“I’m glad I didn’t put in all my cream,” she thought. “I had sense enough to save out half of it.”
But she was just as much amused as either of the children. She never was cross or sad, whatever happened.
“Of course Baby Morse has been here,” said she; “nobody else would cut up such a caper. But I haven’t seen her or heard a sound of her all the morning.”
“I saw her,” said Jimmy. “She was playing in the dirt with that horrid black thing; but who’d ’a’ thought of her dropping it in the churn?”
Then they had another hearty laugh, all three of them; and Jimmy never dreamed that he had been at all to blame. The cream was the color of Mrs. Chick’s gray gown. She poured it into a pan, to save it for the animals, and then washed the churn.
“I won’t scold the boy; it was all my own fault,” thought she. “It’s well I’m going to take these children home to-day. If they were to stay here much longer, I should let ’em pull the house down over my head.—Do you hear what I say, Biddy Chick?”
Mrs. Dunlee was very much surprised that afternoon to see Edy walk into the house wrapped in an old shawl of Mrs. Chick’s, which almost tripped her up at every step.
“O mamma!” she cried, throwing up her arms, “my dress was just burnt off me! The back of it, I mean.”
And while Mrs. Chick was trying to tell the story, Edith began to laugh and cry wildly.
“O mamma!” said she, casting herself on her mother’s neck, “you always did just right with me; you knew best when you wouldn’t trust me with candles and things. I _am_ the careless-est girl!”
“There! I’m glad you’ve found it out,” retorted Kyzie. “You never believed it when anybody else said so.”
Mamma raised a warning finger, and Kyzie was ashamed, and held her peace. She was the dearest girl in the world, but liked to lecture Edith; and Mrs. Dunlee thought Edith did not need any lectures now. She was feeling very humble.
“O mamma!” she went on, “I should think you’d tie my feet and hands with a rope! yes, I should! Too bad I burnt up Mrs. Chick’s pretty rug! But then, oh, dear! just think, you know, if there hadn’t been any rug!”
To divert their minds, Mrs. Chick told the story of Jimmy’s butter. They were much amused; but the funniest part of it was to hear her say,—