Hester never remembered leaving the car or how she got home after the fatal catastrophe, but indelibly printed on Julie’s mind would always be the picture of a wide-eyed breathless girl who rushed in upon her and threw a mangled package on the table.
“Oh, my dear! what is the matter?” cried Julie.
Julie picked up the battered box, disclosing the cake within crushed to a pancake. She turned to find Hester’s head buried in her arms; the girl was sobbing convulsively.
“Never mind, dear,” said Julie, stroking her head sympathetically, “it would be much worse if you were hurt too.”
“I am not crying,” the younger girl asserted stoutly; “not crying at all.” She spoke in short gasps that were strangely like sobs, but Julie ignored them. “I am all out of breath from running, that is all, and I did not fall, you goose! A woman sat on me!” She broke into a peal of hysterical laughter.
It was Julie’s turn to be speechless now.
“If she had just sat on _me_ it wouldn’t have mattered but she tumbled in the car before I knew it and there is the result!” She waved her hand tragically toward the table and wiped her eyes.
“We’ll make another one right away, dear.”
“Of course we will,” responded Hester, pulling off her hat and coat and flinging them down impatiently; “but it breaks my heart to see such a ruin of all our work not to mention the waste of materials!”
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall; Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men—
sang Julie, suggestively, but was not allowed to finish the ditty, for Hester said, with a thump on the table:
“We will put this together again double quick and I will get it to Miss Ware before dark, you see if I don’t.”
“You had better let me go next time, Hester,” said Julie, getting out the cooking utensils, “you will be tired to death.”
“No, I won’t; I have undertaken to do this thing, and I’ll put it through if it takes forever,” with which characteristic remark she set to work again.
The second effort in the culinary line was, if possible, more successful than the first and immediately after their simple lunch of bread and milk, Hester set forth again. The storm had ceased, and to the immense delight of Peter Snooks, Hester confided to him that she should walk and a certain good little dog that she knew should go too. Julie laughed at this determination to avoid the car and called her superstitious. She laughed, too, but refused to analyze her sensations.