“Oh, Uncle Steve it upset itself, and I’m so sorry!”

“Oh, well, if it upset itself I suppose it did so because it prefers to lie that way.  Probably it was tired and wanted to rest.  Wardrobes are a lazy lot, anyway.  But do you know, I was stupid enough to think that you girls had something to do with its downfall.”

“Oh, we did, Uncle Steve,” declared Marjorie, and as by this time her uncle’s arm was around her, and she realized his sympathetic attitude in the matter, she rapidly began to tell him all about it.

“We were playing automobile, you see—­”

“Oh, well, if it was an automobile accident, it’s not at all surprising.  Was it reckless driving, or did you collide with something?”

“We collided with the table,” said Marjorie, laughing; but just then Grandma Sherwood appeared, and somehow the look of consternation on her face seemed to take all the fun out of the whole affair.

But Uncle Steve stood between Marjorie and a reprimand, and in consequence of his comical explanation of the disaster, Mrs. Sherwood fell to laughing, and the tragedy became a comedy.

And then, at Uncle Steve’s orders, the girls were made tidy, and he took them out for a drive, while the long-suffering Carter was called in to remove all evidences of the dreadful automobile accident.

CHAPTER XXI

A FAREWELL TEA-PARTY

The summer, as all summers will do, came to an end, and at last it was the very day before Marjorie was to leave Haslemere and go back to her own home.

The three friends were having a farewell tea-party at “Breezy Inn,” and very sad were the three little faces at the thought of parting.

“And the worst of it is,” said Midget, “I can’t come again for four years, and then I’ll be sixteen years old, just think of that!”

“So will I,” said Molly; “we’ll be almost young ladies.  Isn’t it horrid?”

“At least we won’t get into such mischief,” said Marjorie, laughing as she remembered the scrapes they had been in all summer.  “And next year it’s Kitty’s turn to come, and you’ll have fun with her here in “Breezy Inn,” and I won’t be here.”

At this pathetic announcement, Stella began to cry in earnest, and merry Molly tried to cheer the others up.

“Well, we can’t help it,” she said, “and I suppose, Marjorie, you’ll be having a good time somewhere else.”

“I s’pose so.  They were all at the seashore this summer, and Kitty wrote to me that she had had a lovely time.”

“Maybe she’ll trade off with you,” said Stella, “and let you come up here next summer, while she goes to the seashore again.”

“Maybe she will,” said Midget, brightening up; “I’d like that, but I don’t believe Mother will let us.  You see, we take regular turns spending the summer with Grandma.  Baby Rosamond never has been yet, but when it’s her turn again, she’ll be old enough, and so that puts me off for four years.”