The nieces gradually learn to accommodate themselves to their contrasting personalities. An incident electrifies the family: Beth and Louise have routinely been teasing Kenneth, causing him to flee the house via a plank stretched from the rooftop to a tree. When Patsy comes to see him about a horse, he runs for his escape, but falls off the edge. In full view of her aunt, she heroically pulls him up and saves him, but loses her balance and falls to the ground, breaking a leg.