“Oh, oh! It ran—across my—foot!” she gasped, and fell over.
Confusion followed. Harry was struck with a great fear. Was she dead? He had never seen a girl do so before. Would they hang him?
But May Nell recovered almost before Mrs. Bennett had time to lift her. “I often do—do—faint,” she apologized, “it isn’t—isn’t ’t all dangerous.” She smiled at Mrs. Bennett, and the smile, the sweet, pale little face with her hair a shining golden halo around it, made of her an ethereal being almost unreal to the awestricken children. Yet she was soon merry again, apparently as well as ever.
The hours passed in an uproar of fun. The table was dismantled, toys, tools, and dishes put away, and the feast had sped into the past.
“It’s been the best ever,” Jean said, happily.
“A perfectly gorgeous occasion,” Bess supplemented.
“The bulliest time yet!” shouted Charley from the street.
“Mine stomach ist so full mine head cannot t’ink,” Max stammered to Mrs. Bennett; “but it vas bravo!”
They all went off, a merry, noisy troop. And the disappearing sun was the last to say to Billy “Good-night.”