“If Aunt Prissy says I may,” answered Faith.
“Yes; she will come,” added Aunt Prissy, with her ready smile.
It seemed to Faith that Aunt Prissy was always smiling. “I don’t believe she could be cross,” thought the little girl.
She helped her aunt clear the table and wash the dishes, just as she had helped her mother at home; and as they went back and forth in the pleasant kitchen, with the dancing flames from the fireplace brightening the walls and making the tins shine like silver, Faith quite forgot that the rain was pouring down and that she was far from home.
“I am going to begin a dress for you this very day. It is some material I have in the house; a fine blue thibet, and I shall put ruffles on the skirt. That will be your Sunday dress,” said Aunt Priscilla, “and your father wrote me you were to have the best shoes that the shoemaker can make for you. We’ll see about the shoes to-morrow. Did you bring your blue beads, Faithie? But of course you did. They will be nice to wear with your blue frock. And I mean you to have a warm hood of quilted silk for Sunday wear.”
Faith drew a long breath as her aunt finished. She wondered what Aunt Prissy would say if she told her about giving the blue beads to Esther Eldridge. But in the exciting prospect of so many new and beautiful things she almost forgot the lost beads. She had brought “Lady Amy,” carefully packed in the stout bundle, and Aunt Prissy declared that the doll should have a dress and hood of the fine blue thibet.
“When shall I go to school, Aunt Prissy?” asked Faith.
“I think the school begins next week, and you shall be all ready. I mean to make you a good dress of gray and scarlet homespun for school wear,” replied her aunt. “The schoolhouse is but a half-mile walk from here; a fine new cabin, and you and Donald may go together. I declare, the rain has stopped. ‘Rain before seven, clear before eleven’ is a true saying.”
Faith ran to the window and looked out. “Yes, indeed. The sky is blue again,” she said.
“You’d best run out to the shop a while now, Faithie. I’ll call you when ’tis time,” said her aunt.