Miss Mason had been measuring the cherries impartially, half for the individual pickers and half for Mrs. James, when the first accident happened. She was out of the house and crossing the gra.s.s when the second scream reached her ears. She saw an old hemp hammock hanging from a clothes pole on the drying-place, and had a sudden idea.

The hammock was s.n.a.t.c.hed and carried over to the tree where the Scout hung. "Here, girls! Spread it out quickly! We will have a life-saving net and win a reward for our presence of mind!" ordered the teacher.

The Scouts instantly obeyed and the net was spread even as May wailed: "I have to let go! My hands won't hold on longer!"

"All right! Drop!" commanded Miss Mason. "We'll save you."

May yelled and let go. She was caught in the meshes of the old hammock, but the hemp was so rotten that in another moment it separated and let May down on the gra.s.s. However, it had answered its purpose, for the time, and had broken her fall.

While this "first-aid" was being given, Rachel ran, in great excitement, back to a.s.sist Natalie. She had hastily placed the extra-high step-ladder under the tree and, without taking time to see that the braces that hold back and front sections firmly apart were _not_ taut, she began to mount the steps to reach her "Honey."

Half-way up, the now overbalanced ladder started to sway uncertainly, and Rachel gasped as she wildly tried to clutch something to steady herself. Natalie's feet were the only available things in sight.

"Ough! Mis' James! Heigh, down dere-someone grab hol' on dis ladder!"

shouted Rachel, her eyes almost popping from her head.

"Wait! Hold on, Rachel!" called a chorus of voices below.

The ladder was still quaking uncertainly when Rachel lost courage and began to descend precipitously, without stopping to find a sure footing on the steps. Consequently, she missed the second step from the bottom and sat down unceremoniously in a bushel of ripe ox-hearts.

"Umph!" was the grunt that was forced from her lungs, but the Scouts all howled with dismay when they saw the result to their patient cherry picking.

Janet did not stop to see what was occurring to Rachel. The moment she saw the mammy come down, she ran up the steps and steadied herself by holding to the bough from which Natalie still swung. Miss Mason managed to hold the bottom of the ladder until Janet had guided her friend's feet to the top step. Then the strain on the suspenders was loosened and it was easy to unbuckle the straps at the back of the overalls.

In a few more moments, Natalie was helped down the ladder and once more stood on _terra firma_. But such a funny sight was presented her when she breathed in safety once more, that she momentarily forgot the hornet sting and laughed wildly.

Mrs. James had called several of the Scouts to help her in pulling Rachel up out of the bushel basket upon her feet again. This muscular deed was accomplished just as Natalie stepped down on the ground. But Rachel's percale bungalo-gown was a sight!

The luscious ripe cherries were mashed all over her skirt, and half of the fruit in the basket was crushed as if done by a fruit-press. Rachel was torn between two fires-that of humble apology to the scout-pickers for spoiling their "fruits of labor" and concern over Natalie who was holding her hand over the back of her neck. Mother-instinct that was so deeply rooted in Rachel, although she had never had a child of her own, won the day and she ran over to Natalie to ascertain the extent of the troublesome sting.

"Oh, mah pore Honey! Mah sweet li'l' chile-did dem nasty bees sting yoh?" Rachel cried, enfolding Natalie in her capacious embrace. Then she added, "Now jus' you-all wait a minit, chillun, an' I'll soon git dat stinger out."

Consequently she made a soft paste of mud and water, and slapped a handful of it on Natalie's neck. Then she tied a towel over it to keep it in place.

"Now, Honey, yoh jus' sit heah wid yoh haid down in front, so's dat mud won't run down yoh back," advised she.

Natalie obeyed, albeit the mud did ooze in trickles down her back and fill up at her belt in a dried lump.

The pain of the sting was soon over, and Natalie tried to gather some more cherries, but she kept away from the top of the tree where the hornets still buzzed angrily about. The other Scouts also kept a safe distance from that nest.

By sundown all the cherries were picked, and the quant.i.ty evenly divided into shares. Each girl had made a pile of the fruit she gathered, and so no Scout felt that another was benefiting by her work. But when all was measured out, it was found that the girls had picked about the same quant.i.ties, with but little variation.

That evening while enjoying Rachel's bountiful supper, the Scout girls were told about the new Patrol that Janet and Natalie were hoping to start. That was a very engrossing subject and no one gave a thought to things outside, until it was time for the Scouts to return to camp. Then a plaintive squealing came from a crate placed on the piazza, and Janet suddenly remembered the pigs.

"Oh, horrors! Will little pigs die if they have been left without a thing to eat for a day?" wailed she, as she clasped her hands in shocked concern.

Everyone laughed at her, and Mrs. James said: "Not if you attend to them at once. But they will have to live in the crate overnight, as nothing can be done about housing them now."

So Rachel mixed a dish of warm milk and corn meal for the wailing squealers, and soon hushed their clamorings. Janet felt guilty of gross neglect on the first night of her business investment, but Natalie tried to condole with her by saying:

"Well, cherries, and pigs, and new Scouts can't all be gathered in one day, you know."

This created such a laugh at the quaint combination of the triple interests, that Janet felt relieved in mind. After the Scouts had gone back to camp, Natalie reminded Janet of the eggs they were to give the hen for setting.

"We'll do that now," said Janet anxiously.

So the two girls went to the pantry without asking advice of Rachel or Mrs. James, and counted out twelve eggs. These were carefully carried to the hen-coop and after many wild squawkings from the hen, and concerned action by the two farmerettes, seven of the twelve eggs remained unbroken and were placed under the future mother of a family.

"My! I wouldn't want to experience a skirmish with a hen very often,"

said Janet, counting the scratches on her hands and arms after they reentered the kitchen.

"Neither would I," agreed Natalie, holding her hands and wrists under the cold water faucet to let the cooling flood wash away the signs of battle with the hen's sharp bill.

"Well, she's got seven sound eggs to hatch, anyway. When we get time to spare, we will put a few other eggs under her, so we can have the full dozen chicks as Mr. Ames advised."

"I never knew it was such a simple matter to raise chicks, did you?"

remarked Natalie, as she wiped her hands on the kitchen towel.

"No, and when you think of all the money we pay for roast chicken in New York, it makes you want to live always on a farm, doesn't it?" added Janet.

But neither girl knew that many store eggs were not suitable for hatching chicks. They had not examined the yolks as chicken farmers do, to see if the egg was fertilized. So they had placed two suitable eggs, and five unfertilized eggs, under the hen. When but two chicks would result from that experiment, what a disappointment there would be. Janet would be sure to declare that stock-raising wasn't such an easy business, after all!

CHAPTER X-TRIALS OF A FARMER'S LIFE

Mr. Ames brought the chickens and hens early in the morning, and so interested was Natalie in Janet's stock-investment that the vegetable gardens were quite forgotten for a few days. Sunday she had spent at camp with the Girl Scouts; Monday she and Janet had gone to the Corners and enlisted girls to join them in a new Patrol, and in the afternoon they had picked cherries; then on Tuesday the chickens came, and some sort of a house had to be built for the pigs, as well as for the hens.

So three days had pa.s.sed by and she had not had time to inspect her gardens.

Farmer Ames acted huffy because the cherries had all been gathered when he drove up to the kitchen door in the morning. So he merely delivered the crate containing the hens and young chicks, and having handed Rachel the basket of eggs for the setting hen, drove away again.

"Dear me! I wanted to ask him how big a pen to build for three pigs!"

sighed Janet, when she heard he had gone.

"No 'count why he hes to tell yuh that! I rickon anyone like me, what's borned and brought up on a farm in Norf Car'liny, kin help dat way, better'n an ole grumpy farmer in Noo York state," announced Rachel.

"All right, Rach, I'll be thankful of your advice," replied Janet, gazing down at the squirming pigs.

So Natalie and Janet occupied themselves most industriously in the building of a pig-pen for the little porkers, and in mending the old hen-house and chicken run. A separate coop was found where the setting hen might brood quietly on the eggs, and the young chicks were given their freedom of the place, because Rachel said they would grow much faster if they could run about and scratch.

But this advice had dire results, as Natalie learned, too late.

By sundown the pigs were nicely housed, and the old hens and rooster found comfortable roosts in a remodelled hen-house. The young chicks cl.u.s.tered together in the chicken yard and were driven inside the house by the persuasive "s-sh's" and waving hands of the concerned farmerettes.

These important matters disposed of for the day and Rachel not having announced supper, Natalie said: "Come with me to see my garden. I haven't had a moment's time to visit it lately."