“I am glad you like it,” answered Miss Hunt, still sore over her bout
with Judy, “but I must say it is hard on me with this chiffon dress.
What will it look like after this?”
“Well, you know, chiffon is French for rag so I fancy it will look like
a Paris creation,” called back Judy from the front seat, where she was
still installed by Kent. “I’ll bet anything her hair will come out of
curl,” she whispered to her companion, “and I should not be astonished
to see some of her beauty wash off.”
“Eany, meany,” laughed Kent. “You are already way ahead of her, Miss
Judy. Do leave her her hair and complexion.”
“Well, I’ll try to be good,” said penitent Judy. “You and Molly are so
alike, it is right amusing. And the worst of it is your goodness rubs
off on everybody you come in contact with. Do you realize I have been in
Kentucky for weeks and that Miss Hunt is the first person I have had a
scrap with, and so far I have not got myself in a single ‘Julia Kean’
scrape? I have been in so many, that the girls at college have named the
particular kind of scrape I get in after me, just as though I were a
famous physician who had discovered a disease.”
“Just what kind of scrape do you usually get in?”
“The kind of scrape I get in is always one I can get out of, and usually
one that I fall in from not looking ahead enough at the consequences.”
“Well, I pray God that this will be a ‘Julia Kean’ scrape we are in
to-night. Certainly, lack of foresight got us in. I’d like to get that
weather man and throw him in this creek. ‘Generally fair and variable
winds,’ much!” said Kent with such a serious expression that Judy began
to realize that this was not simply a case of a good wetting, but might
mean something more.
The horses were knee deep in water now, but splashing bravely on. Molly
noticed that in hitching up for the homeward trip Kent had put President
in the lead.
“That is because old President has so much sense and will know how to
pick his way and keep his feet when the other horses would get scared
and begin to struggle and pull down the whole team,” said Molly to
Professor Green. Molly was fully aware of the danger they were in, but
was keeping her knowledge to herself for fear of starting a panic among
the girls. “There is no real danger of drowning,” she whispered to her
companion, “so long as we stay in the wagon. But the banks are so steep
that if we should get out we might slip into the creek and then it would
be about impossible to keep our feet. Look at the water now, up to the
hubs of the wheels! I am sorry for the horses, and what an awful
responsibility for Kent! But he is equal to it. Do you know, I really
believe Kent is equal to anything!”
It was, of course, pitch dark now, except for frequent flashes of
lightning that illuminated the raging torrents, so all were forced to
realize the grave situation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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