Elsies Children | Page 5

Molly.
"Don't give me any impudence," returned her mother sharply. "Rachel," to the maid who just then came in in answer to the bell, "dress Miss Molly first, and be quick about it."
Enna superintended the business in person, and in a way that sorely tried the temper and nerves of both Molly and the maid; the child's sash must be tied and retied, her hat bent this way and that, her collar and brooch changed again and again, till she was ready to cry with impatience; and when at last she started for the door, she was called back, and Rachel ordered to change her slippers for gaiter boots.
"I don't want to wear them!" cried Molly, fairly stamping with impatience. "The heels are so high and narrow, I can't bear them."
"They're just the style and make your foot look beautiful," said her mother, "sit down and let Rachel put them on you."
"Grandpa says they're dangerous, and so does Dr. Barton, too," grumbled Molly.
"Put them on her, Rachel," commanded Enna. "Molly, behave yourself, or you'll stay at home."
The child submitted rather sullenly, muttering that she would be late.
Rachel was fastening the second boot, when Isadore and Virginia were heard running down the stairs, calling out that the carriage was at the door.
"There! I knew you'd make me too late!" cried Molly. "Oh, Rachel, do hurry!"
"Yes, Miss Molly, best I kin; dar dat's de las' button."
Up sprang Molly, and away in hot haste. She gained the landing, caught her heel in the carpet on the first step of the next flight, and a wild shriek rang through the house, accompanied by the sound of a heavy body tumbling and rolling down the stairs.
Echoing the scream, Enna rushed out into the upper hall.
Calhoun at the foot of the stairs, was picking Molly up.
"Is she hurt? Is she killed?" asked the mother, "Molly, Molly, how did you come to be so awkward?"
"I wasn't! it was those heels; I knew they'd throw me down some day!" cried the child in tones of mingled anger, fright and pain.
"H'm! you're not killed; haven't even had the temper knocked out of you," remarked Enna, going back to her dressing.
"Poor child, you must be hurt," said Calhoun, laying her gently on a sofa, "but no bones broken, I hope?"
"I--I don't know," sobbed Molly, "it's my back. Oh, dear! oh, dear!"
"Oh, Molly, are you much hurt? shall I go for the doctor?" asked Dick, coming to her side pale with fright. "Mac's right here at the door, ready saddled and bridled, and----"
"Go for the doctor?" interrupted Molly. "No, indeed! It's very good in you, Dick, but I don't want him; I am going to Ion with the rest of you. I'm ready now."
"You don't look much like it; you're as pale as a ghost," he said, Calhoun adding, "You'd better lie still for a while, Molly; Dick or I will take you over this evening, if you find yourself able to go then."
"Thank you, but I'm going now," she answered with decision, getting up and taking Dick's arm.
He helped her to the carriage, where Isadore, Virginia, and some of the younger ones sat waiting, and placed her in it.
She wiped away her tears and tried to smile, while answering the questions and condolences of the others, and the party moved on.
By the time Ion was reached, most of them had nearly forgotten Molly's accident, till Elsie remarked that she was looking pale, and asked if she were quite well.
That brought out the story of her fall.
Elsie heard it with grave concern but asked few questions as Molly seemed annoyed that the subject had been introduced. It was a habit of her mother's to scold her for awkwardness, and the child was sensitive on that point.
When the young people had left and the older members of the Roselands family called, Elsie seized a favorable opportunity to speak of Molly's pale looks and urge the importance of calling in a physician that if there were any reason to apprehend serious results from the fall, measures might be promptly taken to avert the danger.
"She can't have been seriously hurt," returned Enna coldly, "or she wouldn't have been ready to get into the carriage the next minute and ride over here."
"By the way," said her father, "I haven't heard what caused her fall."
"She's an awkward child, always tumbling about," returned Enna reddening.
"Especially since she wears those fashionable boots with the high narrow heels," he remarked. "Had she them on when she fell?"
Enna reluctantly admitted that such was the fact.
"I'll send them into town to-day, with orders that full half the heel shall be taken off," he said with angry decision.
CHAPTER THIRD.
"'Tis a goodly scene-- Yon river, like a silvery snake, lays out His coil i' the sunshine lovingly." --HUNT.
The family at Ion presently fell into