You can't think how queer I feel, Elsie,--just as
if my heart had slipped out of its place, and was going down, down into my
boots. I think it must be the way people feel when they are homesick. I
had it once before when I was at Inches Mills, but never since then. How I
wish Philly had never gone to skate on that nasty pond!" and John burst
into a passion of tears.
"Oh, don't, don't!" cried poor Elsie, for Johnnie's sobs were infectious,
and she felt an ominous lump coming into her own throat, "don't behave so,
Johnnie. Think if papa came out, and found us crying! Clover particularly
said that we must make the house bright for him. I'm going to sow the
mignonette seed [desperately]; come and help me. The trowel is on the back
porch, and you might get Dorry's jack-knife and cut some little sticks to
mark the places."
This expedient was successful. Johnnie, who loved to "whittle" above all
things, dried her tears, and ran for her shade hat; and by the time the
tiny brown seeds were sprinkled into the brown earth of the borders, both
the girls were themselves again. Dr. Carr appeared from his retirement
half an hour later. A note had come for him meanwhile, but somehow no one
had quite liked to knock at the door and deliver it.
Elsie handed it to him now, with a timid, anxious look, whose import
seemed to strike him, for he laughed a little, and pinched her cheek as he
read.
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