back through the woods to the farm while
still the conflagration was at its height.

There was not timber enough left from the old bridge to kindle a scout
camp-fire. A few charred remnants had gone floating down the stream
and these fugitive remnants drifting into tiny coves and lodging in the
river's bends were shown by the riverside dwellers as memorials of the
event which had stirred the countryside more than any other item, of
neighborhood history. Under the gaping space of disconnected road the
stream flowed placidly, uninterrupted by all the recent hubbub above it.
The straight highway looked strange without the bridge.

Pepsy had a fever all that night, but toward morning she fell asleep,
and Aunt Jamsiah, who had watched her through the night, tiptoed into
the little room under the eaves and out again to tell Pee-wee that he
had better wait, that all Pepsy needed now was rest.

"Can't I just look at her?" Pee-wee asked. So he was allowed to stand in
the doorway and see his partner as she lay there sleeping the good sleep
of utter exhaustion.

"When she wakes up," Aunt Jamsiah said pleasantly.

Pee-wee knew the circumstances of her being found at the burning bridge
and brought home, but he asked no questions and Aunt Jamsiah said
nothing of the events of that momentous night. It seemed to be generally
understood that this matter was in Aunt Jamsiah's hands for thorough
consideration later.

Meanwhile Pee-wee went across the lawn and down the road to the scene of
their hapless enterprise. The roadside rest could boast now of but
two jars, one of peppermint sticks and one of gumdrops (both in rapid
process of consumption) and a number of spools of tire tape. But the
absence of doughnuts and sausages and lemonade, this was nothing. It was
the absence of Pepsy that counted.

Pee-wee took his customary eye-opener, consisting of a gumdrop. He had
to shake the jar to get a red one, that being the kind he preferred.
Then he drew his legs up on the counter and proceeded to work upon the
willow whistle he was making.

His handiwork soon reached that stage of manufacture where it was
necessary to soak the willow bark in water, so as to cause it to swell.
He thereupon distributed the remaining gumdrops impartially between
his mouth and his trousers pocket and filled the empty jar with water,
dropping his handiwork into it. Thus by gradual stages and without any
sensational "closing out sales" the refreshment busin