“Ow! Ow, it’ll hit me!” cried poor little Molly, more and more frightened. But she scrambled off under her shelter obediently, while Betsy struggled with the branch. It was so firmly imbedded in the snow that at first she could not budge it at all. But after she cleared that away and pried hard with the stick she was using as a lever she felt it give a little. She bore down with all her might, throwing her weight again and again on her lever, and finally felt the big branch perceptibly move. After that it was easier, as its course was down hill over the snow to the mouth of the pit. Glowing, and pushing, wet with perspiration, she slowly maneuvered it along to the edge, turned it squarely, gave it a great shove, and leaned over anxiously. Then she gave a great sigh of relief! Just as she had hoped, it went down sharp end first and stuck fast in the snow which had saved Molly from broken bones. She was so out of breath with her work that for a moment she could not speak. Then, “Molly, there! Now I guess you can climb up to where I can reach you.”
Molly made a rush for any way out of her prison, and climbed, like the little practiced squirrel that she was, up from one stub to another to the top of the branch. She was still below the edge of the pit there, but Betsy lay flat down on the snow and held out her hands. Molly took hold hard, and, digging her toes into the snow, slowly wormed her way up to the surface of the ground.
It was then, at that very moment, that Shep came bounding up to them, barking loudly, and after him Cousin Ann striding along in her rubber boots, with a lantern in her hand and a rather anxious look on her face.
She stopped short and looked at the two little girls, covered with snow, their faces flaming with excitement, and at the black hole gaping behind them. “I always told Father we ought to put a fence around that pit,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Some day a sheep’s going to fall down there. Shep came along to the house without you, and we thought most likely you’d taken the wrong turn.”
Betsy felt terribly aggrieved. She wanted to be petted and praised for her heroism. She wanted Cousin Ann to realize … oh, if Aunt Frances were only there, she would realize … !
“I fell down in the hole, and Betsy wanted to go and get Mr. Putney, but I wouldn’t let her, and so she threw down a big branch and I climbed out,” explained Molly, who, now that her danger was past, took Betsy’s action quite as a matter of course.
“Oh, that was how it happened,” said Cousin Ann. She looked down the hole and saw the big branch, and looked back and saw the long trail of crushed snow where Betsy had dragged it. “Well, now, that was quite a good idea for a little girl to have,” she said briefly. “I guess you’ll do to take care of Molly all right!”
She spoke in her usual voice and immediately drew the children after her, but Betsy’s heart was singing joyfully as she trotted along clasping Cousin Ann’s strong hand. Now she knew that Cousin Ann realized. … She trotted fast, smiling to herself in the darkness.
“What made you think of doing that?” asked Cousin Ann presently, as they approached the house.
“Why, I tried to think what you would have done if you’d been there,” said Betsy.
“Oh!” said Cousin Ann. “Well …”
She didn’t say another word, but Betsy, glancing up into her face as they stepped into the lighted room, saw an expression that made her give a little skip and hop of joy. She had pleased Cousin Ann.
That night, as she lay in her bed, her arm over Molly cuddled up warm beside her, she remembered, oh, ever so faintly, as something of no importance, that she had failed in an examination that afternoon.
VIII
Betsy Starts a Sewing Society
Betsy and Molly had taken Deborah to school with them. Deborah was the old wooden doll with brown, painted curls. She had lain in a trunk almost ever since Aunt Abigail’s childhood, because Cousin Ann had never cared for dolls when she was a little girl. At first Betsy had not dared to ask to see her, much less to play with her, but when Ellen, as she had promised, came over to Putney Farm that first Saturday she had said right out, as soon as she landed in the house, “Oh, Mrs. Putney, can’t we play with Deborah?” And Aunt Abigail had answered: “Why yes, of course! I knew there was something I’ve kept forgetting!” She went up with them herself to the cold attic and opened the little hair-trunk under the eaves.
There lay a doll, flat on her back, looking up at them brightly out of her blue eyes.
“Well, Debby dear,” said Aunt Abigail, taking her up gently. “It’s a good long time since you and I played under the lilac bushes, isn’t it? I expect you’ve been pretty lonesome up here all these years. Never you mind, you’ll have some good times again, now.” She pulled down the doll’s full, ruffled skirt, straightened the lace at the neck of her dress, and held her for a moment, looking down at her silently. You could tell by the way she spoke, by the way she touched Deborah, by the way she looked at her, that she had loved the doll very dearly, and maybe still did, a little.
When she put Deborah into Betsy’s arms, the child felt that she was receiving something very precious, almost something alive. She and Ellen looked with delight at the yards and yards of picot-edged ribbon,
