Miss Elting took Margery to the fire and made her sit down.  Margery had no need to be urged.  She sat down, all in a heap, and would have toppled over had not the guardian held her up.  A lump as large as a horse chestnut had risen on the stout girl’s head.

“Oh, my dear!  You did get a bump, didn’t you?” cried the guardian.  “Sit right where you are.  I will bring some liniment.  Fortunately, the skin is not broken.  Mr. Grubb, won’t you please see what you can do with the tent?  I fear it is seriously damaged.”

“I want to look at those halters, first, if you can wait a minute.”

Miss Elting nodded, then hurried to the collapsed tent, under which she burrowed and groped about in the dark in search of her medicine kit, which she finally found and brought to the fireside.  Margery’s swollen head was treated until the soreness had become eased a little.  Harriet and Jane supported her to a blanket that they had brought from the tent, and, after tucking her in, left the unfortunate Margery to doze and rest.  Tommy crept over and kissed her on the forehead.

“I’m tho thorry, Buthter,” she whispered sympathetically.  “I withh it might have been me who got the bump on the head.  But never mind; you will be better pretty thoon.  Don’t you think tho?”

Margery’s answer was a moan.  Tommy crept away with a troubled look in her eyes.

“The horses broke their halters,” Janus was saying as Tommy joined her companions.  “Can’t understand what skeered them into doing that.  Jim must be having a chase, or he’d have been back before this.  Want to quit?”

“Certainly not,” answered Miss Elting with emphasis.  “But we should like to know what it means.”

“Might have been a bird or something.  Doesn’t take much to startle a horse when he’s asleep.  I’ve known a partridge to fly up before a sleeping horse and cause the animal to break away and rip things up generally.  You’ll find, if you find at all, that it was something like this skeered Jim’s nags.”

“I gueth it wath a two-legged bird,” observe Tommy wisely.

“That would be strange, indeed,” answered Miss Elting.  “How many legs do birds ordinarily have?”

Tommy flushed.

“That ith tho.  I wath thinking a bird had four legs, jutht like a table.”

Margery groaned.

“Oh!  Are you feeling badly again, dear?” called Miss Elting.

“Yes.”

“What is it?  Does your head pain you?” questioned the guardian.

“No, it’s Tommy.  She gives me a pain.”

“Tommy, come help us put up the tent,” urged Harriet.  “Maybe it will fall on your head next.  That will make Margery feel well again, won’t it, dearie?”

Margery, in a weak voice, agreed that it would.  Tommy retorted that she didn’t care if it did.

The tent was found to have been quite badly torn.  The hoofs of the horses had left great rents in it.  After examining the canvas it was decided not to try to repair it that night, but to leave it as it was until morning, when the girls would be better able to see what they were doing.