father call to me to stop? He always
said I did, but I think he was mistaken.
Perhaps I merely didn't wish to hear
him. Anyway, I went on, balancing
myself as best I could. The other girls
had reached the top, and turned to look
at us, and I knew they were afraid. I
think they would have held out their
hands to help me, but I had both arms
clasped about Julie. So I staggered on,
got almost to the top, then seemed sub-
merged beneath a wave of fears -- mine
and those of the girls -- and fell! As
I went, I curled like a squirrel around
Julie, and when I struck, she was still
in my grasp and on top of me. But she
rolled out of my relaxing clutch after
that, and when father and mother came
running, she was lying on the stones.
They thought she had fallen that way,
and as the breath had been fairly
knocked out of her little body, so that
she was not crying, they were more
frightened than ever, and ran with her
to the house, wild with apprehension.

As for me, I got up somehow and fol-
owed. I decided no bones were broken,
but I was dizzy and faint, and aching
from bruises. I saw my little friends