Part 21

"Oh, oh!" Polly had her arms around Alexia and was hugging her tightly. "Are you hurt?" as they wriggled out of the bunch of girls into which they had been precipitated, up to their feet.

"N--no," Alexia, tried to say. Instead, she wobbled over, and laid her head on Polly's arm.

"Girls--girls--Miss Baker!" called Polly, not seeing that lady, in the confusion of the other passengers, staggering along the aisle, her bonnet knocked over her eyes, and a girl on either hand to help her along. "Clem--oh, somebody help me! Alexia is hurt." But nobody heard in the general tumult.

"Oh dear! Alexia, do open your eyes," begged Polly, quite gone now with distress. "And to think I was so cross to her!" And she turned quite white.

"Dear, dear Alexia," she cried; and because there was nothing else to do, she leaned over and dropped a kiss on Alexia's long face, and two tears dropped down as well.

Alexia opened her eyes. "That's very nice, Polly," she said, "do so some more."

"Aren't you ashamed!" cried Polly, the rosy color coming back to her cheek. And then, remembering, she hugged Alexia tightly. "Oh, I'm so glad you're not hurt, Alexia, so very glad!" she cried gratefully.

"Ow!" exclaimed Alexia, shrinking back.

"Oh, now you are hurt," cried Polly. "Oh Alexia!" And she turned very white again. "Tell me where it is." And just then some of the girls rushed up with the news, corroborated by the other passengers, that the down express had run into them,--been signalled, but couldn't stop in time, etc., etc.,--till Polly thought she should go wild before the babel could be stopped. "Don't crowd around so," she cried hoarsely. "Alexia is hurt."

"Alexia?" The noise, as far as Miss Salisbury's girls were concerned, stopped at once; and at last the other passengers were made to understand how it was. And Alexia, quite faint now, but having sense enough to hang to Polly Pepper's hand, was laid across an improvised bed made of two seats, and a doctor who happened to be on the train, one of the party going in to the theatre, came up, and looked her over professionally.

"It's my arm," said Alexia, opening her eyes again; "it was doubled up someway under me. Oh dear me! I'm so silly to faint."

"You're not silly at all," cried Polly warmly, and holding her well hand, while her eyes searched the doctor's face anxiously. "Oh, is it broken?" they asked, as plainly as possible.

"Not a bit of it," said the doctor cheerfully, feeling it all over again to make quite sure, while Alexia set her teeth together, trying not to show how very much it hurt. "It's badly strained,--the ligaments are;--but fortunately no bones are broken."

"Oh dear!" groaned Alexia. "Now why can't it be broken?"

"Oh Alexia!" cried Polly. And now the tears that had been kept back, were rolling down her cheeks. "I'm so happy, I can't help it," she said.

"And the very idea, Alexia Rhys," exclaimed Clem, "to wish your arm had been broken!" and she gave a little shiver.

"It hurts just as much," said Alexia, trying to sit up straight, and making an awful face, "so it might as well be. And I've never been in a railroad accident. But a sprained arm isn't anything to show; any baby can have that--oh dear me!"

"Well, you better lie still," counselled Miss Baker tartly. "Dear me! I little thought when I took charge of you young ladies that any such thing would occur."

"She acts as if she thought we did it on purpose," said Alexia, turning her face over to hide it on Polly's arm again, and wishing her own needn't ache so dreadfully. "Oh dear! such a time as we've had, Polly Pepper, with those dreadful Briggses,--I mean Mrs. Briggs,--and now to be all banged up, and this cross old thing to see us home! And now I never'll be able to get through the term, 'cause I'll have to stay at home with this old arm, and aunt will scold." She was quite out of breath with all her woes.

"Oh, yes, you will," cried Polly reassuringly, "I'll run over every day, and study with you, Alexia. And you'll soon be all well again. Don't try to talk now, dear," and she patted the poor cheeks, and smoothed her hair. All the while she was trying to keep down the worry over the home-circle who would be thrown into the greatest distress, she knew, if news of the accident should reach their ears.

"Can't somebody telephone them?" she cried; "Oh, Miss Baker"--the doctor had rushed off to other possible sufferers--"and tell them no one is hurt;--I mean seriously?"

"There is," said the governess, quite calmly; "a man has been killed."

"Oh dear!"

"A brakeman," Miss Baker hastened to add. "Don't be frightened. None of the passengers."

"Now I know he was brave, and trying to do something to save us," cried Polly, with kindling eyes.

"Yes," said a passenger, coming up to their group, "he was running back with a lantern to signal the train, and he slipped and fell, and the express went over him. But it stopped just in time for us."

"Oh the poor, poor man!" Polly was quite gone by this time, and Alexia forgot her pain in trying to comfort her.

"But suppose he had children," cried Polly, "just suppose it, Alexia."