Page:Stringer - Lonely O'Malley.djvu/396

 A dozen, hands were ready and waiting to help them out.

"Git a barrel!" ordered the boy again, before even his feet were on the grassy slope.

"Yes, sir," cried Miss Arabella, insanely, as she flew to the wood-shed and staggered weakly back with an empty apple-barrel. Two of the children had already been sent off for old Doctor Ridley.

Once, in Cowansburg, Lonely had witnessed and assisted in the time-honored and ancient method of resuscitation by barrel. And it was not until he had seen Pauline Augusta none too gently turned upside down, and well dipped and prodded, and then rolled in hot blankets and given a sip or two of cherry brandy, that he gave any thought to himself. "Gee whittaker," he said, weakly, "I—I feel kind o' funny!" And with that he plumped down on the grass, helplessly, with his eyelids quivering, and his toes twitching spasmodically.

Whether or not Lonely was about to faint, history will never record. Whether or not it was the stern old face of Cap'n Steiner which brought back a rush of very recent memories