Could she do it?  Could she crawl out on that branch there and hold that danger signal down in front of the train?

She shuddered and covered her face with her hands.  O, no, no, she never could do it.  Suppose she should fall off or the limb break.  But she wouldn’t fall, she mustn’t fall.  Hark!  There is the engine.  If she is going to save the train there is no time for further delay.  With a prayer for guidance and protection, slowly, oh so slowly, that it seemed hours before she got there, Letty crawled out to the branch and dangled below her, across the track, her flag of danger.  She could not see what was going on, because she dared not look down.  So, looking constantly up (and, children, believe me, “looking up” is one of the best things you can do when in danger or trouble), and sending a silent wordless petition for the safety of the train, Letty held her precarious post.  Hark, it is slowing up.  Her balmoral has been seen and the train is saved.  The tension over, she cautiously turned and crawled slowly back to land, and then dropped in a dead faint.  Recovering, however, she went slowly up to the house, trembling and sick and shivering with the cold from the loss of the warm skirt hanging on the clothes-line down in the ravine.

Relaxed and limp she sat down in the big rocker before the kitchen stove, a confused mass of thoughts racing through her head.  Dazed and excited, she hardly knew how time was passing until she heard the sound of wheels.

“O, Letty, the funniest thing—­” shouted Laura, bursting into the kitchen.

“Wait, let me tell,” interrupted Jamie.  “Why, Letty, somebody’s hung—­”

“Somebody hung,” exclaimed Letty, in horror.  “Why, Laura Mason, how dare you say that was funny?”

“I didn’t—­” began Laura, indignantly, but here Mrs. Mason interfered with a “Sh-sh-sh, children, mercy, goodness, you nearly drive me wild.  Here.  Laura, take mother’s bonnet and shawl up-stairs.

“Here, Jamie, take my boots and bring me my slippers.  I’m that tired I don’t know what to do with myself.  Goodness, but it feels good to get home.  The strangest thing’s happened, Letty.  The afternoon express was coming into town this afternoon, and, when it was about two miles out, all of a sudden the engineer saw a red flannel petticoat hanging right down in the middle of the track, hanging by a clothes-line, mind, from the limb of a tree.  He thought at first it was a joke, but changed his mind and thought he’d look further, and would you believe it, he found a great, big log across the track.  If the train had come on that I guess there’d been more grief than Thanksgiving in this neighborhood to-morrow.”

Mrs. Mason had said all this along in one steady strain, while she was walking round the room putting away her parcels.

Getting no response, she turned to look at Letty for the first time.  “Why goodness!  The girl has fainted.  What on earth do you suppose is the matter with her?