"I am sure you could, Ruthie. But I am sure I wouldn't just as lief! I would liefer you should have all you need without."
"I know that, mother. But it wouldn't be half so good for me!"
"That's something horrid, I know!" exclaimed Barbara, coming in upon the last word. "It always is, when people talk about its being good for them. It's sure to be salts or senna, and most likely both."
"O dear me!" said Ruth, suddenly seized with a new perception of difficulty. Until now, she had only been considering whether she could, and if Mrs. Holabird would approve. "Don't you—or Rose—call it names, Barbara, please, will you?"
"Which of us are you most afraid of? For Rosamond's salts and senna are different from mine, pretty often. I guess it's hers this time, by your putting her in that anxious parenthesis."
"I'm afraid of your fun, Barbara, and I'm afraid of Rosamond's—"
"Earnest? Well, that is much the more frightful. It is so awfully quiet and pretty-behaved and positive. But if you're going to retain me on your side, you'll have to lay the case before me, you know, and give me a fee. You needn't stand there, bribing the judge beforehand."
Ruth turned right round and kissed Barbara.
"I want you to go with me and see if Mrs. Hadden and Mrs. Lewis Marchbanks would let me teach the children."
"Teach the children! What?"