enough to stir the boughs. Then we threw stones, but only one
green and one half-ripe one came down, and my last stone broke
the shed window, so there was an end of that.
” ‘It ‘s as provoking as Aunt Betsey herself,’ said Nelly, as we sat
down, out of breath.
” ‘I wish the wind would come and blow ’em down for us,’ panted I,
staring up at the plums with longing eyes.
” ‘If wishing would do any good, I should wish ’em in my lap at
once,’ added Nelly.
” ‘You might as well wish ’em in your mouth and done with it, if
you are too lazy to pick ’em up. If the ladder was n’t too heavy we
could try that,’ said I, determined to have them.
” ‘You know we can’t stir it, so what is the use of talking about it?
You proposed getting the plums, now let ‘s see you do it,’ answered
Nelly, rather crossly, for she had bitten the green plum, and it
puckered her mouth.
” ‘Wait a minute, and you will see me do it,’ cried I, as a new
thought came into my naughty head.
” ‘What are you taking your shoes and socks off for? You can’t
climb the tree, Fan.’ ” ‘Don’t ask questions, but be ready to pick ’em
up when they fall, Miss Lazybones.’ “With this mysterious speech I
pattered into the house bare-footed and full of my plan. Up stairs I
went to a window opening on the shed roof. Out I got, and
creeping carefully along till I came near the tree, I stood up, and
suddenly crowed like the little rooster. Nelly looked up, and stared,
and laughed, and clapped her hands when she saw what I was
going to do.
” ‘I ‘m afraid you ‘ll slip and get hurt.’ ” ‘Don’t care if I do; I ‘ll have
those plums if I break my neck doing it,’ and half sliding, half
walking 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
did n’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 did n’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.’ ” ‘That will be splendid! There ‘s a
fire in the kitchen, Debby always leaves the kettle on, and we can
use her saucepan, and I know where the sugar is, and we ‘ll have a
grand time.’ “In we went, and fell to work very quietly. It was a
large, open fire-place, with the coals nicely covered up, and the big