Understood Betsy

ircles around her. Yes, all alone in the woods with a terrible great dog beside her, and yet not a bit afraid. You don't suppose it could be Elizabeth Ann? Well, whoever

little house of slabs, the child stopped altogether, and, looking

endent, the all-important, seldom-seen Superintendent, came to visit the school and

nation did to Elizabeth Ann

, and how they dried up her mouth and made her ears ring and her head ache and her knees get all weak and her mind a perfect blank, so that she didn't know what two and two made. Of course Elizabeth Ann didn't feel all those things right off at her first examination, but by the time she had had s

wers she had made! That dreadful tight panic had clutched at her throat whenever the Superintendent had looked at her, and she had disgraced herself ten times over. She went hot and cold to think of it, and felt quite sick with hurt vanity. She who did so well every day

n school. It happened that Aunt Abigail had been taking a nap when she got home from school, and so she had come out to the sap-house, where Cousin Ann and Uncle Hen

blazed furiously under the broad, flat pan where the sap was boiling. The rough, brown hut was filled with white steam and that swe

e. I've saved out a cupful of hot

r on snow ever since her very first taste of it. "Cousin Ann," she s

n, dipping a thermometer

ad examination

holding the thermometer up t

examinations make you feel," sai

r syrup tins. "They never made me feel

nantly, staring through t

it to show 'em. I always used to think examinations were like that. Somebody stumps you to spell 'pneumonia

happened to me. You know how your mouth gets all dry and your knees ..." She stopped. Cousin Ann had said she did not know all about those things. "Well, anyhow, I got so scared I could hardly

matter if you really know the right answe

t take it in at all now. She only shook her head miserably and went on in a doleful t

hard; and she came to an unexpected conclusion. No, she didn't really want to tell Cousin Ann all about it. Why was she doing it? Because she thought that was the thing to do. "Because if you don't really want to," went on Cousin Ann, "

he sun just hovering over the rim of Hemlock Mountain. She looked up at the big mountains, all blue and silver with shadows and snow, and wondered what in the world Cousin Ann had mean

of the syrup. The sun, very hot for that late March day, brought out strongly the tarry perfume of the big pine-tree. Near her the sap dripped musically into a bucket, alread

atic, part of it icy and wet with melting snow. She crunched it all together with her strong, child's teeth into a delicious, big lump and sucked on it dreamily, her eyes on the rim of Hemlock Mountain, high above her there, the snow on it bright golden in the sunlight. Uncle Henry had promised to take her up to the top as soon as the snow went

sy could see the sticky, brown candy draped in melting festoons all over his big white teeth and red gullet. Then with a gulp he had swallowed it all down and was whining for more, striking softly at the little girl's skirt with his forepaw. "Oh, you eat it too fast!" cried Betsy, but she shared her next lot with him too. The sun had gone down over Hemlock Mountain by this time, and the big slope above her was all deep blue shadow. The mountain looked much higher now as the dusk

ded almost like somebody crying. It was somebody crying! It was a child crying. It was a little, little girl. ... Betsy could see her now ... stumbling along and crying as though her heart would break. Why, it was little Molly, her own particular charge at school, whose

o find out what had happened. Then she made out between Molly's sobs that her mother had been taken suddenly sick and had to go away to a hospital, and that left

of the Lathrop house with old Mrs. Lathrop's ungracious white head bobbing from a window, and knew again that ghastly feeling of being u

ter, Molly? Wha

that Cousin Ann was Cousin Ann) why it was that Betsy ran so fast to her and was so sure that everything would be all right as soon as Cousin Ann knew about it; but whatever the reason was it was a good one, for, though Cousin Ann did not stop to kiss Molly or even to look at her more than one sharp first glance, she said aft

and down, and then hugging the little girl with all h

e: "Don't be too sure her folks will

g up at her with shining eyes. "Cousin Ann, i

she made her face grave again at once and said: "You'd better go along bac

m, little Molly clinging fast to the older child's hand. "Aren't you ever afraid, Be

othing to be afraid of, except getting off on

inging. "What's the Wolf

could find the way home. But she put this out of her mind and walked along very fast, peering ahead into the dusk. "Oh, it hasn't anything to do with wolves," she said in answer to Molly's question; "anyhow, not now. It's just a big, deep ho

ked Molly, walking very close to Bets

a wolf howling all night, and when it didn't stop in the morning, they came

hey killed hi

thinking that the right road ran down hill to the house all the way, and that this certainly seemed to be going up a little. She was wondering what had become of Shep. "Stand here just a minute, Molly," she s

y's lips together hard before her scream of fright got out. She stood still, thinking. Now she mustn't get frightened. All they had to do was to walk back along the road till they came to the fork and then make the right turn. But what if they didn't get

Betsy had stood thinking, Molly had disappeared. T

e, "Molly! Molly!" She was beside herself with terror, and started back hastily to

y! Get me out

you?" shr

t little bit out of the road, and slipped on the ice and began to

stood right at the place where the brook tumbled over the edge and fell into it. Although she was dreadfully afraid of falling in herself, she went cautiously over to this tree, feeling her way with her

u hurt,

but I'm all wet and frozen and I w

re, Molly," she called down, "I'm going to run back along to the right road and

on't leave me here alone! Don't! Don't! The wolves will get me

eamed back Betsy, crying herself. Her

t and stopped crying. She sat down on a stone and tried to think. And this is what came into her mind

ntingly stood up against a tree a little distance above the mouth of the pit. It had been there so long that the needles had all dried and fallen

ver in excitement. "Now listen. You go off there in a corner, where the ground ma

a little. She bore down with all her might, throwing her weight again and again on her lever, and finally felt the big branch perceptibly move. After that it was easier, as its course was down hill over the snow to the mouth of the pit. Glowing, and pushing, wet with perspiration, she slowly maneuvered it along to the edge, turned it squarely, gave it

to another to the top of the branch. She was still below the edge of the pit there, but Betsy lay flat down on the snow and held

barking loudly, and after him Cousin Ann striding along in her rubber

gaping behind them. "I always told Father we ought to put a fence around that pit," she said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Some day

praised for her heroism. She wanted Cousin Ann to realize .

t let her, and so she threw down a big branch and I climbed out," explained Molly,

ed back and saw the long trail of crushed snow where Betsy had dragged it. "Well, now, that was quite a go

art was singing joyfully as she trotted along clasping Cousin Ann's strong hand. Now she

hat?" asked Cousin Ann presentl

you would have done if you

Cousin Ann.

as they stepped into the lighted room, saw an expression that made

rm beside her, she remembered, oh, ever so faintly, as something of