bank.

"Don't hurry. Keep steady. You're half-way over!" cried Janet.

"It looks easy enough, I shall come too," exclaimed Ernestine. She
seized the handrail as if to follow me, but the sudden touch on the
shaking pole was too much for my frail balance--the rail swayed
violently and swung away out of my clutching grasp, my foot slipped, and
with a shriek of terror I found myself flung into the stream below.
Luckily it was neither deep nor dangerous, but even half a yard of water
is quite enough to get very wet in, and I was a moist and draggled
object by the time I had struggled back to dry land.

"It's all your fault, Ernestine!" I cried wrathfully as I regained the
bank. "I told you not to shake the handrail, and you knew it would upset
me!"

"You're the meanest thing in the world, Ernestine Salt!" declared Cathy,
her cheeks crimson with indignation as she tried to wring the water from
my dripping skirts. "Don't speak to me; I never intend to be friends
with you again."

"You did it on purpose," began Janet. "I know you did. You're always
playing sneaking tricks on Philippa when you think no one will find you
out."

"You needn't think you're going to stay here with us," said Blanche
Greenwood, hotly. "Because we don't want you. We didn't ask you to come,
and you may go away and walk by yourself."

"I've no wish to stay with you, I'm sure," replied Ernestine with equal
temper. "I would rather have your room than your company. I've picked
all the lilies I want, so you're welcome to any that are left, so far as
I'm concerned, if that's why you wish to get rid of me."

And with this parting shot, she took her flowers and walked slowly away
in the opposite direction to that in which we had come, by a small path
that led from the wood up on to the moor beyond.

"You're terribly wet, Phil; your boots are simply squelching with water.
I don't know what Mrs. Marshall will say!" said Cathy, as she hurried me
back to the farm as fast as possible, to be dried.

Somewhat to my relief, neither Mrs. Marshall nor any of the teachers was
there. Like ourselves they were all trying to make the best of the fine
afternoon out-of-doors.

"Deary me! Who'd have thought of you falling into that bit of a brook?"
said Mrs. Thompson, aghast, as I walked into the kitchen in my moist
skirts. "We must get you out of those wet things, honey. I've some
clothes of my Lizzie's as would fit you while your own is at the fire."

Lizzie's s