. What was she going
to do with them? Maida wondered.

"Granny," Maida called, "do come and see this little girl! She's--"
But Maida did not finish that sentence in words. It ended in a
scream. For suddenly the little girl threw the Teddy-bear and all
the six dolls into the puddle. Maida ran out the door. Half-way
across the court she met Dicky Dore swinging through the water.
Between them they fished all the dolls out. One was of celluloid and
another of rubber--they had floated into the middle of the pond. Two
china babies had sunk to the very bottom--their white faces smiled
placidly up through the water at their rescuers. A little rag-doll
lay close to the shore, water-logged. A pretty paper-doll had melted
to a pulp. And the biggest and prettiest of them, a lovely blonde
creature with a shapely-jointed body and a bisque head, covered with
golden curls, looked hopelessly bedraggled.

"Oh, Betsy Hale!" Dicky said. "You naughty, naughty girl! How could
you drown your own children like that?"

"I were divin' them a baff," Betsy explained.

Betsy was a little, round butterball of a girl with great brown eyes
all tangled up in eyelashes and a little pink rosebud of a mouth,
folded over two rows of mice-teeth. She smiled deliciously up into
Maida's face:

"I aren't naughty, is I?" she asked.

"Naughty? You bunny-duck! Of course you are," Maida said, giving her
a bear-hug. "I don't see how anybody can scold her," she whispered
to Dicky.

"Scold her! You can't," Dicky said disgustedly. "She's too cute. And
then if you did scold her it wouldn't do any good. She's the
naughtiest baby in the neighborhood--although," he added with pride,
"I think Delia's going to be pretty nearly as naughty when she gets
big enough. But Betsy Hale--why, the whole street has to keep an eye
on her. Come, pick up your dollies, Betsy," he wheedled, "they'll
get cold if you leave them out here."

The thought of danger to her darlings produced immediate activity on
Betsy's part. She gathered the dolls under her cape, hugging them
close. "Her must put her dollies to bed," she said wisely.

"Calls herself _her_ half the time," Dicky explained. He gathered up
the dresses and shooing Betsy ahead of him, followed her into the
yard.

"She's the greatest child I ever saw," he said, rejoining Maida a
little later. "The things she thinks of to do! Why, the other day,
Miss Allison--the sister of the blind lady what sits in the window
and knits--