Molly squeezed her friend's hand. "I think so, too," she
whispered. "The thunder and lightning were terrible, and I was
almost scared to death; but now that everything's all right, I
can't help feeling gay and glad!"

And so these two reprehensible young madcaps smiled at each other,
and trudged merrily along across soaking fields, in a drenching
rain, and rescued from what had been a very real danger indeed.

During all this, Grandma Sherwood had been sitting placidly in her
room, assuming that Marjorie was safely under shelter next door.
Molly's mother had, of course, thought the same, and Stella's
mother, finding the girls nowhere about, had concluded they were
either at Molly's or Marjorie's.

Owing to the condition of the party he was bringing, Carter deemed
it best to make an entrance by the kitchen door.

"There!" he said, as he landed the dripping Stella on a wooden
chair, "for mercy's sake, Eliza, get the little lady into dry
clothes as quick as you can!"

"The saints presarve us!" exclaimed Eliza, for before she had time
to realize Stella's presence, Midge and Molly bounded in,
scattering spray all over the kitchen and dripping little pools of
water from their wet dresses.

Stella had ceased crying, but looked weak and ill. The other two,
on the contrary, were capering about, unable to repress their