"Well, it certainly do beat me!" she exclaimed, after a fruitless
effort to reconstruct her standard of propriety. "I 've heard of
'painters' colic,' but I never knowed it to go to the head before!"



CHAPTER XI

THE BENEFIT DANCE

"Those there are whose hearts have a slope
southward, and are open to the whole
noon of Nature."

NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that calamities seldom come singly, it was
not until the Fourth of July that the Cabbage Patch was again the
scene of an accident.

Mrs. Wiggs had been hanging out clothes, and was turning to pick up
the empty basket, when Billy precipitated himself into the yard,
yelling wildly:

"Chris Hazy's broke his leg!"

Mrs. Wiggs threw up her hands in horror. "Good lands, Billy!
Where's he at?"

"They 're bringin' him up the railroad track."

Mrs. Wiggs rushed into the house. "Don't let on to Miss Hazy till we