Olive had just gone behind the kitchen door that leads into the yard to
get another stick of wood for the fire when she was startled by a
scream; she feels instinctively that one of her children is in danger,
and she is right, for little George has just been saved from a horrible
death by Maud Weldon, their next door neighbor. The little scamp had
managed to crawl through the fence and get as far as the middle of the
street, when Maud saw him, and was just in time to prevent him from
being run over by a heavy wagon drawn by a pair of horses that were
being driven at a breakneck pace past the house. Of course the fair Maud
screamed, young women generally do at such times; but she saved George
all the same. Her piercing shriek brought the stately Miss Sibley and
her mother to the door of their house, which is almost directly opposite
Dan's, and also caused Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Bell to become so nervous
that they kept their children in the house for the rest of the day, when
they heard of the dangerous adventure George had had, for they both
arrived too late to witness the rescue. The watchfulness and care they
both bestowed on their little ones for the next week was so much time
thrown away, however, for it so happened that no more fast teams came
through that particular street for about a month.

Well, after the brave blonde, Maud Weldon, had become the heroine of the
hour, she went into Dan's cottage with Esther and Jane, who both ran out
when they heard the scream. Olive had already taken her boy in, washed
his little hands and face, put on his clean over-dress, and was now
holding him in her lap in the large rocking-chair. Maud Weldon was in
the parlor with Jane and Esther looking at the flowers and telling them
about her new beau, how handsome he was, and that she intended to marry
him if he asked her, winding up her conversation on the subject of beaux
with the remark that she was bound not to die an old maid, but was going
to get married for she wanted to have a house of her own to keep. And so