“And I have to remember something every time I look at mine!” declared Roxy, wishing that she knew what Jasmine’s secret was. The two girls smiled at each other thinking it very remarkable that not only their rings were alike but that each of them had a secret.
“Perhaps some day you can tell me what your ring means,” suggested Roxy. “I’d just as soon tell you that Grandmother gave me my ring so I would remember to keep promises and not to get angry. You see,” Roxy continued soberly, “I get angry before I know it,” and she looked at Jasmine as if expecting her new friend to be greatly surprised; but Jasmine nodded and smiled as if she had heard the best of news.
“Oh, Roxy! That’s just what I do!” she confessed, and at this they both began laughing so that Myrtle and Ivy ran toward them to know what the fun was about. But the two older girls decided to keep this for their special secret.
While the little girls amused themselves Roland had been telling Mrs. Delfield of the news that his mother and father had brought from Sharpsburg: of the battle of Malvern Hill where General McClellan had repulsed an attack by the Confederates.
“General Lee retreated toward Richmond,” said Roland, “and my father said there were rumors that General Lee might march on to Washington.”
“That would mean bringing the war into Maryland,” responded Mrs. Delfield, and Roxy wondered if that would not mean also that her father would come.
Roland said it was time for them to start for home, and no more was said of war. Roxy found a chance to tell Jasmine something of the birthday party as she bade her good-bye, and promised to see her on the following day.
As Roxy stood looking after the phaeton she happened to glance down and exclaimed:
“Oh! My dress is all gray and my stockings too!” and she suddenly realized that her blue-checked gingham was dirty, that her hair was untidy, and that it was the second time the little Hinham girls had seen her in that condition. “And they are always in perfectly clean white dresses, and look just right,” she whispered to herself, and now made a resolve that the next time the little Hinham girls saw her she would be as neatly dressed as it was possible for a girl to be.
Mr. and Mrs. Greaves and the Hinhams all accepted Roxy’s invitation to come to the surprise party for Grandmother Miller’s birthday, and Polly’s mother and father also promised to attend, and for the week following the fishing excursion Roxy was very busy. Mrs. Delfield and Dulcie were taken into the secret, and if Grandma Miller sometimes wondered at Dulcie’s chuckles and mysterious nods and winks over her cake-baking she did not really imagine the reason.