incredulous eyes. Up the field, just beyond them, the great empty
automobile stood amiably at rest. From the general appearance of the
stone-wall at the top of the little grassy slope it was palpably evident
that the car had attempted certain vain acrobatic feats before its
failing momentum had forced it into the humiliating ranks of the
back-sliders.

Still grinding her knuckles into her eyes the White Linen Nurse turned
back to the Little Girl. Under the torn, twisted sable cap one little
eye was hidden completely, but the other eye loomed up rakish and
bruised as a prizefighter's. One sable sleeve was wrenched disastrously
from its arm-hole, and along the edge of the vivid little purple skirt
the ill-favored white ruffles seemed to have raveled out into hopeless
yards and yards and yards of Hamburg embroidery.

A trifle self-consciously the Little Girl began to gather herself
together.

"We--we seem to have fallen out of something!" she confided with the air
of one who halves a most precious secret.

"Yes, I know," said the White Linen Nurse. "But what has become of--your
Father?"

Worriedly for an instant the Little Girl sat scanning the remotest
corners of the field. Then abruptly with a gasp of real relief she began
to explore with cautious fingers the geographical outline of her black
eye.

"Oh, never mind about Father," she asserted cheerfully. "I guess--I