Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/145

 Rh  Miss Blossom had been gone only two days when something happened to Mrs. Crane. It was none of the things that the neighbours had expected to happen, but, for a little while, it looked almost as serious, Bettie, running across the street right after breakfast, one morning, with a bunch of fresh chickweed for the yellow canary, and a cracker for cross Polly, found Mrs. Crane, usually the most cheerful person imaginable, sitting in her kitchen with a swollen, crimson foot in a pail of luke-warm water, and groaning dismally.

"Oh, Mrs. Crane!" cried surprised Bettie. "What in the world is the matter? Are are you coming down with anything?"

"I've already come," moaned Mrs. Crane, grimly. "I was out in my back yard in my thin old slippers early this morning putting hellebore on my currant bushes and I stepped down hard on the teeth of the rake that I'd dropped on the grass. There's two great