"No, he didn"t, goosie," said Cricket. "The man here wrote it. Papa only sent it."
"I know!" exclaimed Zaidee. "Papa talked it into the box, and the man writed it down when he talked," confusing the telephone at home with the cablegram, which, directed to Miss Eunice Ward, as the eldest representative, had been the occasion of much excitement on its arrival.
After dinner the three girls started down on the beach, to sit down under the rocks till it should be cool enough, later, to go for a ride with the ponies.
"There comes the baby, all alone," said Cricket, presently, as that young man slipped out of the yard all by himself, and ran across the road and down towards the beach where the girls were. "Doesn"t he look cunning? The darling!"
Kenneth, although he was nearly four, was still The Baby to the family.
His broad-brimmed hat hung down his back, held around his chin by its elastic, and his golden hair was rampant. His blue eyes were dancing with mischief, and his hands were clasped behind his back.
"Dess what I dot?" he demanded, pausing at a safe distance, and looking up roguishly from under his long lashes.
"What have you there, baby? See what he has, Cricket, and tell him he mustn"t have it," said Eunice.
"Bring it to Cricket, baby," said that young lady, holding out her hand.
"Dess what I dot," repeated the baby, edging off a little.
Just then Zaidee appeared from the house. Kenneth immediately trotted off up the beach at the sight of her. She ran after him.
"Do away!" he cried, holding his possession, whatever it was, more tightly. "You tan"t have it, Zaidee. I dot it."
"What"s the matter, Zaidee?" called Eunice. "Where"s Eliza?"
"She"s dressing Helen. Eunice, Kenneth has auntie"s gold watch. She left it on the little table where she keeps her G.o.d-books"--for so the twins always called the Bible and Prayer-book--"and he"s run off with it. I guess auntie forgot it. Ought he to have it, Eunice?"
"Of course not," said Eunice, springing up. "Edna, auntie told us to put it away, and we forgot it. Dear me! I hope he won"t drop it. Baby, come here and give the watch to Eunice." She went slowly towards him, holding out her hand.
But baby hugged his treasure. "I dot tick-tick!" he announced, triumphantly. "Tennet likes it. Oo tan"t have it," and off he started as fast as two little legs could carry him, over the soft sand till he reached the firmer beach, which the receding tide had left hard.
Eunice sprang after him. The baby looked back over his shoulder, greatly enjoying the race, tripped over a bit of stone, and fell headlong, the watch shooting on ahead. He gave a frightened cry as he fell, but the next instant, when Eunice reached him, he lay motionless. Hurriedly she raised him up. A stream of blood poured from an ugly gash in his poor little forehead, cut on a piece of gla.s.s that was half imbedded in the sand. As she raised him his golden head fell back heavily, and his eyes were closed.
"Oh, girls, girls!" shrieked Eunice. "Kenneth is dead! he"s killed! he"s killed!"
Cricket and Edna were already by her side.
"Run, Zaidee--Edna--run for Eliza. Get some water, Cricket. Oh, baby, speak to me," poor frightened Eunice cried, half beside herself at the gruesome sight of the baby"s white, still face, and that dreadful blood welling up so fast, and staining everything with its vivid red. Cricket flew to the edge of the beach, dipping water up in the crown of her sailor hat. She tore off her soft Windsor tie to use for a handkerchief (which, of course, she didn"t have), to wipe off the streaming blood.
The little face looked ghastly white, in contrast to the blood-soaked hair about it.
Eliza came flying from the house with the Pond"s Extract bottle in one hand and a bundle of old linen in the other, articles that were always at hand, ready for use.
"Bring him into the shade," she called, as she ran, and Eunice, with Kenneth in her arms, hurried up the beach. Eliza took him as they met, and fairly flew back into the yard.
"Oh, Billy!" she called, pa.s.sing him, "go for the doctor as fast as you can. Kenneth"s dreadfully hurt. No, Miss Edna, you go. You can go quicker;" and Edna flew.
Eliza, frightened herself by the child"s unconsciousness, dropped on the gra.s.s under a tree, trying to stanch the blood that now flowed less freely. Eunice ran for hartshorn, Cricket for water. As they washed away the blood, they could see the long, ugly cut just over his eye. Eliza laid linen bandages soaking in Pond"s Extract over the place, but in a moment they were stained through.
Edna came rushing back, panting and breathless.
"The doctor"s gone away--won"t be back for ever so long--they"ll send him right over when he comes. Oh, Eliza! will Kenneth die?"
Zaidee set up a shriek at the word.
"Be still, Zaidee," ordered Cricket, slipping her hand over the little girl"s mouth. "You go and find poor Helen, and help her finish her dressing."
Zaidee went off, sobbing, and Eunice asked, anxiously:
"Couldn"t we plaster it up ourselves? I know papa says the edges of a cut like that ought to be drawn together as soon as possible, and bandaged. I know how he does it. He sops the place off, and washes the cut out, and puts strips of sticking-plaster over it, and then ties it up in a dry bandage."
"Oh, it"s a head you have, Miss Eunice," said Eliza, who showed her Irish blood by her terror.
"You get some sticking-plaster, Miss Cricket, while I sop off the blood.
Oh, my pretty! my pretty! See! he"s opening his eyes. Do you know "Liza, lovey?"
The heavy blue eyes opened, languidly, and the yellow head stirred a little. The motion set the blood flowing again.
"Kenneth," said Eunice, bending down beside him; "here"s sister! wake him up, if you can, "Liza. Papa wouldn"t let Zaidee go to sleep last winter when she fell off the bedstead and b.u.mped her head so. Baby! wake up, pet!" and she kissed him, eagerly.
In a few minutes, Cricket came running out of the house. "We can"t find any sticking-plaster, and we"ve looked everywhere. Edna says she doesn"t know if her mother has any. What shall we do? I know it ought to be put together right away, else it wouldn"t heal so well. Oh, wait!
I know!" and back she darted. Immediately she reappeared with a part of a sheet of postage stamps.
"These will do, "Liza," she said, excitedly. "Now, is the cut all washed out? Here, I can do it. I"ve watched papa lots of times."
Cricket knelt down by the baby and dipped a piece of linen in water. The flow of blood was very slight by this time. She wiped Kenneth"s forehead off, carefully, over and over, and then the cut itself, looking to see if any bit of gla.s.s or sand was still in it. Then, with firm, gentle little fingers, she drew the gaping edges together closely, and held them, while Eunice moistened some postage stamps in water, and laid them in place.
"Cricket! how can you do that? How do you know how?" exclaimed Edna, who kept in the rear, since the sight of the blood made her feel a little faint and sick.
"I"ve seen papa _loads_ of times," answered Cricket, in her matter-of-fact way. "If only we had some surgeon"s plaster. But that will hold for now. Bind this strip tight around it now, "Liza. Baby, can"t you talk a little? Do you know Cricket?"
"Tritet," repeated Kenneth, with a faint little smile. "Tritet take baby."
"Let me have him," begged Cricket, and Eliza laid him gently in his little sister"s arms.
"Eunice, there"s Mrs. Bemis coming over," said Edna, "I"m so glad."
Mrs. Bemis was the doctor"s wife. She came hastily up to the little group.
"I was out when Edna came, and just got in. The girl told me some one was hurt, so I came right over. The baby, is it? poor little soul! has he lost all that blood? did he cut himself?"
Eunice explained, and Cricket told Eliza to unfasten the bandage to ask Mrs. Bemis if it was all right. At the sight of four pink stamps, the doctor"s wife exclaimed in astonishment:
"What have you put on for a plaster? It looks beautifully done."
"Them"s postage stamps," volunteered Eliza, quickly. "Miss Cricket couldn"t find any sticking-plaster, so she brought this. Oh, she"s her father"s own child for the doctorin"."
"I thought they might do," explained Cricket, rather shyly. "I knew I ought to have strips of plaster, of course, but I couldn"t find any. I thought the cut ought to be drawn together as soon as possible."
"You"re a thoughtful child," said Mrs. Bemis, warmly.