nto the barn, and when John fastened them in he said
to himself, "Sure they will be safe now, till I have looked to the pigs
and milked the cow; for there is nothing in the barn but straw and hay,
and they cannot hurt themselves with that, sure."

But John was mistaken. As soon as he was gone, Henry spied a swing,
which Mr. Fairchild had made in the barn for the children, but which he
never allowed them to use when he was not with them, because swings are
very dangerous things, unless there are very careful persons to use
them. The seat of the swing was tied up to the side of the barn, above
the children's reach, as Mr. Fairchild thought.

"Oh, Lucy!" said Henry, "there is the swing. There can be no harm in
our swinging a little. If papa was here, I am sure he would let us
swing. If you and Emily will help to lift me up, I will untie it and
let it down, and then we will swing so nicely."

So Emily and Lucy lifted Henry up, and he untied the swing, and let it
down into its right place; but as he was getting down, his coat caught
upon a bit of wood on the side of the barn, and was much torn. However,
the children did not trouble themselves very much about this accident.
First Emily got into the swing, then Henry, then Lucy; and then Emily
would get in again.

"Now, Lucy," she said, "swing me high, and I will shut my eyes; you
can't think how pleasant it is to swing with one's eyes shut. Swing me
higher! swing me higher!"

So she went on calling to Lucy, and Lucy trying to swing her higher and
higher, till at last the swing turned, and down came Emily to the
floor. There happened providentially to be some straw on the floor, or
she would have been killed. As it was, however, she was sadly hurt; she
lay for some minutes without speaking, and her mouth and nose poured
out blood.

Henry and Lucy thought she was dead; and, oh! how frightened they were!
They screamed so violently that John came running to see what was the
matter; and, poor man! he was sadly frightened when he saw Emily lying
on the floor covered with blood. He lifted her up and brought her into
the house; he saw she was not dead, but he did not know how much she
might be hurt. When he had washed her face from the blood, and given
her a little water to drink, she recovered a little; but her nose and
one eye, and her lip, were terribly swelled, and two of her teeth were
out.

When Emily was a little recovered, John placed her in a little chair by
the kit