She knelt down beside Natalie and tried to pacify her by endearing terms, but the amateur farmer was too sorry for herself to pay any attention to Rachel. All she could gasp forth was: "If I ever find out who did this, I'll kill them!"
Rachel sent Mrs. James a knowing look, and nodded toward the barnyard. Thus the lady gathered that the hens and chicks had feasted on the tender greens and had dug up the soft rich soil in seeking for earthworms when they had been turned loose that day.
Darkness slowly crept up from the river banks and the four finally turned to go in to supper. As they reached the box hedge, Rachel remembered the boiling potatoes that were almost cooked when she was summoned hastily by Janet.
"Oh, laws! I betcher they am all black as cinders by this time!" cried she, making a leap to escape over the hedge and reach the kitchen in a hurry.
A dense smoke was seen issuing from the open door of the kitchen, and Rachel's three followers forgot their recent troubles in this new disaster.
Just as they reached the steps of the back porch, Rachel rushed the smoking pot out of the door and ran with it to the grass beside the board-walk.
"Dere ain't no smell on eart' ner unner de eart' to beat dis smell o' burnin' pertaters!" growled Rachel angrily, as she planked the blackened cooking pot down upon the ground.
"Oh my! The kitchen is full of smoke!" exclaimed Janet, who had poked her head in at the open door.
"Did you'se 'speck it to be sweet an' free as hebben?" snapped Rachel scornfully.
Mrs. James said nothing but quickly drew the two girls aside to the other door to permit Rachel to calm her perturbed nerves. Then Natalie remembered her beloved garden.
"Jimmy, who could have been so mean as to do that?"
"Of course, I wasn't present, Natalie, dear. But I have heard that crows love to dig up corn kernels in a newly-planted field, so that farmers have to use scarecrows to keep them off. Maybe some sort of a bird found the toothsome greens and called to all the family to hurry and feast while there was time."
Natalie pondered this idea for a time, but it never occurred to her to lay the trouble at the heels of the chickens. But she determined to lose no time in dressing up the most frightful scarecrow that was conceivable.