"Let us hear what you have to say, at once, Mammy," continued
Miss Agnes, anxiously.
"Billy, here, has brought bad news from Longbridge."
"Dreadful news!" interposed old Hetty. "Oh, Miss Aggess! Billy say Miss Jane—"
"What is it?—Speak plainly!" cried Miss Wyllys.
"There's an accident happened to the steamboat," added Mammy.
"B'iler bust—dearie me—Miss Jane's scall to death!" exclaimed
Hetty.
A cry of horror burst from Elinor and her aunt, and they turned towards Mammy Sarah.
"I hope it isn't quite so bad, ma'am," said Mammy; "but Billy says the steamboat boiler did really burst after she had got only half a mile from the wharf."
A second sufficed for Miss Agnes and Elinor to remember Hetty's fondness for marvels and disasters, and they hoped ardently that the present account might be exaggerated. They turned to the boy: "What had he heard?" "Whom had he seen?" Billy reported that he had seen the boat himself; that he had heard the cries from her decks, which the people in the street thought had come from some horses on board, that must have been scalded; that another boat had gone out to the Longbridge steamer, and had towed her to a wharf a few rods from the spot where the accident happened; that he had seen, himself, a man on horseback, coming for the doctor; and the people told him five horses had been killed, two men badly hurt, and Mr. Graham's eldest daughter was scalded so badly that she was not expected to live.
Miss Wyllys's anxiety increased on hearing the boy's story; she ordered the carriage instantly, determined that under any circumstances, it would be best to go to Longbridge at once, either to discover the truth, or to assist Mrs. Graham in nursing Jane, if she were really badly injured. At this moment, Harry returned from the boat-house.