Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer — Part 187

But Nathalie, with a sober face was staring down at the grass. “Oh, Nita,” she exclaimed with a sudden fear, “the grass is wet, and, Ellen, she will take cold! Oh, how did she get here? Mrs. Van Vorst will be so displeased!”

But at that instant Mrs. Van Vorst came running down the path followed by Mrs. Morrow. “Oh, Nita! Nita!” she wailed, “how could you be so foolish, you will surely take your death! Ellen, how did it happen?”

“Sure, there’s no harm done,” broke in Peter’s voice at this critical moment. “I have her chair and we’ll soon get her in, marm. Sure, I saw her stealing across the lawn all alone by herself, and I hurried after the chair, thinking she would be tired before she had gone far.”

“Thank you, Peter,” cried Nita’s mother, “you are so good and considerate. O dear, I hope she won’t take cold! It was such an imprudent thing for her to do, but Ellen, how did it happen?” There was a note of condemnation in the lady’s voice.

But before Ellen could answer, Nita, whom Peter had wrapped and placed in her chair, cried, “Now, Mamma, don’t blame Ellen. It was all my fault. I sent her to get my shawl and then I stole down here. I just wanted to hear some of the stories. But when I got here that girl—the Pioneers called her Lillie—was telling a story. She was trying to scare the girls, and then—oh, Mother, it was so funny to see her run—why, I thought I would scare her, and when she looked up, just as she had worked the girls all to a fever, I waved my arm and pointed my finger at her. Oh, Mother, if you could have heard her shriek!” Nita was again in hysterical laughter.

By this time she had her audience laughing with her, especially Peter and Ellen, who thought their young mistress had been most brilliant in outwitting them, and in frightening the young lady who had been trying so hard to frighten her companions.

“O dear,” exclaimed Mrs. Morrow, who proved to be the lady who was visiting with Mrs. Van Vorst when Nita stole down to the lower porch, “I am ashamed of my Pioneers; they are supposed to be very brave, but to-night’s performance does not appear as if they were. Nathalie, how was it you did not run with the others?”