"That's not what I want you for.
Why didn't you tell me what happened at home yesterday afternoon ?" Then it was another row altogether I was in for! What, I wondered, had I done! Surely he didn't suspect me of having pushed his young sister into the water?
"I didn't like, while the match was on.

I didn't know Mamie had tumbled in, or I would have stopped her." "But you fished her out ?" he asked.
"I told Annie to take her and dry her," said I, wondering where the blow was going to fall.

"You see, she went upstairs for the belt, and it was when she had gone it happened.

I don't think it was her fault." To my amazement Redwood laughed and clapped me on the back.
"You young donkey, don't you know you saved Mamie's life, and I want to say 'Thank you,' to you ?" This unexpected _denouement_ alarmed me almost as much as my previous misgivings.
"Oh no, really I didn't," said I; "she was close to the edge." "Another inch or two and she would have been in six feet of water," said he.

Then, with a friendly laugh, he added-- "You may not have meant to save her life; but you did, and must take the consequences.