"Nosebleed!" Margaret echoed, with a great breath. "No," she said
quietly, over the agitated little head; "I don't think she's much
hurt. We'll take her in. Now, look here, children," she added loudly
to the assembled pupils of the Weston Grammar School, whom mere
curiosity had somewhat quieted, "I want every one of you children
to go back to your schoolrooms; do you understand? Dorothy's had
a bad scare, but she's got no bones broken, and we're going to have
a doctor see that she's all right. I want you to see how quiet you
can be. Mrs. Porter, may my class go into your room a little while?"
"Certainly," said Mrs. Porter, eager to cooperate, and much
relieved to have her share of the episode take this form. "Form
lines, children," she added calmly.
"Ted," said Margaret to her own small brother, who was one of Mrs.
Porter's pupils, and who had edged closer to her than any boy
unprivileged by relationship dared, "will you go down the street,
and ask old Doctor Potts to come here? And then go tell Dorothy's
mother that Dorothy has had a little bump, and that Miss Paget says
she's all right, but that she'd like her mother to come for her."
"Sure I will, Mark!" Theodore responded enthusiastically,
departing on a run.
"Mama!" sobbed the little sufferer at this point, hearing
a familiar word.
"Yes, darling, you want Mama, don't you?" Margaret said soothingly,
as she started with her burden up the schoolhouse steps. "What
were you doing, Dorothy," she went on pleasantly, "to get under
that big car?"
"I dropped my ball!" wailed the small girl, her tears beginning
afresh, "and it rolled and rolled. And I didn't see the automobile,
and I didn't see it! And I fell down and b-b-bumped my nose!"
"Well, I should think you did!" Margaret said, laughing. "Mother
won't know you at all with such a muddy face and such a muddy apron!"
Dorothy laughed shakily at this, and several other little girls,
passing in orderly file, laughed heartily. Margaret crossed the
lines of children to the room where they played and ate their lunches
on wet days. She shut herself in with the child and the fur-clad lady.
"Now you're all right!" said Margaret, gayly. And, Dorothy was
presently comfortable in a big chair, wrapped in a rug from the
motor-car, with her face washed, and her head dropped languidly
back against her chair, as became an interesting invalid. The Irish
janitor was facetious as he replenished the fire, and made her laugh
again. Margaret gave her a numerical chart to play with, and saw with
satisfaction that the little head was bent interestedly over it.
Quiet fell upon the school; the muffled sound of lessons recited
in concert presently reached them. Theodore returned, reporting that
the doctor would come as soon as he could and that Dorothy's mother
was away at a card-party, but that Dorothy's "girl" would come for
her as soon as the bread was out of the oven. There was nothing to
do but wait.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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