
"Gloriana put coal oil on Toady's foot," timidly began Inez, half distracted at having been the cause of all her sister's woe.
"And you think I'll stick my tongue in that?" roared the usually gentle twin so savagely that both her companions fell silent, perplexed at the unhappy situation.
Meanwhile the bubbling syrup had been forgotten, and with an ominous hiss and a pungent odor, the seething mass boiled over the top of the kettle and was promptly licked up by the eager flames of the stove. A great cloud of smoke filled the kitchen, and the paralyzed girls awoke to their danger with a sickening horror.
"Oh, oh, oh!" they screamed in frenzy. "The house will catch! We'll all be burned up! What will mamma say?"
"Hush! Shut up! Give me your apron!" commanded an authoritative voice behind them, and a big, shabby stranger rushed past them, snatched Susie's apron, gave a deft twist to the flaming burner, seized the smoking kettle, and vanished through the kitchen door before any of the sisters realized what had happened. He was soon back with the blackened pot in his hands and a reassuring smile on his lips. "It's all right, kids," he announced cheerily, noting the terror in their faces. "No harm's done. It won't take but a few minutes to clean up that stove and pan and no one will be the wiser. You are housekeeping by yourselves to-day, I see." His quick, restless, eager eyes had noted the tell-tale signs of mischief about him before he hazarded that remark.
"Yes, oh, yes!" breathed Susie in great relief. "Tabitha's taken the rest of the children down to the river, and we're all alone."