At that Flaxie began to cry. She was not in pain, as she had been when she got the slate-pencil up her nose; but somehow she felt very unhappy.
"Guess I's goin' to die," sobbed she.
"Why, Flaxie Frizzle Gray, what do you mean by such talk as that? What do YOU know about dying?"
"O, I know 'bout it; we'll all die some day, mamma said so; guess it's some day now," gasped Flaxie, mournfully.
"That's not a pretty way to talk," said Bert Abbott. "Here, eat a raisin, Flaxie, that's a good baby."
Flaxie shut her eyes firmly, and would not touch the raisin. Preston began to feel uneasy: he had never seen his sister's rosy little face look like this before. "See here, boys," said he, "let's get out of this, and I'll carry Flaxie home to mother."
If he could only have done it! But, somehow, before he had fairly got the child in his arms, she drew away from him and leaned over the stern of the boat. I suppose she was blind and dizzy; but, at any rate, she lost her balance and fell head-first into the brook, which was deep enough, even by the shore, to drown a man. It was done so quickly that nobody had time to stop her. Jack Snow reached out as far as he could and clutched the hem of her cambric dress; but it slipped through his fingers, and the child sank down, down to the very bottom.
"Hullo there!" screamed the boy, as if that could do the least good!
Preston plunged into the water. He did not know how to swim much; but he never stopped to think of himself, he must save his darling sister. O, where was she? Why didn't she rise to the surface? He had heard his father say that people did not drown till they had risen at least once. Perhaps you, who know of Flaxie's taking poison, can guess why she did not rise. She had fainted away!
Preston dived, but came up without her. She had gone out of his reach. When he rose, he said to himself,—