Doggone your ornery hide, don't you ever laugh ag'in like you did jest now er I'll--" Just then the door flew open with a bang and Edna Crow, Anderson's eldest, almost flopped into the store, her cap in her hand, eyes starting from her head.

She had run at top speed all the way from home.
"Pop," she gasped.

"Ma says fer you to hurry home! She says fer you to _run_!" Anderson covered the distance between Lamson's store and his own home in record time.

Indeed, Edna, flying as fast as her slim legs could twinkle, barely beat her father to the front porch.

It was quite clear to Mr.Crow that something unusual had happened or Mrs.Crow would not have summoned him so peremptorily.
She was in the hallway downstairs awaiting his arrival, visibly agitated.