Page:An Old Fashioned Girl.djvu/111

Rh, I went down the sloping roof, till the boughs of the tree were within my reach.

"'Hurrah!' cried Nelly, dancing down below, as my first shake sent a dozen plums rattling round her.

"Hurrah!" cried I, letting go one branch and trying to reach another. But as I did so my foot slipped, I tried to catch something to hold by, but found nothing, and with a cry, down I fell, like a very big plum, on the grass below.

"Fortunately the shed was low, the grass was thick, and the tree broke my fall, but I got a bad bump and a terrible shaking. Nelly thought I was killed, and began to cry with her mouth full. But I picked myself up in a minute, for I was used to such tumbles, and didn't mind the pain half as much as the loss of the plums.

"'Hush! Debby will hear and spoil all the fun. I said I'd get 'em and I have. See what lots have come down with me.'

"So there had, for my fall shook the tree almost as much as it did me, and the green and purple fruit lay all about us.

"By the time the bump on my forehead had swelled as big as a nut, our aprons were half full, and we sat down to enjoy ourselves. But we didn't. O dear, no! for many of the plums were not ripe, some were hurt by the birds, some crushed in falling, and many as hard as stones. Nelly got stung by a wasp, my head began to ache, and we sat looking at one another rather dismally, when Nelly had a bright idea.

"'Let's cook 'em, then they'll be good, and we can put some away in our little pails for to-morrow.'