“No,” Rebecca declared firmly. “The Hortons have a cupboard filled with jellies, and candied fruits, and jars of syrups, and fine things from the West Indies and from far places, and ’tis not fair. We have only the wild bees’ honey, a taste for each neighbor.” Rebecca stopped with a little sigh. She had not thought about not asking Lucia until Anna spoke, but now she realized that, if she could help it, she would never again go to the Hortons’ house. Rebecca was old enough to realize the difference between loyalty and selfish indecision, and she was sure that the Hortons were thinking more of their own comfort than of the good of America.
“But Lucia is your best friend,” said Anna; “she gave you those beautiful silk mitts on your birthday.”
Rebecca’s face colored. She made no answer. The silk mitts, she resolved, must be given back. Probably she would never have another pair; but never mind, if she gave up Lucia’s friendship she must give up the mitts.
For a few minutes the little girls walked on in silence, but Luretta was eager to talk about Trit, and very soon she and Anna were talking happily of plans to teach the captured rabbit, and were no longer troubled by Rebecca’s decision not to ask the Hortons to the honey party. If they thought of it at all it was to agree with Rebby: that people with a cupboard full of dainties, when their neighbors had only the coarsest fare, ought not to be asked to share the wild honey.
Mrs. Lyon welcomed the little girls in a most friendly manner, and Anna was made happy when the minister’s wife said that she really believed that Anna’s stitches were as tiny and as neatly set as those of Melvina herself.
“Melvina is out-of-doors,” she continued; “I have decided that she is much stronger to be in the open air a portion of each day, and London has made her a playhouse under the pines behind the house.”
Both Anna and Luretta hoped that Mrs. Lyon would ask them to go and see Melvina’s playhouse, but as she did not they said their polite “Good-day, Mrs. Lyon,” curtsied, and followed Rebecca down the path.
The invitations had now all been given and accepted, and Luretta was eager to get home, urging Anna to stop and see Trit, who was safe in the same box that had been made for the other rabbits.
“You may both run ahead if you wish,” said Rebby with quite a grown-up manner, for she really felt a great deal older than her little sister, “and I will go straight home and tell Mother that everybody is coming.”
“Everybody except the Hortons,” Luretta reminded her.