But Mary could not be persuaded to give up her prejudices and would none of the snakes, so they decided to gather buttercups, and wandered off among the soft grasses on the hilltop. But it was only when they saw Luella wildly waving the dish-cloth to attract their attention that they remembered the baby. Then they started toward the cottage post-haste, arriving there to find Miss Ada walking the floor with the baby and trying to still its cries.
"What is the matter with her?" cried Molly rushing in. "We thought she was sound asleep."
"Babies don't sleep forever," remarked Luella sarcastically. "Here, Miss Ada, I'm used to 'em. Let me see if there's a pin stickin' her anywhere; there's no knowin' what foolin' with her clothes these children have been doin'."
The children dared not protest against this charge while Miss Ada said: "Oh, I have looked and she seems all right," but she relinquished the baby into Luella's capable hands.
That young woman turned the screaming infant over, felt for an offending pin, turned her back again, and finally laid her across her knees and began to pat her on the back. "I guess she's got colic," she decided. "Molly, you just step up to Mis' Chris Fisher's and see if she's got a handful of catnip. She mostly does keep it, seein' she always has got a baby on hand. There, there, there," she tried to soothe the child on her knees. "Miss Ada, you'll either have to take her or see to them pies in the oven; I can't do both."
"Oh, I'll see to the pies," responded Miss Ada escaping to the kitchen.
Molly was already on her way to Mrs. Chris Fisher's. Polly vainly tried to attract the baby's attention by every means within her power. Mary stood by suggesting alternately mustard poultices and ginger tea, which suggestions Luella contemptuously put aside.
"I don't see what's the matter with her unless it is colic," she remarked. "She may be subject to it; I ain't heard say. I'll ask Ora next time I go out. When was she fed last?"
"Why, I don't know." The two little girls looked at each other. "Did you give her the bottle, Mary?" asked Polly.
"Maybe Molly did. I reckon it was Molly; she was playing she was mother this morning, you know." Luella said nothing but continued the rocking movement of her knees till Molly came in, breathless, with the bunch of dried catnip.