CHAPTER III
A SATURDAY AFTERNOON
By Friday, Jennie, Dorothy and Edna had become quite intimate. Margaret was still kept at home by a bad cold, so these three little girls played at recess together joined by one or two others who had not been invited, or had not chosen, to belong to what the rest called “Clara Adams’s set.” There had been a most interesting talk with Agnes and Celia and a plan was proposed which was to be started on Saturday afternoon. Jennie had been invited to come, and was to go home with Dorothy after school to be sent for later.
Edna was full of the new scheme when she reached home on Friday, and she was no sooner in the house than she rushed up stairs to her mother. “Oh, mother,” she cried, “I am so glad to see you, and I have so much to tell you.”
“Then come right in and tell it,” said her mother kissing her. “You don’t look as if you had starved on bread and molasses.”
Edna laughed. “Nor on rice. I hope you will never have rice on Saturdays, mother.”
“Rice is a most wholesome and excellent dish,” returned her mother. “See how the Chinese thrive on it. I am thinking it would be the very best thing I could give my family, for it is both nourishing and cheap. Suppose you go down and tell Maria to have a large dishful for supper instead of what I have ordered.”
Edna knew her mother was teasing, so she cuddled up to her and asked: “What did you order, mother?”
“What should you say to waffles and chicken?”