The head and shoulders disappeared.

A short pause followed, then the ladder came slowly down, and the Southerner descended, while Virgie crouched, a sobbing little heap, beside her doll.

But when he reached the bottom rung, she rose to her feet and ran to meet him, weeping bitterly.
"Oh, Daddy, Daddy, I didn't do it right! I didn't do it right!" She buried her head in his tattered coat, while he slipped an arm about her and tried to soothe a sorrow too great for such a tiny heart to bear.
"But you did do it right," he told her.

"It was my fault.

Mine! My leg got cramped, and I had to move." He stooped and kissed her.