her dress as well, had not Grace, with rare presence of mind, whipped the
box out of danger just in the nick of time.

"Well," said Mollie, too surprised and indignant to move for a moment,
while, at the comical picture she made, both Betty and Amy laughed
merrily, "I surely like this!"

"You do, do you? Well, I don't!" cried Grace, recovering both her breath
and her dignity at the same moment. "If you don't stop sitting on my lungs
this minute, Mollie Billette, I'll--I'll--stick this pin into you."

With a yell Mollie stumbled to her feet and shook out her dress
belligerently.

"You had better not. I'm stronger than you, Grace Ford, and I've a good
mind to let you see what the bottom of the river looks like."

She advanced toward her prospective victim, and Betty stopped laughing
long enough to call to her.

"You'd better change your mind, Mollie," she cautioned merrily. "You can't
give Gracie a ducking without ruining her dress and she might charge you
damages. Reconsider--I beg of you, reconsider!"

Mollie condescended to reconsider and plumped herself down cross-legged on
the deck, disdaining a chair.

"Oh, very well," she said, adding as she glared darkly at Grace: "You will
probably never know, woman, how near to death you were."